Michael Price wrote -

>Since at no time have there ever been many alternate-plumaged Yellow-billed
>Loons in Cascadia, what's the betting this is the bird that was messing
>around Pt Roberts/Protection island last week? Be interesting to know how
>they sexed it, though. Anybody know how to ID male and female loons in Alt
>plumage?

The best place to see Yellow-billled Loons is in Hecate Strait between the mainland and the Queen Charlotte Islands. They can be quite numerous for a ten to 14-day period in spring and fall during migration, and many of these birds are in alternate plumage. However, Michael is right in saying that they are one the rare side anywhere else in Cascadia.

As for male/female ID: the one which is often but not always accepted as being a good discriminator is the size of the anterior occipital "bump" on the top of the head. Males often have a decidely larger forward bump than females. This also applies to Common Loon. Caution is advised when applying this to individual loons whereas it is obvious when viewing a breeding pair.

And just to add some new bird data: one Short-eared Owl quartering the Fort Nelson airport Oct. 27-31. Latitude 58 50N, longitude 122 35W. 10 centimetres snow on the ground. Ambient temperature averaging minus 5 to minus 6 C. I have seen them into early November here with temperatures into the minus 20s. They are one of the hardier owls.

- Jack Bowling
jcbowling at mindlink.bc.ca
jbowling at mag-net.com
Fort Nelson, BC