Subject: Iona Is., July 06 1997
Date: Jul 7 02:32:21 1997
From: Michael Price - mprice at mindlink.bc.ca


Hi Tweets,

Jim Flynn notes:

>I birded
>Crockett Lake on Whidbey Island with friends, on both Firday the
>4th, and Sunday the 6th. The number of Westerns increased from
>estimates of 1500 Westerns and 1-2 Semis on the 4th, to 4,000 -
>5,000 Westerns & 10 Semis today , the 6th.

Well, Jim, two things I noticed on the Iona Settling Ponds today suggests
that there seems to have been a complete turnover in the Western &
Semipalmated Sanpipers (WESA & SESA), with a couple-three thousand coming in
overnight. First, most of the SESA I've been seeing until today were obvious
females with maybe 15%-20% uncallable but definitely no obvious males; today
there were at least 5 Alternate-plumaged males (wee little stint-sized
ice-picks for bills) that weren't there before. Second, this new lot is
showing *mucho* attitude and aggression to each other, the ill-tempered
chittering and skirmishing nonstop around the fringes of the pond and the
edges of the islands, and more bums-up than the Folies-Bergere. Unlike the
first pile, these birds are no strangers to aggressive territoriality, and
since there's mostly obvious females in Definitive Alternate plumage in this
crowd, I wonder if we're not seeing the first arrival of the actual breeding
females, rather than nonbreeders. As usual, the SESA run everyboy off. SESA
percentage of approx. total today July 06 was 0.8% whereas it was 2.4% on
July 03. The adult SESA are always vastly outnumbered by the adult WESA, but
sometimes SESA outnumbers WESA here, occasionally by a great deal just after
the first juvs arrive in Week 4 July and Week 1 August (incidentally, SESA
juvs almost always arrive in Vancouver BC a couple-few days before juv WESA).

Anyone wanna look at a *very* tame juv male Yellow-headed Blackbird? Hike
out to Pipe Section 46 (the numbers are just legible near the joins near the
top and make good location references; Pipe Section 1 is at the far end, 4
km (2.5 mi) from pipe section 200+ at the base) along the South Jetty. The
kid's hanging around on the rocks on the N side of the jetty while mom shops
for bugs in the abundant white sweet-clover. Remnant down, buzz-cut yellow
head and white covert-edgings, kinda scruffed, like a guitarist for a ska
band. Been out there for about a week.

Following counts are for the Iona Settling Ponds, the Outer Pond and the
Iona South Jetty.

Conditions: Temp: 22 C, Wind: SW 15 km/hr at 4 PM to SE 20 km/hr by
evening, stronger out in Strait; Barom: weak High yielding to incoming
Pacific Low from NW; Cloud: 7/10 broken altostratus overcast, increasing;
cumulus build-ups over mountains; Visibility: unlimited, with no heat-haze
or mirages (regular in late aft in hot weather, usually fata morgana) on
horizon; Tide: halfway through flood in late afternoon, very high by
evening; Sea State: SW changing to SE light chop near shore, heavier
southerly chop offshore, with whitecaps (might have been small tidal current
overfalls rather than wind-generated; Bugs: mosquitoes vicious in evening
along Iona Causeway.


Iona Causeway

Peregrine Falcon 1a 'Peale's' race on riprap jetty from outflow pond



Iona Settling Ponds

Most shorebirds were in vegetation and along thick vegged sides of NW Pond
(unusually, there's not much inclination to feed on the more open ponds, but
they may have already struck up an acquaintance with the local Cooper's Hawk
and the Peregrine that's taken to hanging around the Causeway and Outflow
Channel Jetty on the other side of the road from the Settling Ponds), some
movement to and between NW and SW Ponds; lots of exploration flights out to
saltwater.

a-adult; y-young; m-male; f-female; jv-juvenile; ecl-eclipse; Def
Alt-Definitive Alternate plumage; Ptl Alt-Partial Alternate plumage;
Bsc-Basic plumage; cf-carrying food; o/f-overflight; ps-pipe section.


Great Blue Heron 3a
Green-winged Teal 2m 1 ecl
Mallard 7 1m ecl, 3f, 3y
Blue-winged Teal 1m ecl
Cinnamon Teal 2m ecl
Gadwall 8 2m ecl, 4f, 2y
Ring-necked Pheasant 2m
Killdeer 5 3a 2y in NE corner, SW Pond
Greater Yellowlegs 1 Def Alt
Lesser Yellowlegs 1 Def Alt
Spotted Sandpiper 3 1 pair, SE Pond
Semipalmated Sandpiper 23 22 Def Alt, 1 Bsc; 5m
Western Sandpiper ~3,000 50% Def Alt, 50% Ptl Alt, mostly f
Least Sandpiper 14 all Def Alt
Short-billed Dowitcher 1 Def Alt
Long-billed Dowitcher 1 Def Alt
Ring-billed Gull 4 o/f, ~150 on Causeway logbooms
Glaucous-winged Gull 7 3a 4im
Caspian Tern 35 35a, o/f
Tree Swallow 5 3m 1jv, 1f
Cliff Swallow 1 a
Barn Swallow 8 3a 5jv
Northwestern Crow 2
Black-capped Chickadee 2 1a 1jv
Marsh Wren 3m
American Robin 4 3m 1f, all cf, distraction display, ne corner,
SE Pond
European Starling ~400 all jv
Common Yellowthroat 1 m
Spotted Towhee 2 2m
Red-winged Blackbird 6 3f 1m 2jv f
Yellow-headed Blackbird 1 m, o/f
Brewer's Blackbird 4 3m 1jv (other 14 gone in last 2 days)
House Finch 10 7jv, 3 other
American Goldfinch 2m


Iona Outer Pond

Pied-billed Grebe 2 1a 1y
American Coot 10 5a 5y
Great Blue Heron 1
Gadwall 150 131a 9y
American Wigeon 1m ecl
Marsh Wren 1m
Amer. Robin 2 1m 1f, both cf
Red-winged Blackbird 2m
Yellow-headed Blackbird 1jv begging from central island


Iona South Jetty

Common Loon 12 11 Alt, 1 Bsc
Double-cr. Cormorant 57 46a 2y(?) in colony on beacon
Pelagic Cormorant 1 ad just off jetty end
Canada Goose 18 flock on water at base
Surf Scoter 12 mostly Subad m, 1 in usual spot, PS 25-30
White-winged Scoter 1m
Scoter sp. 50
Red-breasted Merganser 1m subad, doesn't look well; ps 26
Killdeer 1a at base, distraction displays
Calidris sp 50 small flocks over water
Bonaparte's Gull 11 10 Alt 2, 1 Def Alt (breeder return?)
California Gull 13 most Alt 2, a couple Alt 1
Glaucous-winged Gull 5 various ages
Gull sp. 25
Caspian Tern 12a
Barn Swallow 3jv
Yellow-headed Blackbird 2 1f, 1jv m; ps 42-46

Some small gulls waaayyyy offshore turned out to be all Bonaparte's: they
took the guesswork out of it by coming inshore. Drat.

Cheers

Michael Price When I found out that seven of my years
Vancouver BC Canada was only one of theirs,
mprice at mindlink.net I started biting absolutely everything.
-Max Carlson (Ron Carlson's dog)