Hi Tweets,

A number of items.

First, calls from Ken Klimko and Mark Wynja to say that Rick Toochin
discovered an Alternate-plumaged male KING EIDER Somateria spectabilis
consorting with the Alternate-plumaged male COMMON EIDER S. mollissima, race
v-nigra, in the big mixed-scoter flocks off the Iona South Jetty in NW
Richmond BC (just S of Vancouver). Holy smokes, who would ever have thought
we'd see the two together this far south?

Secondly, a call from Robert Klein to say he saw a GREAT EGRET in Richmond
near the Westminster Highway and Garden City (Rd.? St.? Way?) a few days ago.

Third, Paul Duval commented, re Crested Myna locations, that the entrance
hole of the nest in the Bank of Montreal building at West Boulevard and West
41st Ave. was plugged up by the bank, so the birds aren't there any more. As
the credit-union ads say, Banks are going to change when hippos fly.

Fourth, the other day, Mark W req'd that I post the following query: he's
noticed in many photographs and some individuals that the pupils of Black
Oystercatcher Haemantopus bachmani seem to be asymmetrically aslant, being
lengthened somewhat in the lower half and slanted toward the bill, a sort of
rounded, off-level cat's eye. We batted it around a bit and wondered if this
might have something to do with sighting precision along the bill for exact
placement of the bill-tip into the adductor muscle when attacking the
ferocious oyster or mussel. Any anatomy/physiology junkies out there can
field this one?

Oh, yeah, down at the 'Scaup Bay' section of Lost Lagoon in Stanley Park the
other day, there was a male hybrid between Ring-necked Duck Aythya collaris
and scaup sp.; from the green sheen on the head, I'd guess the other parent
was a Greater Scaup A. marila. The Alternate-plumaged male Tufted Duck A.
fuligula was in the channel between the Lagoon and the Stone Bridge at the
Lagoon's W end, but no sign of the female at the opposite end. Evelyn
Whiteside says there's actually *two* females flying in to the E end, one
with a white blaze over the bill, the other with a mottled blaze.

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)