Hi Tweets,

A quick walk Sunday in the plantings at the Rhododendron Garden just W of
Lost Lagoon, near the tennis courts and the treed areas beside the Bus Loop
(which also has some tennis courts near it) with a brief detour to Second
Beach during a rain-engendered songbird fallout, also a sort-of circuit of
the Lagoon.

Highlight was a DUSKY FLYCATCHER Empidonax oberholseri--rare but regular in
Vancouver BC-- in the Rhododendron Garden (would that make a security guard
hired to make sure no one rips off the garden a RhodoCop?) in a small
fallout of Hammond's Flycatchers E. hammondii and a torrent of Wilson's
Warblers Wilsonia pusilla. The two other commonest migrant passerines were
Yellow Warbler Dendroica petechia and Western Tanager Piranga ludovciana.

On the Lagoon was a surprisingly large waterfowl species mix given time of
year, notably, late scaup of both species with one male Lesser Scaup Aythya
affiini apparently consorting with a female Greater Scaup Aythya marila, a
late male Common Goldeneye Bucephala clangula, a late male Ring-necked Duck
Aythya fuligula as well as two male Cinnamon Teal Anas cyanoptera (a regular
observer had told me there had been *fifteen* during the week previous, an
amazingly high number for the Lagoon) and two Blue-winged Teal Anas discors.
A Spotted Sandpiper Actitis macularia on a mudbank in the channel leading to
the Stone Bridge was unusual for this location, only the second or third
I've ever seen at the Lagoon.

There are many broods of Canada Geese Branta canadensis around the Lagoon,
including one large creche of ~70 young just W of the Bus Loop, about ten
broods of Mallard A. platyrhynchos, and one parent-less brood of three
hatchling Wood Ducks Aix sponsa just below the Bus Loop, as diametrically
distant from where one would normally encounter them as possible--literally
at the other end of the Lagoon from their usual haunts.

The same observer told me of the successful nesting of a pair of Great Blue
Herons Ardea herodias in the large trees W of the Lagoon where they have
three young in the nest.

A pair of N. Rough-winged Swallows Stelgidopteryx longipennis were
prospecting a drainage pipe just above the surface of the Lagoon in the rock
wall just E of the Stanley Park Nature House.

Conditions were heavy overcast, light rain, wind gusty SE at 25-30 kph.

Double-crested Cormorant 1
Great Blue Heron 3
Canada Goose ~125 100y ~25a
Mute Swan 6 6a, 3 on nests
Wood Duck 1 m
Gadwall 2 pr
American Wigeon 2 2m
Mallard ~150 ~120a 30y
Blue-winged Teal 2 pr
Cinnamon Teal 2 m
Northern Shoveler 3 2m 1f
Northern Pintail 1 m
Green-winged Teal 1 m
Ring-necked Duck 1 m
Greater Scaup 5 3m 2f
Lesser Scaup 2 2 pr
Common Goldeneye 1 m
Bald Eagle 1 a
Spotted Sandpiper 1
Ring-billed Gull 2 Alt 2
Glaucous-winged Gull 8 4 pr
'Olympic' Gull* 2 pr
Caspian Tern 2
Common Tern 6
Rock Dove 5
Vaux's Swift 1
Downy Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker 1
Western Wood-Pewee 1
Hammond's Flycatcher 3
DUSKY FLYCATCHER 1
Warbling Vireo 4
Northwestern Crow ~50
Common Raven 1
Violet-green Swallow ~15
Northern Rough-winged Swallow 2
Barn Swallow ~50
Black-capped Chickadee 2
Chestnut-backed Chickadee 2
Bushtit 5 2a 3y
Brown Creeper 1
Bewick's Wren 3 3m singing in small area
Winter Wren 2
Golden-crowned Kinglet 2
American Robin ~12 11a 1jv
European Starling ~100 ~80a ~20jv
Orange-crowned Warbler 4
Yellow Warbler 25
Yellow-rumped Warbler 2 voice-only
Black-throated Gray Warbler 5 5m
Townsend's Warbler 3 3m
MacGillivray's Warbler 1
Wilson's Warbler ~150 ~75% m
Western Tanager 2 2m
Spotted Towhee 10 8m 2f
Song Sparrow 2
White-crowned Sparrow 4 'pugetenis' males
Golden-crowned Sparrow 1
Red-winged Blackbird 5 3m 2f
Brown-headed Cowbird 6 4m 2f
House Finch 8 5m 3f/jv
House Sparrow 6 4m 2f

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)