Tweeters,

I spent Friday - Monday on a quicky trip to Vancouver and Harrison Hot
Springs BC. On the trip up on Friday morning I counted 47 Red-tailed
hawks along the I5 corridor. Also spotted 6 swans
winging over I5 just south of Mount Vernon, 2 bald eagles, and a
Peregrine at Lake Samish. Other birds identified at 70 mph included
crows, robins, starlings (including a flock of thousands
near Bellingham), mallards, widgeon, bufflehead, and goldeneyes.

I'd been collecting M. Price's postings and was able to do a good bit of
birding in a short time while in Vancouver. Even before I left my hotel
I could tell I was in for a treat at Lost Lagoon in
Stanley Park. My room, on the 37th floor, overlooked the Lagoon (some
10 blocks away) and I could see raft after raft of ducks on the Lagoon.
On an early morning Saturday outing I easily found two Tufted Ducks
among the thousands of scaup, mallards, and goldeneye. I was also able
to locate the Harris' Sparrow feeding near the stone bridge. Proceeded
the the seawall where I found a yellow billed loon, common loon, pigeon
guillemots, surf and white winged scoters. Laterin the day I made a
side trip to Sun Yat-Sen gardens where bushtits were paired off and
looking for nesting material. Then off to 2nd and Cambie where I was
able to find a single Crested Myna,
but heard another just as I was leaving. No energy to make it to Iona -
but I have spent substantial time along the Alaska coast - so the Eiders
would have only been a curiousity for me.

Sunday morning I took a leisurely drive out Rt. 7 to Harrison Hot
Springs. Along the route I spotted 30 bald eagles, violet-green
swallows (near Mission), 23 Kestrels, 6 merlin, and (disturbingly) 9
pairs of feral mute swans in the Fraser Valley. IMHO the Province needs
to work on "removing" these nasty fowl from the ecosystem. For those of
us in Washington the closest pair was only about 2 miles from Sumas - I
spotted them on my trip home.

Harrison Hot Springs yielded little in the way of birds - Stellars and
Gray Jays, house finches, house sparrows, robins, cedar waxwings and mew
gulls...and of course STARLINGS. I couldn't believe the number of
starlings I saw everywhere - from the densely populated and travelled
Robson corridor all of the way out to Harrison. They have easily
replaced the Rock Dove as the urban blight bird of SW BC.

I got some rest, saw some birds, had some fun. All in all a few good
days.

Rob Conway
Bellevue, WA

robin_conway at hotmail.com


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