Hi Tweets,

Bob Norton writes:

> Last year the SHARP-BILLED was around for days but would come and go.
>There are many pools in the area (most of which can not be seen from the
>road).
(snip)

This may be useful. In years when there are a lot (4-5) juv Sharp-tailed
Sandpipers (SHSA)in the big Pectoral Sandpiper (PESA) flocks on the Iona
Settling Ponds.

One year, early 90's, there were five there in a flock of about 250 PESA. I
noted that when they returned from a panic flight of any duration, each SHSA
would return to the *precise* spot on the pond it had been working when it
flushed. This was consistent behavior for each bird during all my
observations, over approx six days and many panic flights, before moving on
south. Impossible to tell if the PESA did the same.

That year, the surface of that particular settling pond--the SW--was dotted
with clumps of vegetation, mostly feral tomato plants and evergreen
nightshade (European bittersweet) Solanum dulcamara. The SHSA often fed in
the open but usually adjacent to one of these little vegetated islands.

This year, the PESA flock was for part of its time on the open, unvegetated
crust of the NE pond. The SHSA stayed within that flock wherever it landed
after flushing, generally in the NE corner.

>after the rains that have even hit the rainshadow

Can this be taken as an ENSO-inspired event?

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