Hi Tweets,

Jack Bowling writes:


>** Michael Price wrote -
>
> <snip>
>> skein after skein
>> of scaup--about two thousand in all--flying first W than turning abruptly S
>> and flying nearly overhead. What they were doing was flying W along the S
>> side of Burrard Inlet, then S to cut across the base of the long peninsula
>> of Point Grey. On the other side? Iona Island and points south. Suggestive,
>> but not definitive until someone can track those birds somehow.
> <snip>
>
>If my increasingly dodgy memory serves, is that not the low point of the
"saddle"
>between the high points of Q.E. Park hill (forget its real name)

Little Mountain.

>and that of Point Grey
>itself?

No, Jack, that's the Arbutus Cut, about 3 km to the E. This cut-off takes
them directly over the Dunbar Hill part of the long E-->W ridge that
comprises South Vancouver, one of its highest sections, but likely the
shortest distance from Burrard Inlet to Iona and on south. When you're
flying as high as these guys, a hundred-foot difference is no difference.

>Still leaves open why they are doing it in the first place.

Lost Lagoon is the roost lake, Iona(?) to the S and the UGG Grain Terminals
to the E are the feeding areas; neither would be more than a ten-minute
flight to a healthy scaup.

>And
>do they always fly counter-clockwise?
> Aarrgh... getting queasy already thinking about it.

Only in the Northern Hemisphere, Jack. Take a Pepto-. '-)

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)