Subject: Iona S Jetty (& Summer Loons) 6/04/97
Date: Jun 6 13:08:37 1997
From: Michael Price - mprice at mindlink.bc.ca


Hi Tweets,

A brief scramble on the bike out to the tip of the Iona S Jetty to look for
Sabine's & Little Gulls and late northbound Jaegers. Sideways comments on a
couple of items in the Vancouver Rare Bird Alert for 6/04, where John
Chandler writes:

>In a late report for Wednesday, a breeding plumage HORNED GREBE and 2
>breeding plumage RED-THROATED LOONS were seen from the end of the Iona
>South Jetty.

> 2 late COMMON LOONS were observed at
>Ambleside.

The latter implies that Common Loons (COLO) clear the Greater Vancouver
Checklist Area between north and southbound migrations, when in fact,
non-breeding COLO's are actually fairly common throughout the summer both on
fresh and saltwater. People in south Langley (about 20km inland from the
saltchuck) near the border with the US have reported through the summer
sometimes large (50+) COLO concentrations being on a regular, daily basis in
the local ponds and potholes. Possibly these birds roost on saltwater as
well and head inland to feed, but may come from some other location altogether.

Typically, oversummering non-breeding COLO are either singletons or in small
(5-10) groups and are fairly site-persistent. Their plumage states range
from Basic or Alt 1 to pristine Definitive Alternate. Southbound migrant
COLO arrive as, and for a few weeks remain in, discrete family units; even
in the migrant staging area on the N side of the Tsawwassen Ferry Terminal
near the ferry berths, one can see juvenile/adult family groups in that big
(250+) flock that's a regular feature there in mid-late September.
Incidentally, COLO southbound return to Vancouver BC saltwater is signified
by the arrivals of the juvenile birds with their parents, usually Week 1 or
2 September.

I can help to amplify the sightings in the former statement below.

Conditions: Temp: 18, humid; Wind: dead calm to S 5km/hr; Barom: weak High;
Cloud: 5/10 to nil, then clouding over in evening, occasional bands of light
stratus, increasing to broken strato- and nimbocumulus around sunset;
Precip: the odd spit, but previously quite turbulent, with squalls and
thunderstorm cells against mountains, then light showers around sunset;
Visibility: unlimited (Kowa at 60x); Tide: slack, very high, to beginning of
ebb; Sea: oily calm, sometimes very light S ripple; Time: 4:30 PM- 9:00 PM
PDT. Comments below list.

Red-throated Loon 6 2 ptl Alt, 4 Bsc
Pacific Loon 1 ptl Alt
Common Loon 16 9 Alt, 2 Bsc, 5 Ptl Alt
Horned Grebe 1 Def Alt
Western Grebe 1
Aech. grebe sp. 54
Double-cr. Cormorant 39 see below
Coromorant sp. ~30 likely DCCO & Brandt's well out
Great Blue Heron 1
Canada Goose 33
Gadwall 2 pair
Canvasback 2 2m
Greater Scaup 1 m
Harlequin Duck 1 m
Surf Scoter 2 1m Subad, 1f
White-winged Scoter 18 18m
Scoter sp. 900+ unusually, waaay out offshore
Common Merganser 2 2m
Red-breasted Merganser 3 1m 2f, m in display
Bald Eagle 1 jv
Killdeer 1
Spotted Sandpiper 2 pair, nest at end of jetty?
Bonaparte's Gull 5 all Alt 1
California Gull ~250 95% Alt 1 or 2
Glaucous-winged Gull 18 90% Alt 1 or 2, some very bleached
Gull sp. ~60 see below
Caspian Tern 3
Barn Swallow 3 1a 2jv
Northwestern Crow 1

This is a lot of Red-throated Loons for June, but it's early innings yet.
RTLO is rare but regular off the Iona S Jetty in summer.

Pacific Loon likewise rare but regular in summer.

Horned Grebe likewise, but usually as basic-plumaged immatures

The Double-crested Cormorant Colony on the beacon at the far end contained
31 adults on the beacon, 4 visible hatchlings, at least 6 active nests. The
Bald Eagles predate on the nests built near the outside, haven't learned to
go into the structure to get at the other nests.

Assuming Brandt's Cormorants (BRCO) in the 'corm sp.' category isn't a wild
guess. Though BRCO is, according to another local assumption, supposed to be
extremely rare if present at all during the summer in the checklist area,
repeated seawatches from the jetty end showed that BRCO are regularly and
sometimes commonly off the far end of the jetty throughout the summer,
though from April to October they usually clear the 'traditional' sites in
which Vancouver BC birders tend to expect them in winter. They just don't as
a rule come inshore in summer. They are, incidentally, highly abundant in
the Gulf Islands just 30-40 km across Georgia Strait.

The male Harlie was a personal first record for the Iona S Jetty, and all
the stranger for it being a *summer* record at that!

The scoters were moving around in large flocks right out in the Strait at
the very limit of identifiability; normally, they're in close in the shallow
water. If last year was a guide, they'll be predominantly White-winged
Scoters with about 1/4 Surf Scoters.

The two male Common Mergansers were a very unusual sight there, this time of
year.

Likewise, the Red-Breasted Mergansers.

Oh my, those Alt 1 Californa Gulls look *so* suggestive of Sabine's in wing
pattern at a great distance.

In the 'gull sp.' category were three small birds sitting on a floating log
near the limit of visibility; though I watched them for twenty minutes
uninterruptedly, they didn't budge except for two short out-and-back flights
by one of them, showing only enough to establish that they were clearly much
smaller than the California Gulls, either small gulls or terns. Bonaparte's
Gulls and terns often perch on floating logs; does anyone know if Sabine's
Gull or kittiwakes do the same?

In the Iona Settling Ponds were 2 Western Sandpipers on the SW pond.

The real highlight of the day was while I was cycling back at sunset in that
curious green-gold light that occurs before and after thunderstorms and a
*very* unexpected kingbird flew to the top of a tree in a small coppice and,
facing the nearly-set sun, glowed brilliant yellow, a tiny solar echo atop
the tree's green spire. Western, it turned out.

M

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)