Hi Tweets,

In Vancouver BC, the early shorebird migrants aren't.

Early, that is. Each usual species has been hitting the usual shorebird
sites in Vancouver around its usual southbound arrival date, sometimes
slightly earlier, a day or two, well within usual yearly variation of 3-5
days either side of the average arrival date. If your mind is tripped up by
the 'Fall' part of their migration, you may assume they're early, but nope,
they're on their schedule and they're sticking to it.

Now if only Vancouver's public transit outfit could be induced to be as
reliable....

Each species migration is so large that usually they hit most coastal areas
of this part of Cascadia at about the same time, give or take a day or two.
>From what I remember of my reading (in particular, Dennis' book, Shorebirds
of the Pacific Northwest and Birds of BC by Campbell, Dawe, McTaggart-Cowan,
Cooper, Kaiser and McNall --the last five people are the 'et al' part we
usually use), the dates people are reporting on their shorebirds sound quite
regionally appropriate for each species. Apparently they had good breeding
weather in the Arctic for long enough to get territory, mate, nest, raise
kids and leave in time to make a long weekend of it.

However, they are totally early for the Fall Migration. '-)

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)