Hi Tweets,

Played hooky from some stuff to make a quick bike-rip down to Iona in late
AM on Sat. before the storm. Some of these sightings with birders I ran into
there: Ed Aronsen (Colorado), Rick Romea & Cindy Sprecher (Seattle). Just
time for the NE & SE settling ponds at Iona Island before the weather got
too bad.

Highlights:
At least one juv Sharp-tailed Sandpiper on the SE pond, not the nice bright
one there the week before but a much duller, more heavily-marked bird, a
tougher ID even with a bunch of Pectoral Sandpipers standing around it; the
best mark to distinguish it was the brighter buff wash on side- and
fore-neck and dark cap contrastingly truncated at high rear-crown rather
than continuing to nape.

The little male tundrius Peregrine left his (molting) anatum mate on the
Outer Pond fence and came over to nail a juv Pectoral Sandpiper on the SE
pond, and ate it on one of the small vegetated islands on the pond. Since
most of the islands are covered by tomato plants with fairly ripe tomatoes,
whose seeds clearly survive the most amazing journeys, I suggested to
another observer that there's a peregrine who enjoys a side salad. It
started by opening the skull first and eating the brains before moving on to
the muscled parts of the bird.

Amazingly, I watched three Pecs came in and with the entire SE pond's
surface to land on, alit literally right *beside* the falcon as it fed, just
a foot or so away. I still have trouble believing my eyes. It was a
terrifically stupid move: when the falcon was finished about ten minutes
later, it simply turned on one foot, lashed out a fistful of talons, grabbed
one of the Pecs and took off for the fence with the body of this unwary
juvenile dangling below. Interestingly, when it carried the prey, its
wingbeats actually flattened into a shallower arc above and below the
horizontal, but the frequency increased about threefold. There's several
nonplussed witnesses to all this.

Meanwhile on a fencepost, his mate was busy policing her plumage with
several covert and scapular feathers standing straight out from the body,
ready to fall out. At the very base of the post, six feet *directly* below
her was a flock of Mallards, most asleep, a few awake but clearly relaxed.
So much for the terror of the hunted. Reminds me of that old Tex Avery (?)
cartoon in which the wolf and the sheepdog meet at the time-clock to punch
out: "G'night, Ralph." "See you tomorrow, Bob."

Back in town, in S Vancouver, Rick, Cindy and myself located two Crested
Mynas in the plantings and maples trees along the N side of the Airport
Square building at West 73rd Ave and Hudson. One was a definite flightworthy
but just-fledged juvenile with still extensive down at the bend of its
folded wings, still in its branching phase; the other may have been the
adult feeding it. On first sight, the two birds were in the shrubby
plantings along the front of the highrise office building, but flew up into
the maples.

Conditions: Temp. 18 C; Wind: S to SE 35-40 kph; Barom: dropping as Pacific
Low arrived from SW; Cloud: 10/10 heavy altostratus overcast lowering to
nimbostratus; Precip: moderate drizzle beginning mid-afternoon; Visiblity:
grey and ratty, apparent sea/sky horizon ~8-10 km; Tide: flood; Sea:
moderate southerly chop.


Double-cr. Cormorant 1
Great Blue Heron 3 overflight
Waterfowl on ponds or in overflight: Canada Goose, Green-winged Teal,
Mallard, Northern Pintail, Northern Shoveler, Gadwall, American Wigeon.
Northern Harrier 2 jv
Peregrine Falcon 2 male tundrius, female anatum mated pair
American Golden-Plover* 1 overflight
Pacific Golden-Plover* 1 "
Killdeer 1
Lesser Yellowlegs 1 jv
Sanderling 1 jv usually along the jetty, not the ponds
Western Sandpiper 1 jv
Pectoral Sandpiper ~60 count impossible with Peregrine there
*Sharp-tailed Sandpiper* 1 jv
*Short-billed Dowitcher* 1 jv
Long-billed Dowitcher 13 jv/Bsc 1
Mew Gull 2 ad
Ring-billed Gull 8 7a, 1 jv
California Gull 2 1a 1jv
Thayer's Gull 1 ad
Glaucous-winged Gull 3 2a 1imm
Rock Dove 3
Northern Flicker 1
Barn Swallow 1 jv
Northwestern Crow 9
European Starling ~30
Savannah Sparrow ~60
Song Sparrow 2
Red-winged Blackbird 2
House Finch 6
American Goldfinch 3

*American: a visibly long-winged bird with a clipped 'chuwit' call;
Pacific: a shorter-winged bird with a drawn-out, tailing-off 'chuweee'

Rick & Cindy related that the Common Eider and at least 2 Lapland Longspurs
were still at the end of the Iona S Jetty.


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