Subject: Iona South Jetty, May 18 1998
Date: May 19 00:22:49 1998
From: Michael Price - mprice at mindlink.bc.ca


Hi Tweets,

Down to the Iona South Jetty for a seawatch late this afternoon and evening.
Tide low slack, wind was all over the place for a while, dropped for an hour
then came back as a strong SW breeze which calmed down near sunset, so there
was a moderate SW chop.

Highlights at the tip:
--at least three light-morph Parasitic Jaegers Stercorarius parasiticus
howling around pretty close in, several unidentifiable jaegers at long distance;
--one Arctic Tern Sterna paradisea in a flock of Common Terns S. hirundo as
they passed the tip--lovely to have the direct comparison, they look so,
well, anorexic and pale compared to a Common; one strategy the terns use to
escape the jaegers' hassling is to mass into a tight flock and tower several
hundred feet up in unison flight, like staging shorebirds leaving for their
next stop after a stay (avg 5 days) at the settling ponds, one of those
'what the-?' sights of nature; doesn't work: I watched the pair of jaegers
follow them up and rag them a couple of hundred meters up;
--several Sanderling Calidris alba in near-Definitive Alternate plumage, but
even the most advanced still showing frosty tips--the chestnut isn't showing
yet except on one bird where its scapulars were reddish, otherwise, the
color is a dark warm brown on head, breast, wings and back; the most
advanced in Alternate molt were easily the most agressive, with a head-down,
hackles (scapulars and mantle)-raised, wing-drooped posture, running the
rest around; most frequent call was not the usual 'tik' but an incessant
'kli-kli-kli-kli' and the attitude of the Alt birds was nonstop;
--On Sea Island on the way in, where Ferguson Road intersects Shannon Road,
a Bald Eagle Haliaeetus leucocephalus was slogging around on a thermal
closely shadowed above by an adult, pale-blue-backed Peregrine Falcon (is
our little 'tundrius' buddy back?); after ten minutes the Peregrine was
almost too high to see while the eagle was still fairly low.
--still very large concentrations of scoters just S of the S Jetty, included
a late subadult male Long-tailed Duck Clangula hyemalis.
--very odd was a small, tight group of 6 waterfowl about 1 km beyond the
jetty tip, so about 5 km (3 mi) out in the Strait, showing odd jizz for
seabirds; cranked the old Kowa to its highest power and made out a pair of
American Wigeon Anas americana, a pair of Gadwall A. strepera and a pair of
Mallard A. platyrhynchos swimming around together waaaayyy out in scoterland.

Iona South Jetty (*--from tip)

Red-throated Loon* 2 Alt
Pacific Loon* 1
Common Loon* 6 all Alt
Western Grebe* 12
Double-crested Cormorant* 34 ~15 active nests on beacon
Brandt's Cormorant* 2
Great Blue Heron 12
Canada Goose 2 (pair with brood on outer pond)
Gadwall* 8
American Wigeon* 2 pr
Mallard* 4 2 pr
Northern Shoveler 4 2 pr
Canvasback 13 6f 4m 3 subad m
Greater Scaup 52 including 17m 7f
Lesser Scaup 2 pr
Surf Scoter* ~2500
White-winged Scoter* ~500
Black Scoter* 1 f
Long-tailed Duck* 1 subad m
Bald Eagle 8 5a 3im
Killdeer 1
Whimbrel 1 overflight
Bristle-thighed Curlew 0 jeez, did I try, though-
Sanderling 29 7 advanced Def Alt molt
Western Sandpiper 48 all Alt and Def Alt
Parasitic Jaeger* 3 light-morph
jaeger sp.* 4
California Gull* ~400
Glaucous-winged Gull* ~20
Caspian Tern* 1
Common Tern* 131
Arctic Tern* 1
small Sterna sp.* ~150
Rhinoceros Auklet* 1

elsewhere:

Redhead 1 m, on Outer Pond
Canada Goose ~10 pair with brood on outer pond)
Peregrine Falcon 1 ad, Sea Is.

Cheers

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)