Hi Tweets,

A few notes from Iona Island yesterday evening.

First, does anyone else note a dearth of southbound shorebirds this year?
Reason I ask is that the Iona Settling Ponds usually has, minimum, a
thousand or two small Calidris sandpipers (~95% Western, 4% Least, 1%
Semipalmated on average) on any given day and a good variety of others--even
if the numbers may not reach the high tens--from end of June through
mid-September. I don't think Iona's ever been this quiet for such a
sustained period. What's the breeding success been like up north this summer?

Conditions: Time: 6:30-9:00 PM PDT; Temp: 26C, humid; Wind: SW 15 km/hr to
SE 25 as something (not sure what) moved up from the SE; Barom: steady with
this persistent High; Cloud: 2/10, increasing with flocculent altocumulus in
broad N-S cloud streets, becoming denser stratocumulus deck in SE; Precip:
none; Visibility: unlimited and crystalline, no heat-haze; Tide: 3.5 m, some
causeway flats uncovered; Sea state: light S ripple.

Highlights: simple pleasures here, first few juv Glaucous-winged Gulls and
influx of juv California Gulls, a large-ish pale Calidris
sandpiper--something about it suggested juv Red Knot--along the Iona
Causeway, a couple of juv Baird's Sandpipers, influx of juv Least
Sandpipers, a female Amer. Kestrel along Ferguson Road on Sea Is.

Settling Ponds

Great Blue Heron 3 overflight
Green-winged Teal 1 f
Gadwall 1 f or ecl m
Northern Shoveler 4 1f 2jv 1m, ecl
Killdeer 4 3 in grp, 1a
Semipalmated Sandpiper 2 2jv
Western Sandpiper 1 jv
Least Sandpiper 44 28a 16jv
Baird's Sandpiper 2 2jv
Long-billed Dowitcher 1 unaged
N. Rough-winged Swallow 1
Cliff Swallow 5
Barn Swallow ~40 mostly jv
European Starling 2 2jv
Red-winged Blackbird 3 1f 1jv m, 1jv f, family group
Brown-headed Cowbird 1 jv, with Red-winged family
American Goldfinch 1


Iona Causeway

Double-cr. Cormorant 1 a
Great Blue Heron 2 2a
Canada Goose 81
Mallard 3
Gadwall 2
Semipalmated Plover 4
small Calidris sp. ~300 mostly Western SP
large Calidris sp. 1
Western Sandpiper 1 jv
Least Sandpiper 5
Ring-billed Gull ~250 10jv
California Gull 10 6jv
Glaucous-winged Gull 5 4jv
Caspian Tern 2 2a
Cliff Swallow 2
Barn Swallow 10
Marsh Wren 1 m
Savannah Sparrow 1
American Goldfinch 1


Sea Is.

American Kestrel 1 f, Ferguson Rd. near stables
Brown-headed Cowbird 18 18 jv, pure flock, airport fence



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