Tweeters,

Saw some interesting raptor behavior on my first visit to Boundry Bay,
and first
Snowy Owl sightings. This is the location on the north side of Boundry
Bay,
which is accessed from 72nd street (off highway 10).

There is a nicely maintained public trail on top of the dyke which keeps
the bay
at bay (ugh, too early for *this*). On the north side is a large field,
partially
flooded, and on the south side there is a large expanse of driftwood
leading
to the bay. We saw one snowy on a piece of driftwood overlooking the
bay.
In the field was a flock of wigeons (American) doing their thing.

As we approached the greenhouses, we saw a snowy atop a telephone pole
and another atop a great heap of sawdust. There were about 9 more
scattered
across the greenhouses.

An immature bald eagle flew in from the north, on a flight line across
the flooded
field fairly equidistant from the wigeons and the pole owl. Junior then
dropped
to about 60' off the deck, and eased towards the wigeons. They flew up,
and
off to the east (then the south, to the bay). Junior then eased off to
the west,
and up to telephone pole height. At this point the pole owl flew up, and
to the
north (the wind was gusty from the south), nervously looking over its
shoulder
as it bouyed on the wind and made slowly to the north. Junior, still not
satisfied
that *everyone* is showing respect, makes a U-turn and flushes the
greenhouse
owls up in a cloud of 11 snowy owls! A wondrous scene!

A funny postscript was talking to a couple with a scope that were
watching
the pole owl. They had been so intent on watching this owl fly, and keep
it's
distance from the eagle, that they had assumed all those white birds
flying
over the greenhouse were gulls! Speaking of which, there were hundreds
milling
about in most of the fields between the border and Delta. The majority
were
glaucous-winged, some hybrids (westeren X glaucous-winged, of course),
but
we didn't pay them much attention.

As for eagles - we got tired of counting them! There were at least 50 in
the
stretch of open fields between the border and Delta. They were in the
trees,
in the fields (hoofing it with the gulls, they were apparently finding
something of enough interest to walk about), on the fence posts, flying
around,
sheesh!

A distasteful postscript - we wen't on to downtown Vancouver to enjoy
this
exciting and cosmopolitan city. It turned out they enjoyed our visit
more - our
car was broken into and we lost our binoculars and our overnight bag...
So
the lesson is *never*, *NEVER*, leave your optics in the car!


Michael Patrick
(206) 743-8204
mpatrick at eldec.com