Subject: Re: East Bay, Oly
Date: Jan 8 13:38:51 1998
From: "S&C Richardson" - salix at halcyon.com


To my post...
> >best turnout of Barrow's Goldeneyes, Surf Scoters, and early Greater Scaup
in
> >years.

Rob Saecker replied:
> can you explain the "early" scaup comment?
I might have been a little loose with my statement. I was referring to the
tendency for scaup to increase in number at East Bay during their northbound
migration. My scaup tallies for two January surveys, 12 and 18, are more like
what I expect in late March. I certainly don't mean to suggest that scaup
migration is early, just that these are higher counts than I expect for the
time of year.

Rob again:
> Also noticed, while thumbing through the book, your comment that "a few
> western sandpipers winter in SPS." There has been a flock of over a hundred
> hanging out in the Mud Bay vicinity, though I only say 20 there this
> morning. Again, I don't know if this is particularly noteworthy. Thanks...

A better source for an answer to this question is Joe Buchanan's paper ("The
abundance and migration of shorebirds at two Puget Sound estuaries"), which
suggests >100 westerns at Mud Bay *is* noteworthy. He wrote that this species
was absent on his Eld Inlet surveys (site of Mud Bay, for those unfamiliar with
the area) during 2 of 3 winters. His high counts for December and January were
5 and 25, respectively.

Are you sure they're westerns and not Dunlin?
--
Scott Richardson
northeast Seattle
salix at halcyon.com
http://www.halcyon.com/salix/swm_what.htm