Subject: Point Grey, Vancouver BC; 5/25/97
Date: May 25 21:02:27 1997
From: Michael Price - mprice at mindlink.bc.ca


Hi Tweets,

Biked up to Cecil Green Park in UBC early this AM, then back along Marine
Drive & Spanish Banks; a couple of sightings from Jericho Pk.

Conditions: Temp: 14C-16C; Wind: W 0-5 km/hr, increasing to W 15; Barom:
weak High; Cloud: 9/10, dispersing to 1/10 by 1100 hrs; Precip: nil; Tide:
slow ebb; Sea: light westerly rippled; Time 0630--1130 PDT.

Some highlights:

First, watched a pair of Vaux's Swifts barrelling down into a chimney of a
large mock-Tudor house on NW Marine Drive--the same location as two years
before. Without recourse to producing the actual nest, this entry indicates
potential nesting. A couple years ago, they exited and re-entered this
chimney several times during mid-morning about this same time of year.
Virtually no nesting records for Vancouver BC for this species.

Secondly, a northbound procession of 3 immaculately-plumaged light morph
Parasitic Jaegers gliding by close in to shore in a compact marauding group.
At the time, both the air and sea were dead calm, yet the three jaegers slid
along just off the surface for hundreds of meters. With its combination of
elegant economy and brute power, the flight of a Parasitic Jaeger has a
thuggish suavity about it, like a tuxedo'ed George Raft heading into a
nightclub to cause some trouble to somebody.

Third, a silhouetted medium-large accipiter-type raptor flying in large high
circles with a peculiar, slow, Short-eared Owl-type flight with two large
white ovals on the sides of the lower back (like a giant Olive-sided
Flycacher) had me totally stonkered, until it got bombed by a couple of
crows and decided to sit it out in cover, turned out to be a male Cooper's
Hawk in display flight. Looked like an enormous moth.

An Alternate-plumaged Red-breasted Merganser off W Spanish Banks is a bit
late: average departure date for Vancouver BC is May 17.


CECIL GREEN PK. (*offshore)
-just behind the Museum of Anthropology on the UBC Campus.

Habitat: some residual mixed mature bigleaf maple and douglas-fir/western
redcedar forest, rough pasture-type field, himalayan blackberry & broom,
decorative plantings near the residential area just to the E, all atop a
high sandy bluff overlooking the Strait of Georgia and the entrance to
Burrard Inlet and Vancouver BC's Outer Harbor.

Common Loon* 1 alt 1
Double-crested Cormorant* 1
Cormorant sp.* 3
Great Blue Heron* 1
Canada Goose* 15
Surf Scoter* 5 2m 3f or subad
Killdeer 1
Parasitic Jaeger* 3 3 ad light-morph
California Gull* apprx 75
Glaucous-winged Gull* apprx 120
Gull sp.* apprx 250 distant CAGU & GWGU
Caspian Tern* 8
Rock Dove 1
Band-tailed Pigeon 2 pair
Vaux's Swift 25
Rufous Hummingbird 1
Olive-sided Flycatcher 1
Western Wood Pewee 1
Pacific-slope Flycatcher 1
Empidonax sp. 1 Alder/Willow, silent
N. Rough-winged Swallow 6
Cliff Swallow 4
Barn Swallow 14
Northwestern Crow 5
Black-capped Chickadee 1
Bewick's Wren 1 m
Swainson's Thrush 1 m
American Robin 4 3m 1f
American Pipit 1
Cedar Waxwing 2 pair
European Starling 7 2a 5jv
Warbling Vireo 1 m
Orange-crowned Warbler 2 1m
Yellow Warbler 1 f
Wilson's Warbler 2 2m
Spotted Towhee 4 4m
Song Sparrow 1 m
White-crowned Sparrow 3 3m
Brown-headed Cowbird 5 1m 4f
House Finch 4 2m 1f 1jv
Pine Siskin 2 in combat
American Goldfinch 1 m
House Sparrow 3 2f 1m


NW MARINE DRIVE
- from Chancellor Boulevard to West Spanish Banks

Habitat: as above, with more red alder, devil's club and salmonberry.

Bald Eagle-ad m at eyrie, no y 3 ad pair, 1 jv
Cooper's Hawk 1 m, display flight
Rock Dove 1
Ring-billed Gull* 5
Glaucous-winged Gull 2
Vaux's Swift 2 both entering chimney
Rufous Hummingbird 3 2m 1f
Downy Woodpecker 1
Western Wood Pewee 1
Pacific-slope Flycatcher 6 5m
Empidonax sp. 1 Alder/Willow, silent
N. Rough-winged Swallow 1
Cliff Swallow 1
Barn Swallow 11
Northwestern Crow 5 1a feeding y in nest
Common Raven 1
Black-capped Chickadee 3 2m
Chestnut-backed Chickadee 1
Bushtit 1
Bewick's Wren 1 m
Winter Wren 2 2m
Swainson's Thrush 8 6m, 1 visual pair
American Robin 6 2m 2f 1jv
Cedar Waxwing 1
European Starling 15 2a 13jv
Warbling Vireo 1
Orange-crowned Warbler 2 2m
Yellow Warbler 1 m
Yellow-rumped Warbler 1 m late-ish
Black-throated Gray Warbler 1 m
MacGillivray's Warbler 1 m
Wilson's Warbler 4 4m
Warbler sp. (voice only) 1 m Wilson's? Yellow? inbetween
Black-headed Grosbeak 2 2m
Spotted Towhee 7 6m 1f 1 visual pair
Song Sparrow 4 4m
White-crowned Sparrow 2 2m
Brown-headed Cowbird 3 1m 2f
House Finch 3 3m
American Goldfinch 1 m


WEST & EAST SPANISH BANKS, FORESHORE/OFFSHORE

Habitat: sandy beaches, extensive sand and sand/mudflats; tidal.

Common Loon 1
Double-crested Cormorant 5
Pelagic Cormorant 1 ad
Great Blue Heron 14 feeding flock
Red-breasted Merganser 1 m
Bald Eagle (diff. birds) 3 2a 1jv
Bonaparte's Gull 14 1 Def Alt
Ring-billed Gull 12 3 Def Alt
California Gull 16 3 Def Alt
Glaucous-winged Gull 10 8 Def Alt
Gull sp. apprx 75
Caspian Tern 5 on sandbar


JERICHO PARK

Hooded Merganser 3 2m entering eclipse, 1 Alt m
Willow Flycatcher 1 m on territory

Mergansers on the W Pond, flycatcher on same territory as last 10-12 years,
in shrubby area between the W Marsh and the Western Rough just to the N.

Cheers

M

Michael Price
Vancouver BC Canada
mprice at mindlink.net