Hi Tweets,

A couple of hours in late afternoon to rip around the Sea Wall on my bike.
Numbers are approximate for the commoner species; it was late in the
afternoon when I got there.

Conditions: cool, clear, calm; tide on the flood, sea state flat calm;
visibility sharply clear to the horizon; some cloud-plates of stratocumulus
over Point Grey.

Highlights: 'Stumpy', the legless Glaucous-winged Gull at Devonian Park's
display pond is back for his (grown into a *big* gull with a large
bill--nothing gracile about this guy any more) fourth winter: back, tail and
primary pattern as adult, bill basal 2/3 dull grey-pink, large dark
subterminal mark, distal 1/4 horn-white. Ol' Stump's in trouble when his
head itches. Among the other gulls were some adult Thayer's and several
adult Mew Gulls and one of them was a bit larger, darker and clearly
longer-billed than the others; a good candidate for an adult Kamchatka-race
Mew. On the lawn just E of the pond was a flock of American Wigeon
containing either a grey-morph Eurasian Wigeon female or hybrid. The COMMON
EIDER is in Alternate plumage. As an estimate, there were at least 5 to 6
thousand Surf Scoters and associated species in three large flocks: the
largest one (~3000), containing the eider, was about 0.5 km E of Prospect
Point, the second about 200 meters W of the point, and the third in the bay
just N of Siwash Rock. A Basic adult Pigeon Guillemot at Brockton Point must
be about the last one left in the Inner Harbor: they disappear about this
time and reappear well-advanced into Alternate molt in late January and
early February, beating the Tree and Violet-green Swallows (only about
twelve weeks until they return in the next northbound migration, BTW) to
make them the first seasonally-various bird to return to Vancouver BC. I
can't remember the last time I saw a lone Pine Siskin, so I thought it odd
to see this solo bird flying around Third Beach doing the usual generic thin
muttering--then heard the hard 'dit dit' call note: Common Redpoll. Cool.

Red-throated Loon 1
Pacific Loon 1
Common Loon 4 3a 1jv
Horned Grebe 15
Red-necked Grebe 2
Eared Grebe 1
Western Grebe 5
Double-crested Cormorant ~25
Brandt's Cormorant 16
Pelagic Cormorant 18
Great Blue Heron 3
Canada Goose ~50
Mallard 3 1m, 1 pair
American Wigeon ~150
wigeon sp* 1
Greater Scaup ~200
Lesser Scaup ~50
COMMON EIDER 1 m, Alt2
Harlequin Duck ~10 5m 4f or jv
Long-tailed Duck 10 1m Def, 1m subad, remainder jv/f
Black Scoter 1 ad m
Surf Scoter ~6000
White-winged Scoter 4 1f ad, 3 jv
Common Goldeneye ~25
Barrow's Goldeneye ~600
Bufflehead 5 3f 2m
Red-breasted Merganser 9 at least 2 m, rest f/jv
Bald Eagle 1 voice-only
American Coot 7 Devonian
Black Oystercatcher 2 both ad
Sanderling 68 most Basic 1
Bonaparte's Gull 1 Bsc 1?
Mew Gull ~40 all ad, most at Devonian
Larus canus ssp. 1 poss ad Kamchatka Gull
Ring-billed Gull 6 5a, 1 Basic 1
Thayer's Gull 3 all ad
Glaucous-winged Gull ~150 most ad
'Olympic' Gull** 15 most at Devonian
Pigeon Guillemot 1 ad Basic, Brockton Point
Rock Dove ~30
Belted Kingfisher 1 m
Northern Flicker 1 voice-only
Downy Woodpecker 1 voice-only
Northwestern Crow ~100
Common Raven 1 voice-only
Black-capped Chickadee 3
Chestnut-backed Chickadee 2
Bushtit 6
Red-breasted Nuthatch 1 voice-only
Brown Creeper 1 voice-only
Winter Wren 6 voice-only
Golden-crowned Kinglet 5
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 2
American Robin 2
European Starling ~200 most at Devonian
Spotted Towhee 1 m
Fox Sparrow 1 voice-only
Song Sparrow 3
Dark-eyed Junco 3
COMMON REDPOLL 1
House Sparrow 4

grebe sp ~10
Aechmophorus grebe sp ~200
cormorant sp ~20
scoter sp ~75
duck sp ~50
gull sp ~50

* female grey-morph Eurasian or Eurasian X Amer Wigeon hybrid
** Western X Glaucous-winged Gull hybrid

Cheers

Michael Price We aren't flying...we're falling with style!
Vancouver BC Canada -Buzz Lightyear, Toy Story
mprice at mindlink.net