Hi Tweets,

A nip around the Stanley Park Seawall and a brief limp around Lost Lagoon in
late aft.

Clearing, blowing hard westerly (40-50 km/hr); tide low and slack,
sea-state: heavy chop and swell.

Highlights: a Basic-plumaged YELLOW-BILLED LOON Gavia adamsii off the W side
of Stanley Park 200 meters W of Siwash Rock in the vicinity of the mooring
buoy (*caution*: a first-winter Common Loon G. immer in pre-Alternate molt
off Lumberman's Arch on the N side is showing the following 'adamsii' marks:
pale sandy neck, narrow dark-brown stripe down rear-neck, pale face with
darker crown and auricular crescent, but bill is all pale blue-grey with
black tip and cutting edge and consistent in shape with 'immer'). Hard to
age, but I think this YBLO is the Basic 1 bird, not the pre-Alt bird seen
last week.

Numbers of some species very low to zero, as I think the strong westerlies
might have caused them to seek more sheltered waters somewhere--ie,
Red-breasted Merganser Mergus serrator were *very* low (two); likewise
Red-throated Loon G. stellata (two). Pelagic Cormorant Phalacrocorax
pelagicus numbers extremely low (only eight instead of the customary forty
to sixty) as Vancouver Park Board is again scaling their nesting cliff
during territorial and initial nesting season, displacing the birds by blasting.

The Brunswick Shoal beacon E of Brockton Point is a notorious cormorant
hang-out; today there were only thirteen Brandt's Cormorants P. penicillatus
there, five with full Alternate plumes, and a couple of subadults.

The male TUFTED DUCK Aythya fuligula was in a *humungous* crowd of Lesser
Scaup A. affinis at the W end of Lost Lagoon, and the first-winter HARRIS'S
SPARROW Zonotrichia querula is beginning its pre-Alternate molt, showing
black flecking on the crown; it was in the feeder area at the E end of the
Stone Bridge at the W end of the Lagoon. Also at this location were three
Fox Sparrows Passerella iliaca of the 'Sooty' type and the pied,
partial-albino 'Sooty' Fox Sparrow was back there after some absence, along
with a Basic 1 Golden-crowned Sparrow Z. atricapilla.

On the Lagoon itself were approximately 7,000-8,000 Lesser Scaup.

Great Blue Herons have apparently abandoned the Stanley Park Zoo rookery and
are building at least three nests in the big Douglas-firs along the NW side
of Lost Lagoon about where the western end of the Lagoon narrows down to the
channel leading to the Stone Bridge.

Though I kept my eyes and ears open, no migrants today, except for some
seabirds well along in their pre-Alternate molts (speaking of which, there
was a Common Loon located by Marvin Cooper at the end of the Iona South
Jetty on Saturday which was in *complete and pristine* Alternate plumage:
the rest were all wintering birds. No swallows, no warblers, no singing
kinglets.

Seawall Species

Red-throated Loon 2
Common Loon 8
Yellow-billed Loon 1
Horned Grebe 3
Red-necked Grebe 1 pre-Alt molt
Western Grebe 3
Double-crested Cormorant 6
Brandt's Cormorant 13 5 Alt, 2 im
Pelagic Cormorant 8
Canada Goose 2
American Wigeon 27
Mallard 19
Greater Scaup 9
Lesser Scaup 1
Harlequin Duck 2 2m
Surf Scoter 144
Bufflehead 9
Common Goldeneye 50
Barrow's Goldeneye 540
Red-breasted Merganser 2 2m
Bald Eagle 8 3a 2 im
Mew Gull 27
Ring-billed Gull 1
Glaucous-winged Gull 217
Pigeon Guillemot 4 all Alt
Rock Dove 1
Northwestern Crow 104
Black-capped Chickadee 2
Chestnut-backed Chickadee 2
Bushtit 2
Bewick's Wren 1 m
Winter Wren 5 4m
Golden-crowned Kinglet 1
American Robin 7
European Starling 38
Spotted Towhee 2 2m
Song Sparrow 2 2m
Dark-eyed Junco 2 2m
House Finch 1
Pine Siskin 1

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)