Hi Tweets,

another sunny lunchtime at UBC... so things were quiet but not without
surprises. I got my first Brown Creeper for the season, and on the way
back from the rose garden, a single bird was flying over the maple trees,
calling, and landed finally. An Evening Grosbeak!

Just how much things changed over the last few days...
20/10 17/10 16/10 15/10

Common Loon 1 1
Red-necked Grebe 1
Western Grebe 9 9
Grebe sp. 1 1
Double-cr. Cormorant 1
White-winged Scoter 1
Surf Scoter 20 20 50 7
Bald Eagle 1
Peregrine 1
Bonaparte's Gull 15+ 20
Glaucous-winged Gull 15 20 15 10
Band-tailed Pigeon 6
Rock Dove 10
Downy Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker 1
Steller's Jay 1
NW Crow 3 2 2
Raven 2
Starling 2 10 10 15
Black-capped Chickadee 10 7 10 6
Brown Creeper 1
Bewick's Wren 1 1-2 2-3 (1singing)
Winter Wren 4 2 1 4
Golden-crowned Kinglet 2 3 20 15
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 3 4 10 25
Hermit Thrush 2
Am. Robin 6 3 4 6
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Rufous-sided Towhee 3 4 5 10
Fox Sparrow 1 3 12
Song Sparrow 1 3 2 6
White-cr. Sparrow 1
Dark-eyed Junco 15 15 20 20
House Finch 6 7 10 5
Evening Grosbeak 1
total 20 18 21 21

The way home was interrupted by a fly-by of a Merlin. First only a
silhouette, but it sat then on a tree outside the Kitsilano/MacDonald
library, and I saw a generally dark bird with a white collar.

Reto Riesen
Dept. Chem. UBC
Vancouver, B.C.
riesenr at chem.ubc.ca