Hi Tweets,

Lighthouse Marine Park, Point Roberts WA Highlights: Ken Klimko is just
gonna kill us for this, 'cause we were late meeting him there, and he'd
left, but we (Don Cecile) found a Basic 2 LITTLE GULL over by the Point
Roberts Marina among many Bonaparte's Gulls. This is a different bird to the
Basic 1 bird found by Phil Davis a week ago.

Lots of jaegers: we figured anywhere between 9 and 13 jaegers, mostly
Parasitics with 2 jaeger sp., none with intact tail-spikes, and all either
juv or subadult. One large juv gave us real ID trouble and we're still not
sure whether we had a gracile Pomarine (rare in Vancouver BC) or a robust
Parasitic, so if anyone wants to weigh in with advice, feel free: a
perceptibly large, uniformly warm brown juvenile, underside of outer
primaries and primary coverts almost entirely white--a *huge* amount of
white on the underwing, easily the most noticeable feature; long-winged;
regular, slow steady wingbeat (no gliding though wind quite strong) than
obvious Parasitics; though large, lacked usual barrel chest of typical
Pomarine though COG was farther back, more toward mid-belly, than on an
obvious Parasitic; bill was fine, no pronounced hook or gonys, did not show
an obviously black tip; head and nape appeared unpatterned brown. Usually on
seeing a Pom, there's no question of the ID, but this individual was not
obvious. Any help welcome.

A subadult Northern Shrike flew in chasing a House Finch, then perched on
driftwood just down the beach. Nice look.

Lighthouse Marine Park Conditions: Temp: 15; Wind: NW 45-50 kph; Barom:
rising; Cloud: 8/10, increasing; Visibility: horizon haze, seas/sky horizon
approx 15 km; Sea: heavy NW chop with large whitecaps, large (2m) swell
across point; Tide: low, ebbing.

(collective species list, D Cecile, M Gotz, M Price)

Red-throated Loon 1
Pacific Loon 78 ~40 still in Alternate
Common Loon 8 jv to pre-Bsc ad
Horned Grebe 5
Red-necked Grebe 1
Western Grebe 8
Double-crested Cormorant 33
Pelagic Cormorant 8
Greater Scaup 4
Harlequin Duck 22
Long-tailed Duck 45
Black Scoter 21 11m 10f/jv
Surf Scoter ~250
White-winged Scoter 5
Bufflehead 1 m
Red-breasted Merganser 3
Turkey Vulture 2
Bald Eagle 1 ad
Red-tailed Hawk 1 ad
Rough-legged Hawk 1
Peregrine Falcon 1 ad
Parasitic Jaeger 9-12 3 jv, 6 subad
LITTLE GULL 1 Bsc 2
Bonaparte's Gull ~250 only 3 bsc 1 noted, otherwise ad
Heermann's Gulls 11
Mew Gull 5 ad
California Gull 1 Bsc 2
Glaucous-winged Gull 60
'Olympic Gull'* 3
Common Tern 6
Common Murre 42 water too rough for accurate numbers
Pigeon Guillemot 6 Bsc
Rhinoceros Auklet 3
American Robin 3
Northern Shrike 1 subad
European Starling 7
Svannah Sparrow 1
Song Sparrow 2
Lapland Longspur 2
House Finch 1

cormorant sp. 20
scoter sp. ~30
jaeger sp. 2
gull sp. ~200
Sterna tern sp. 4

*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