Hi Tweets,

A belated report, a quick rip on the bike down to Sea & Iona Island on
Tuesday. The High just getting settled in, clear with high thin cirrostratus
and warm except for chill NW wind at about 20 kph, very low spring tide at
last ebb and slack, light NW chop.

Under the Arthur Laing Bridge on the Sea Island (Vancouver Int'l Airport, or
YVR) side, I was counting active (entry or face peering out) nests of Cliff
Swallows Hirundo pyrronota (at least 25 active nests, with at least one
under construction) when I saw a female House Sparrow Passer domesticus fly
from the lawn of the Fraser River Harbour Commission office up to and enter
one of the swallow nests carrying a grub she had found,; a further look
showed straw-like nesting material in the Cliff Swallow nest and the
emergence of a male showed they were definitely nesting in there and were
feeding young. Interestingly, the nest was *part* of the colony, with active
swallow nests to either side of it. Has anyone else ever heard of this?

Iona South Jetty
--a flypast of Pacific Loons Gavia pacifica;
--still-large numbers of scoters;
--about 15-20 active nests of Double-crested Cormorant Phalacrocorax auritis
on the beacon about 200 meters to the W

--Iona Settling Ponds
--where due to a recent malfunction of the waste treatment machinery, raw
sewage is being pumped onto the NE Pond (smells *quite* rank but not quite
impossible to a *real* hardcore birder '-), a crust has formed on which
various birds walked around, including three male Yellow-headed Blackbirds
Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus. Two things I never noticed about YHBL: in the
open, they're quite long- and stiff-legged and walk like a cowpoke away from
his/her horse; second, and this isn't in any field guides I've been able to
find, is that its vent is surrounded by a small yellow ring of feathers,
like a tiny yellow whoopee-cushion;
--the SW Pond has many ducks on it, the drakes all in definitive plumage,
including Gadwall Anas strepera with a brood of 5 hatchlings, American
Wigeon A. americana, Mallard Anas platyrhynchos, Blue-winged Teal Anas
discors, Cinnamon Teal A. cyanoptera, Northern Shoveler Anas clypeata,
Northern Pintail Anas acuta, Green-winged Teal Anas crecca (race
carolinensis), and even a few Lesser Scaup Aythya affinis diving in the
shallow water, an unusual species to see on the settling ponds, though
common on the adjacent Outer Pond.
--the sighting book and checklists at the Birder's Gate have been removed,
perhaps by the plant management or the company doing repairs to the
treatment machinery to discourage birders from moving through the area where
there's heavy machinery--though if that were so, one would think there's be
a notice: the plant staff and management are usually pretty good about
letting birders know about stuff like this; since there's no notice banning
birders from the area until repairs are complete, vandalism is an equal
possibility.

Iona Outer Pond
--looks like at least one territorial Ruddy Duck Oxyura jamaicensis.

Sea Island
--at the E end of the YVR runway, in the grass, was a large flock of about
200 pipits which would fly up in panic each time a landing plane would roar
over about 50 meters up; the racket precluded hearing any calls.

Red-throated Loon 18
Pacific Loon ~200
Common Loon 7
Horned Grebe 65
Red-necked Grebe 1
Western Grebe 4
Double-crested Cormorant 29
Brandt's Cormorant 1
Pelagic Cormorant 1
Great Blue Heron 14
Canada Goose 8
Gadwall 58 5y
American Wigeon ~75
Mallard ~100
Blue-winged Teal 1 m
Cinnamon Teal 2 m/f
Northern Shoveler 45
Northern Pintail 3 1m 2f
Green-winged Teal 00's
Canvasback 1 m
Greater Scaup 8
Lesser Scaup 88
scaup sp. 00's
Surf Scoter ~5,000
White-winged Scoter ~2,000
Black Scoter 4 3f 1m
Long-tailed Duck 1 m
Bufflehead 6
Common Goldeneye 4
Red-breasted Merganser 28
Common Merganser 3
Ruddy Duck 11
duck sp. ~4,000 mostly anas-type grazers
Bald Eagle 8 1a 7im
Red-tailed Hawk 2 2a, light-morph
Ring-necked Pheasant 1 m
American Coot 24
Killdeer 3 territorial, SE Pond
Greater Yellowlegs 2 Def Alt
Lesser Yellowlegs 3 Def Alt
Dunlin 45 jetty
Calidris sp. ~150 jetty
Common Snipe 1
Bonaparte's Gull 1 Def Alt
Mew Gull 35 incl. ~10 imm
Ring-billed Gull 4
California Gull ~400
Glaucous-winged Gull ~100
Caspian Tern 5 ad
Rock Dove 4
Rufous Hummingbird 4 4m
Belted Kingfisher 1
Downy Woodpecker 1 m, territorial?
Northern Flicker 3
Northwestern Crow ~200
Common Raven 1
Tree Swallow 6
Violet-green Swallow 10
Northern Rough-winged Swallow 2
Barn Swallow 15
Cliff Swallow ~30
Black-capped Chickadee 5
Bushtit 4
Bewick's Wren 2 2m, territorial
Marsh Wren 5 5m
Golden-crowned Kinglet 3
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 2
American Robin 6
European Starling 18
pipit sp. ~200
Orange-crowned Warbler 2
Yellow-rumped Warbler 5 2 Myrt, 3 Aud
Black-throated Gray Warbler 1 m
Common Yellowthroat 11 11m
Spotted Towhee 9
Savannah Sparrow 28
Song Sparrow 5
White-crowned Sparrow 2
Golden-crowned Sparrow 7
Dark-eyed Junco 1
Red-winged Blackbird 20
Yellow-headed Blackbird 3 3m
Brewer's Blackbird 7
Brown-headed Cowbird 5
House Finch 15
Pine Siskin 2
American Goldfinch 3
House Sparrow 3 2m 1f, nesting in Cliff Swallow nest

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)