Hi Gail,

>Wow, finally something going on at the coast that seems to be going on here
as well. My mostly weekly census of north Kootenay Lake yesterday turned up
at least a dozen Ruby-crowned Kinglets, whereas there wasn't a one to be
seen or heard a week ago.

And I imagine a few White-crowns and Winter Wrens as well? Good time to look
for Clay-colored Sparrow.

>Last week the route was dominated by gulls

And they'd be Herring, Thayer's (due any day here), California, and...? Mew?
Ring-billed? Hey, ya might wanna keep an eye out for Gary D's Lesser
Black-backed fom a couple years ago. I hear it's partial to salmon roe. '-)

>loons

Common only?

>and mergansers

All Common? I don't think the Red-breasted Merganser migration is underway
yet; I've got Sep 28 as their average arrival date here.

>assembling around the spawning and spawned trout and kokanee. At one spot
there were over 60 Common Mergansers. This week there were still gulls and
loons, but not a merganser in sight.

Interesting! The first whack of them blew in about 10 days ago, but hard to
know if they're local nesters on the Capilano and other local streams. Just
females and juvs.

Great fall weather!

M