Hi Tweets,

Just going back through some old stuff and noticed this:

The Vancouver Bird Alert for Wednesday March 26 reported:

> Sightings for Tuesday March 25
>
> The spring arrival flock of 700-800 WESTERN SANDPIPERS were at Boundary Bay.

Wow! This is *extraordinarily* early for the arrival of the Western
Sandpipers (14 yr average is 4/17, and--except for this year--they're like
clockwork, arriving on dates no more than a week either way throughout that
entire period), especially considering the crappy weather.

Have any other coastal sites such as Bowerman Basin noticed such an
extremely early migratory arrival? Was there a post about this year's
northbound Western Sandpiper migration that I missed? Are migrating Dunlin
similarly off-pattern? Other species of shorebird may similarly be extremely
early. Something to watch for this year, maybe.

Michael Price
Vancouver BC Canada
mprice at mindlink.net