Hi Tweets,

To let you know that the male TUFTED DUCK Aythya fuligula and increasingly
Alternate male HARRIS'S SPARROW Zonotrichia querula are still in Stanley
Park near the W end of Lost Lagoon as of this morning.

The TUDU, which can't be thinking of spending too much more time here before
heading N, is quite tame and will usually approach anyone who has seed to
feed him with. His usual beat is between the small bay at the W end of Lost
Lagoon, where there's a wooden feeding/observation platform, and the Stone
Bridge about 100 meters further W. Sometimes, but not often, he's to the W
of the Stone Bridge. He's often in the thick of feeding melees, spending
noticeably more time submerged per dive than either the two scaup species or
goldeneyes in the small channel which feeds in to the W end of the Lagoon,
but usually to the E. Offering the starkest contrast between black and white
of any of the diving duck species on the Lagoon, he's usually easy to
eyeball, even when some distance away. For wildlife photographers who want
that framefiller of a male Tufted Duck in definitive plumage, they don't
come any easier.

The Harris's Sparrow was singing and feeding in the small (and technically
illegal) bird feeding area on the city side of the Stone Bridge. Much black
flecking on crown and chin, throat, and upper breast as it moves into Alt 1
plumage. Song is schizophrenic: imagine singing males Golden-crowned Sparrow
Z. atricapilla alternating with Clay-colored Sparrow Spizella pallida and
you've got the gist. Sings from several branches in small stands of
vegetation in the area, particularly to the SE. If not singing, it can be
tough to find, ranging around some distance (100+ meters) from the feeding
area, although conspicuous when singing and untypically unafraid of most
quiet, non-abrupt human approach. One needs patience with this bird, though,
as it comes and goes unpredictably.

At this location this morning were also at least five Sooty-type Fox
Sparrows Passarella iliaca, including the 'pied' part-albino bird; at least
two Golden-crowned Sparrows, one a singing adult (there seems to have been a
small influx of singing adults) and a subadult; at least one singing male
'pugetensis' race White-crowned Sparrow Z. leucophrys; at least twelve Song
Sparrows Melospiza melodia, a couple smaller, paler and more delicately
marked--more like Lincoln's Sparrow Melospiza lincolnii-- than the usual
'morphna' types; and at least twenty Oregon-type Dark-eyed Juncos Junco
hyemalis with one 'cismontanus' that's been hanging around there for several
weeks.

Another interesting sight: a drake Ring-necked Duck A. collaris in a display
group of several male Greater Scaup A. marila, courting a female scaup. What
with all the various hybrids and wannabe's at the Lagoon this winter, one
could be forgiven for mistaking the waterfowl list there for a soap-opera
digest.

Michael Price A brave world, Sir,
Vancouver BC Canada full of religion, knavery and change;
mprice at mindlink.net we shall shortly see better days.
Aphra Behn (1640-1689)