Hi tweets, further to my last post regarding loon numbers as was seen off
Amphitrite Point (west coast of vancouver island), I thought I might share
some more data.

On May 2 I had observed 4266 pacific loons heading north in a three-hour
period and on May 3 I had observed 6755 pacific loons heading north in a
4-5 hour period.

During this past week, a friend of mine had indicated to me that the
migration was continuing all week long. I decided to watch again this
weekend but keep track of time in such a way that perhaps some interesting
data might emerge.

Here's what happened:(numbers given are all pacific loons unless otherwise
stated)

May 8 evening

8:20 -8:45 1000 Pacific Loons fly north
8:45- 9:05 652
9:05 - 9:17 68
9:17- 9:20 6 (could hardly see at this time)


May 9 morning

7:40 - 8:00 394
8:00 - 8:20 480
8:20 - 8:40 435
8:40 - 9:00 558


May 10 morning

6:40 - 7:00 176
7:00 - 7:20 320
7:20 - 7:40 185
7:40 - 8:00 409
8:00 - 8:20 295
8:20 - 8:40 287
8:40 - 9:00 198


TOTAL LOONS SEEN IN 12-13 hours: 16 485

Points to ponder:

1) how many pacific loons pass by this location?
2) it appears that these loons start very early in the morning and go right
until dark
3) how could one attempt to take such data and make a reasonable estimate of
numbers?
suppose you take the average number of birds passing by in these 20-min.
timeslots and multiply by 3 to make an hour and then multiply by 14 hours of
migration per day and multiply by the 9 days that I know loons were really
on the move, one would get 156 696 loons!
4) by sitting in this one location (rather comfortably I might add)a person
could see a remarkable variety and number of birds.


some other birds seen migrating by during this same 12-13 hours:

RT loon 3
YB loon 1
Common Loon 7
Surf Scoter 4027
WW Scoter 21
Black Scoter 18
S.Shearwater 1231
Whimbrel 34
Scaup 396
GW Teal 477
Brant 1371
Jaeger sp. 8
Long-tailed Jaeger 1
N. Shoveler 284
peeps 1750
N. Pintail 144
BB Plover 5
Harlequin Duck 2
Rhino Auklet 77
Marbled Godwit 16
Dowitcher 8
P.Guillemot 13
M.Murrelet 8
Black Turnstone 3
A. Wigeon 6
C. Goose 2
RB Merganser 6
Bonaparte'sGull 31
G. Yellowlegs 1
Red-necked Phalarope 420
Kittiwake 4
long-tailed duck 1





















cheers,

Don Cecile (dcecile at sd70.bc.ca)
Vice-Principal
Mount Klitsa Junior Secondary
5100 Tebo Road
Port Alberni, BC
V9Y 6Z5
tel: (250)723-8195
fax: (250)723-3583