Hi Tweets,

Blazing hot and the ponds rather--how shall I put this--fragrant.
Interesting highlight was the first juvenile Ring-billed Gull over the
plant, a juv arrival date for Iona at least. Also seems to have been an
small influx of male Ruddy Ducks into the Outer Pond; 2 males have been
summering over there; there were 8 tonight. Shorebirds mostly absent from
the ponds and were god knows where though the tide was massively high at 6
PM; what few there were were the NW corner of the NW pond where the
construction has created an interesting variety of shorebird habitats as
well as far better visibility than was there before the alteration. The cost
has been pondside vegetation and the nests and young of some nesting
songbirds such as Marsh Wren, American Robin, and Common Yellowthroat (see
note below species-seen lists).

The Common Eider was there at the end of the S Jetty in midday to 5 PM and
on the incoming tide, seen by Dave Allison et al of Victoria, gone by
beginning ebb. Dave says the thing's in "heavy moult". As a sign of summer's
maturity (even though a small voice inside screams "no no no--it just *got*
here!"), swallow flocks (Barn & Cliff) are gathering on the wires at the
stables along Ferguson Road on Sea Island.

Conditions: Temp: 26-28C; Wind: S 25 km/hr backing to SE 25 as Low
approaches from NW; Barom: falling; Cloud: scattered cirrus traces in early
evening then mare's-tails coalescing to cirrostratus as Low approaches;
Precip: none; Visibility: 15-20 km in haze, apparent sea/sky horizon ~5 km
in bad heat-haze; Tide: 4.0 m at 6:30 PM, strong ebb thereafter; Sea: light
SE chop, strong tide-rip on ebb over rocks at end of jetty.

Iona Settling Ponds

Double-crested Cormorant 1 overflight
Green-winged Teal 1 m, ecl
Mallard 3 1f 2y
Blue-winged teal 1f
Cinnamon Teal 5 1f 4jv
Northern Shoveler 4 3m ecl, 1f
Gadwall 26 4f 20y 2m
Killdeer 3 2 in pair
Spotted Sandpiper 1 alt
Semipalmated Sandpiper 5 2jv 3 alt
Western Sandpiper 21 all alt
Least Sandpiper 5 " "
Pectoral Sandpiper 2 1f 1m, both alt
Long-billed Dowitcher 1 ptl alt
Ring-billed Gull 1 jv, 1st of summer, this loc.
Barn Swallow ~15
Marsh Wren 1m
American Robin 1f
Cedar Waxwing 1 jv
European Starling ~150
Red-winged Blackbird 6 2m 3f 1jv
House Finch 1m
American Goldfinch 1m


Iona South Jetty

Double-crested Cormorant 38 23a 6y in nests on beacon
corm sp. 2
Gadwall 3 1f 2jv
Canvasback 1m ptl ecl
Greater Scaup 5 3m 2f
Surf Scoter 1m subad
White-winged Scoter 4m
scoter sp. 1
Western Sandpiper 1
Bonaparte's Gull 2
California Gull 8 5a 3im
Glaucous-winged Gull 1a
Caspian Tern 2a
Brown-headed Cowbird 2 jv at tip

Note: there seems to be some local birder consternation that the treatment
plant staff have begun digging out the NW pond, trashing pondside
vegetation, etc. and 'spoiling' it, and the sentiment was aired that there
had been no prior consultation with birders before they did this. Hey, it's
*their* site, not ours. And it is now close to a decade and half since I
first suggested that the local organised birding group approach Iona plant
management to see if there were ways to do this and gained but a
thunderingly silent response, which apparently still obtains. I'm not
waiting on this, anyway: though the plant management had granted birders
open access since the mid-Sixties, it took until the mid-Seventies to get
the local birders and their group even to show some formal recognition and
appreciation of the privileges--and more importantly, the *trust*--that the
Iona plant management and staff have given us birders, and to show some
appreciation to them for the open and *unsupervised* access they give us.

What many birders need to realise in this instance--and they could use some
leadership from the local organised group, the Vancouver Natural History
Society, here--is that we have access to the Iona Settling Ponds by
invitation only, and we are there on sufferance only. They could kick our
arrogant butts outta there on a whim and not even have to explain: it's
their right, 'cause it's their site. And the way we birders exasperatingly
take our access there for granted, and often view the staff and their
activities as inconvenient obstructions to our own wonderful selves in our
hunt for the rarest sandpiper and the glory that ensues, it would be only
simple justice for that to happen. It is a working industrial site, not a
birder's preserve, and it's about goddam time the attitude changed from
take-it-for-granted appropriation to
down-on-our-knees-for-this-great-birding-site appreciation. It's one of the
best in North America, and we should be thankful that we have any kind of
access to it, let alone open access.

And I still think it a good idea that some model of management that enhances
the birding (and saves nesting birds into the bargain) within the context
both of the management plan and birders' interests is worth pursuing, with
expert advice.

Cheers

Michael Price
Vancouver BC Canada
mprice at mindlink.net