Tweets,

I didn't think that a report of a Snow Goose 19 Sept would garner all the
attention it did, so I didn't add the comment this particular goose has
been there since spring according to a hunter/"birder" who stopped to chat
with us at Bowerman, evidently an employee at the airport. He seemed to
know the waterfowl, so I guess we can believe this bit of info. Maybe an
injured bird?

I also forgot to state that we also saw the Cattle Egret on Wenzel Slough
Rd off Keys Rd just south of Hwy 12, according to Bill Tweit, one of the
earliest in fall in the Pac NW.

I also should mention I can't count. I say 120 species in the original post
to Tweetsville, but the total was actually126. "It's not the Okanogan...
(oops, I keep forgetting you Westsiders outnumber the Eastside contigent).

Andy Stepniewski
Wapato WA


----------
> From: Michael Price <mprice at mindlink.bc.ca>
> To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
> Subject: Early Snow Goose (was: Fw: Grays County Harbor weekend, etc)
> Date: Monday, September 22, 1997 11:16 PM
>
> Hi Tweets,
>
> Ruth Sullivan writes:
>
> >hi mchael,
> >respondig about the lone snow goose on bowerman basin.we had a lone snow
> >goose in ocean shores with a flock of canada goose on july
26.1996.listen
> >to the expert birders, it isn't so unusualy to see this birds at such
early
> >date.
>
> Ruth, it was from an expert that I got that little snippet. When I made
the
> suggestion, I wasn't expressing a personal opinion, but suggesting a
strong
> possibility based on one of the things discovered by a team of Russian,
> Canadian and American scientists who have been studying Snow Geese for
the
> last decade.
>
> And there aren't many people here much more familiar with Snow Goose
> migration patterns than John Ireland, the manager of the Reifel Refuge,
> where they get more Snow Geese in October and November than hell can
hold.
> He's been an expert bird surveyor in the UK and the S Pacific, and has
> worked with the scientific team in radio-tracking the Snow Goose
migration
> of the various Arctic populations to and between their various wintering
> territories, checking yearly productivity of young and monitoring their
> movements between Reifel and Westham Islands and the Skagit Delta each
> winter. If you want to know more about Snow Geese in Vancouver BC and
> northern WA, he's one of the best sources of information you could
possibly
> have. Given that he has one of the dryest, most deadpan senses of humor
on
> the planet, listening to him expound on birds is a treat.
>
> A bird in July is obviously a layover from the northbound migration it
> couldn't join for whatever reason. A single bird in late September is
*very*
> likely to be one of these early 'scouts', as they're known, that migrate
a
> couple of weeks ahead of the main migration. This early, I'd put money on
it
> being an arrival bird.
>
> Michael Price The Sleep of Reason Gives Birth to Monsters
> Vancouver BC Canada -Goya
> mprice at mindlink.net