Hi Tweets,

The black envy I've been feeling at all these yummy posts of Fork-tailed
Storm-Petrels impelled me play hooky from stuff and ride the ferry today in
late afternoon up the middle of Georgia Strait from Tsawwassen to Nanaimo
and back to see if this extraordinary movement extended to the inside
passage between the BC Mainland and Vancouver Island. Except for one
strange-looking dark, long-winged bird on the water at some distance and
half the size of a Bonaparte's Gull riding *very* lightly on the water--as
if fashioned from very light styrofoam, but nada. They musta come in through
Juan de Fuca and turned right rather than in from the narrow passages at the
N end of Vcr Is. and down the Strait.

The oddest sighting was in almost exactly mid-Strait where there were long
strings of storm-wrack, mostly uprooted eelgrass, kelp, some driftwood.
Sitting on a piece of driftwood were two immie Snow Geese taking a breather.
Second strangest? A female Harlequin Duck about mid-Strait flying W toward
the Island.

Weather was great: for the second consec day forecasts of heavy rain and
strong wind turned into an actuality of warm, dry and dead calm. Awright!
Rock on, weatherdudes!

Conditions: Temp: 16 C; Wind: calm in the Strait to NW ~15 kph along the E
side of the Island (Jack, is this a semi-permanent wind?); Barom: falling;
Cloud: broken altocumulus overcast, higher altostratus banks thickening in
NW; Precip: none in aft, light rain in AM; Visibility: slight haze, ~15 km;
sea/sky horizon approx ~10 km, seeing ranged from good to lousy in haze
and/or glare; Tide: high; Sea: calm in mid-Strait with light wind-flaws,
moderate NW ripple along E side of Vancouver Island.

In mid-Strait (deepwater section, 150-360 fathoms), Tsawwassen to Nanaimo

Red-throated Loon 1
Pacific Loon 4
Common Loon 1
Western Grebe 7
Snow Goose 2 both imm, on floating debris, mid-Strait
Harlequin Duck 1 f, mid-Strait
Long-tailed Duck 1 m, Def Basic
Parasitic Jaeger 1 light-morph
Bonaparte's Gull 2 Basic ad
Mew Gull 17 all ad
California Gull 9 7a 2im
Herring Gull 1 Basic ad
Glaucous-winged Gull 4 1a 3im
Rhinoceros Auklet 5

loon sp. 2
Aechmophorus grebe sp. 4
storm-petrel (?) sp. 1
cormorant sp. 4

Harbor seal 12
Northern sea-lion 1

Both herring and coho salmon running.

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