Hi Tweets,

One of those things I meant to answer at the time--

July 10 was the date I first heard southbound songbirds migrating over at
night this year, when in the course of a long walk about midnight in my
neighborhood I heard at least five Savannah Sparrows and at least two
different warbler species (Yellow and Orange-crowned). There's no
species-appropriate habitat for any of these birds in this part of town.
Since then, there's been birds overhead every night, usually Savannahs and
Yellow Warblers, with the occasional Orange-crowned and unidentifiable
warbler calls (sorry, I'm just not very good at voice-only ID of warblers or
sparrows outside a handful of familiar calls).

A week ago at Iona there were a couple or three female or juv Yellow
Warblers in large cottonwoods along the W pond: fershur southbound migrants,
because YEWA doesn't breed at Iona, no suitable habitat anywhere near the place.

Last night, a high-up calling Solitary Sandpiper flew N-->S over my house
about 2 AM. This is a bird whose calls I got to know quite well up north--a
nesting pair in some remnant small tree on a clearcut study area at Donna
Creek, another territorial pair beside the road to Germansen Landing, a
couple of southbound migrants at the end of the study period in mid-July, a
few foraging birds including one which would come in each evening for a
couple of weeks to feed from a small, almost awash log across the creek just
behind the camp office at Munro Camp, picking at things the current brought
to it like a little Green Heron, teetering and tail-bobbing all the while.

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