Hi Tweets,

Out to Iona this evening. Nice to run into Dick Veit and--separately--a tour
group from the eastern US, a birder from France with his son, and various
friendly (with one unfortunate exception) and polite locals. A nice
international feel, everyone impressed with how many shorebirds and how
close they were, and how beautiful these little tykes were in the evening
sunshine, and how lucky we in Vancouver BC are to have this. A lovely
feeling, to be able to share this natural wealth and what we've learned
about it.

Word also that dog-owners are consistently allowing their off-leash pets to
harass and ultimately displace the large migrant shorebird flocks at
Boundary Bay. That's now the biggest user-group asserting a claim to this
site, one of the top three shorebird sites in North America, which they're
winning without a fight from any of the many agencies, levels of government,
societies and both wildlife-protection and law enforcement groups. The local
birders shrug and go somewhere else for their year birds, and don't want to
talk about it. Well, between contempt for wildlife and apathy, that's how we
do things here in Vancouver BC. I don't wonder no-one wants to talk about it.

Interesting change in the shorebirds (Western, Semipalmated and Least
Sandpipers--WESA, SESA & LESA) here at Iona. Until last week, the make-up of
the flocks was 95% adults in various stages of Alternate plumage, some just
beginning to get Basic molt underway, and up to about 5% newly arrived
juveniles. There's been a couple of weak Lows pass through in the last ten
days, a windshift to the SE for a while, a few bands of clouds, and then
back to this robust High.

After the first, about a week ago, there was a turnover in the shorebirds,
and the proportions have been dramatically reversed. For all three species,
the adults are now hard to find in the multitudes of juvenile birds.
Highlights this evening included a half-grown Killdeer chick that--instead
of freezing--deliberately approached me so closely I thought it was going to
climb up onto my shoe. Just as strange was the nonchalance of the parents:
normally this particular set of parent Killdeers (NW corner, NW pond) go
gazonko with panic for their little blossom if one so much as looks across
from the far side of the pond at it, but tonight they just stood there with
what I coulda swore (had I not sworn off anthropomorphising as a bad habit)
were expressions of almost Victorian paternal/maternal indulgence,
occasionally giving that little Killdeer yip just to show they really were
keeping an eye on little Herbert or Persephone while he/she satisfied a
young curiosity about the long-legged stranger. Second was my annual
'It's-a-Solitary-nope-juv-Spotted' goof-up, predictable as Christmas. The
best, though, was just the close-up sight of about three thousand mostly
juvenile shorebirds, crisply and exquisitely patterned, just glowing in the
sun's long light, and knowing that--until developers decide to build condos
in sewage treatment plants--they were as safe for a little while as is
possible in this juggernaut century.

Conditions: Temp: 28C, humid; Wind: S-SE 10-15 km/hr; Barom: rising; Cloud:
3/10, decreasing; Precip: none; Visibility: unlimited; Tide: very high.

(incomplete species list)

Northern Shoveler 12 juvs, females, eclipse males
Killdeer 3 3a, 1y on NW pond
Greater Yellowlegs 1 worn Def Alt
Spotted Sandpiper 1 juv, NE pond
Semipalmated Sandpiper ~35 all juv xcpt 1 Pre-Basic adult
Western Sandpiper ~3000 12 worn Alt adults
Least Sandpiper 77 63 jv, 14 Alt adults
Baird's Sandpiper 3 3jv
Pectoral Sandpiper 1 ad
Long-billed Dowitcher 12 all Def Alt, some worn
N Rough-winged Swallow 5
Cliff Swallow 3
Barn Swallow ~75 mostly juvs
Yellow-headed Blackbird 1 f (found by Dick Veit)

Cheers

Michael Price The Sleep of Reason Gives Birth to Monsters
Vancouver BC Canada -Goya
mprice at mindlink.net