Hi Tweets,

A quick ride in late afternoon to Point Grey and Acadia Beach (what I was
calling Tower Beach last year) just W of Spanish Banks. Got an hour or so in
looking for the Elegant Terns reported yesterday. No sign of them but got a
consolation prize of a juvenile or Basic-plumaged CLARK'S GREBE, quite rare
for Vancouver BC--on the order of scarcity of Yellow-billed Loon, with the
dozen or so Westerns just off the beach. Another highlight was a slightly
early female Long-tailed Duck with scoters.

An odd sight on the way out to Acadia Beach was a hundred or so Ring-billed
Gulls kettling--something rarely seen along Spanish Banks--quite high up,
several hundred feet. Not so odd coming back: most of the Ring-billed Gulls
that had been there on any given day in spring and summer had vamoosed.

Conditions: Temp: 14-18 C; Wind: E-SE 20 kph; Barom: weak High ridge; Cloud:
earlier overcast clearing to 2/10; Precip: none; Visibility: unlimited,
sea/sky horizon approx 15 km; Tide: flood to High; Sea: moderate easterly chop.


Red-throated Loon 2 1a Bsc molt, 1jv
Common Loon 4 2a 2jv
Horned Grebe 21 all bsc/jv
Eared Grebe 1 bsc
Red-necked Grebe 1 a, bsc molt
Western Grebe 13
CLARK'S GREBE 1 jv
Double-crested Corm. 10 8a 2jv
Brandt's Cormorant 4
Pelagic Cormorant 4
Green-winged Teal 4
American Wigeon 54
Greater Scaup 6 1m, 1f, 4jv
Long-tailed Duck 1 f
Surf Scoter 280 75% ad male
White-winged Scoter 4 2m 2f
Parasitic Jaeger 2 1a light-morph, 1jv
Bonaparte's Gull 41 39a 2jv
Mew Gull 3 3a
Ring-billed Gull 158
California Gull 3 2jv, 1 Bsc2
Thayer's Gull 1 Bsc ad
Glaucous-winged Gull 80
Common Tern 66
Rock Dove 7
Band-tailed Pigeon 1
Belted Kingfisher 1
Northern Flicker 1
Northwestern Crow 22
Winter Wren 1
European Starling 3
Savannah Sparrow 4

grebe sp 2
cormorant sp. 2
scoter sp. ~100
gull sp. ~25
tern sp. ~30

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