Hi Tweets,

The Common Eider was back at Kitsilano Beach just off the seawall around
Kits Pool most of this morning. After talking to Mark Wynja, a local birder,
I withdraw the previous (and provisional, and wrong) aging attempt I made a
week ago, and concur with Mark that it's a first winter bird. He based the
aging on the illustrations in Lars Jonsson's Birds of Europe.

Other marks I was able to observe this AM included: lower breast, belly,
vent and undertail coverts warm grey-brown finely barred dark grey, black
flanks, immaculate white axillars, a faint pinkish-brown tinge suffusing the
white of the upper breast; thin, bone-white shoulder crescents; the white
mottling on the back was restricted to the scapulars--the back itself, the
area between the folded wings, was as the underparts, medium grey-brown
finely barred dark grey, and the coverts were solid dark grey-brown. There
were two faint wingbars, possibly due to abraded covert tips. This time I
didn't see the faint green wash below the grey patch on the nape, though saw
it quite clearly last week. Black of the cap is mostly restricted to the
rear sides of the crown and doesn't seem to be continuous around the rear
crown; there seems to be a gap at the rear crown itself where the dark grey
gives way to pale mottled grey.

The bill colors are interesting: culmen and nasal lobes are a bright butter
yellow paling to a more citrine hue along the cutting edge; the nail,
looking like a large distinct oval drop of lemon oil at the tip if the bill,
is a clear, pale yellow-green.

Also present, no exact scoter numbers because of all the milling around:

Common Loon 2
Red-throated Loon 8
Pacific Loon 2
Horned Grebe 2
Western Grebe 2
Pelagic Cormorant 1
Double-crested Cormorant 1
White-winged Scoter c350
Surf Scoter c75
Black Scoter 1m
Barrow's Goldeneye 8
Common Goldeneye 2
Bufflehead 2
Red-breasted Merganser 7

Also, there are, relative to usual numbers for this time of year, a *lot* of
Red-throated Loons and more Pacific Loons than usual in the Outer Harbor.
And the Red-breasted Mergansers seem to be more numerous close to shore:
they're in pretty striking plumage. Pelagic Cormorants are showing the white
flank-patch.

Canada Place was interesting today for two sightings. First was a fairly
hefty juv female 'Peale's' Peregrine Falcon circling over the Canada
Place/Pan Pacific Hotel complex and dodging easily the harassing
Glaucous-winged Gulls. Wasn't able to dodge a thoroughly-irate Clint,
though, the adult winter-resident male 'Peale's' Peregrine Falcon who roosts
on the Granville 2000 building, who came in screaming with rage, to defend
his winter feeding territory with *booming* stoops until the young female's
nerve broke and she took off NW'ward toward Stanley Park. Possession is
nine-tenths, as they say in The Exorcist... He still had a lot of aggression
to discharge, so he took it out on a couple of gulls, each barely escaping
his attacks, until he finally glided upwind onto one of the masts holding up
the 'sails' of Canada Place. Unlimbered the scope and watched him from about
100' away as he continued to scream and challenge for several minutes. He
finally calmed down, sat and watched the birds in the harbor for about
fifteen minutes, head-bobbing occasionally as he sized up the chance for a
quick run at something, then flew up to his usual roost-site midway up the N
face of the Granville 2000 office tower at the N end of Granville Street.

Second sighting was just one of those gifts the gods toss idly to those who
had the good luck to be there. A very squally afternoon, a low sun behind,
dark cloud before, and the light reflecting off a distant ragged skein of
five or six thousand scaup returning to Lost Lagoon. Imagine thousands of
twinkling white stars passing across the dark faces of the mountains, a
whole galaxy on the fly. The words don't even come close.

Michael Price
Vancouver BC Canada When I found out that seven of my years
(604) 668-5073 vx was only one of theirs,
(604) 668-5028 fx I started biting absolutely everything.
mprice at mindlink.net
michael.price at istar.ca -Max Carlson (Ron Carlson's dog)