Hi Tweets,

Took a week off cycling to Iona 'cause of the knee, and heck breaks loose.
Read in the sighting book this afternoon: a juv *Upland Sandpiper* yesterday
found by Rick Toochin and Ken Klimko, 50+ Stilt Sandpipers, a large
migration of both turnstones, Parasitic Jaegers a week and a half early, and
an Alaskan-race Common Eider hanging around all summer, at least at low
water. Strange days. The cream sours without warning, the cat jumps without
cause, and there's aphids in the whatchamacallit.

Unlike most of the Western and Semipalmated Sandpipers, Solitary, Stilt &
Pectoral Sandpipers and the yellowlegs are not tide-dependent, so they're on
the settling ponds all day. Today they (Solitary excepted) were all over the
SE pond, particularly in the SE corner and *very* tame, allowing one to walk
up to the side of the pond just a few feet away. There were 25 Stilt, all
juvs, and 110 Pectoral Sandpipers (including the first few juv PESA at Iona
(3) and the first juv Long-billed Dowitchers (3). Some were also in the NE
pond along the edges, with Baird's in the open flat. In the NE section of
the NW pond, the excavated channels look good for Solitary and
SemiSandpipers; the SW pond looks inviting but for whatever reason, the
birds have mostly eschewed it this southbound migration, and it's been used
mostly by summering/breeding Gadwalls and Northern Shovelers. There were
more birds, yellowlegs, Pecs and Stilts, in the Outflow Pond across the road
from the birders' gate at Iona.

And a megashow of aerial truculence, spite and bullying as a bruisin' big
juv female Peale's (West Coast) Peregrine (which had been screaming in low
over the ponds once an hour and cleaning them out--I timed her S--->N
straight-across traverse of the SE pond at a whisker over 2 mississippi's:
just *howled* across) spent twenty minutes ragging the little male Tundrius
(Arctic) Peregrine that's been there for about ten days now, until he gave
up and headed back NE over the river toward the neighborhood of Kerrisdale
in SW Vancouver BC. A couple of Seattle birders, Curtis and Bobbie Pearson
were there; Curtis said that at first he thought the female falcon was
chasing a yellowlegs, so great was the size disparity.

Conditions: Temp: 20C; Wind: SE to S 35 km/hr, fading to SE 10 by sunset;
Barom: high; Cloud: 1/10; Visibility: unlimited, bit sea/sky horizon badly
heat-hazed at approx 10 km; Tide: slack Low to weak Flood; Sea: moderate SE
to S chop.

Settling Ponds

Green-winged Teal 12 5m eclipse; 1f badly injured (SPCA'd)
Northern Shoveler 26 7m ecl.
Red-tailed Hawk 2 1a with 1jv, poss local family
Peregrine Falcon 2 1f jv Pealei, 1m ad Tundrius in conflict
Merlin 1 flew in at sunset to roost
American Golden-Plover 2 overflight
Semipalmated Sandpiper 3
Killdeer 2 both ad
Greater Yellowlegs 5 4jv, 1 worn Alt (found by C. Pearson)
Lesser Yellowlegs 22 jv
Semipalmated Sandpiper 16 jv counted, perhaps as many as 50+
Western Sandpiper ~500 all juv, no adults seen
Least Sandpiper 21 all juv, perhaps as many as 50+
Baird's Sandpiper 12 jv
Pectoral Sandpiper 101 98a 3jv (juv arrival?)
Stilt Sandpiper 23 jv, may have been as many as 25+
Long-billed Dowitcher 3 jv (juv arrival?)
Red-necked Phalarope 2 jv, overflight
Caspian Tern 1 ad, overflight
Rock Dove 7
Tree Swallow 1 jv
Bank Swallow 2
Cliff Swallow 2
Barn Swallow ~150
Northwestern Crow 9
Common Raven 1
Marsh Wren 1
Cedar Waxwing 1
Spotted Towhee 1 m
Savannah Sparrow 9 first a trickle-
Brown-headed Cowbird 21 jv, pure flock at SE pond edges
House Finch 2 f
American Goldfinch 2


Outer Pond

Red-necked Phalarope 8 NW corner, outer pond
Gadwall ~200
American Wigeon 5


Iona South Jetty:

Common Loon 3a
Horned Grebe 2ad with 1 juv, migrant family group
Double-cr. Cormorant 50+, some fledged juvs from colony
Pelagic Cormorant 1 jv
Great Blue Heron 16
Canada Goose 45
Northern Pintail 18 migrant flock in Strait
Gadwall 2
*Common Eider* 1m, Basic 1 molt, at end of jetty
Black Scoter 3f
Surf Scoter ~300
White-winged Scoter 1m
scoter species ~500
Black Turnstone 3 appeared Basic
Baird's Sandpiper 8 jv
Calidris sp. ~400
Bonaparte's Gull 30 at distance
Ring-billed Gull ~300 ~20% jv
California Gull 11 3 jv
Glaucous-winged Gull 12
gull sp. ~100 at distance, mostly CAGU-like
Sterna sp. 25 at distance
Caspian Tern 32 3jv
European Starling 8 at end

Cheers

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