Hi Tweets,

Belatedly. Apparently there was an unbelievable fallout of tasty birds on
the 27th during the recent dreadful weather, and a friend recommended an
early-morning sprint up to Cecil Green Park on the UBC campus early next
morning (the 28th), where Rick Toochin had found a YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT
Icteria virens the day before.

On the way there, I saw something totally bizarre. I noticed a large flock
of gulls was foraging on the expansive lawns of West Spanish Banks. The
flock seemed nervous, flushing en masse every now and then, and something
about them seemed odd, that they seemed smaller than the usual RING-BILLED,
CALIFORNIA and GLAUCOUS-WINGED GULLS (Larus delawarensis, californicus and
glaucescens, respectively) scuffling about in the grass for cutworms. When I
got closer, I could see that it was a flock of almost 60 *BONAPARTE'S
GULLS*--which I have never *ever* seen foraging on land like this before,
let alone en masse. But that was just unprecedented; here's the bizarre
thing: shuffling around in the grass with them was a small
Alternate-plumaged *tern*--an *ARCTIC* TERN Sterna paradisea, no less! Views
down to 10 meters--never been so close! While they're likely regular in
small numbers in Vancouver BC in the migrations, local wisdom and the local
checklist has Arctics as a very rare, "casual" (ie--fluke) species here,
though the sighting patterns show they're clearly regular in small numbers
in either direction.

Early in the AM, the tide has the water right up to the beach-path in some
places, and there were several flocks of COMMON TERNS S. hirundo totalling
~300 along the rocks of those small breakwaters from E Spanish Banks on, of
which four more were Arctics. One could tell their presence in a mixed flock
every time just from the difference in calls: Arctic 'keeeeee-yar', emphasis
on the first part; Common 'kee-yaaarrrr' with stress on second. Together,
the flight style differences were clear, the Common a flatter, less graceful
wingbeat compared with the deeper, measured beat of the Arctic. Yow!

An OSPREY Pandion haliaetus sitting on the dead snag over Marine Drive just
behind the East Spanish Banks concession stand was a first also, even though
they occasionally overfly the shoreline, and there was an EASTERN KINGBIRD
Tyrannus tyrannus in the Western Rough near the tennis courts at Jericho Park.

Well, the fallout weather evaporated in about ten minutes and by the time I
got to Cecil Green it was cloudless and warm and most of the warblers had
left. There was still a big number of flycatchers, including a DUSKY
FLYCATCHER Empidonax oberholseri in dawn song, 'dew-hiccing' away, a couple
of OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHERS Contopus Contopus cooperi, *many* WESTERN
WOODPEWEES C. sordidulus, an ALDER/WILLOW -type Flycatcher, a small, stocky,
dark-winged but silent Empid that could have been a LEAST FLYCATCHER E.
minimus, several HAMMOND'S FLYCATCHER E. hammondii, and several
PACIFIC-SLOPE FLYCATCHERS E. difficilis, some territorial. On the water
below were an Alternate-plumaged RED-THROATED LOON, two light-morph
PARASITIC JAEGERS Stercrarius parasiticus resting together on the water, and
five CASPIAN TERNS Sterna caspia.

Red-throated Loon 1 Def Alt
Western Grebe 5
Pelagic Cormorant 2
Great Blue Heron 1
Canada Goose 2
Mallard 2
Surf Scoter ~30
Osprey 1
Bald Eagle 1 ad
Parasitic Jaeger 2 light-morph
Bonaparte's Gull ~60 3 Def Alt, ~40 Alt 2, ~20 Alt 1
Ring-billed Gull 10
California Gull ~150 most offshore
Glaucous-winged Gull ~100 most offshore
Caspian Tern 5
Common Tern ~300 Def Alt, Spanish Banks
ARCTIC TERN 5 Def Alt, Spanish Banks
Rock Dove 6
Band-tailed Pigeon 2
Black Swift ~15 Cecil Green
Vaux's Swift 1
Rufous Hummingbird 4 2m 2f
Belted Kingfisher 1
Northern Flicker 1
Pileated Woodpecker 1 m
Olive-sided Flycatcher 2
Western Wood-Pewee ~20
Alder/Willow Flycatcher 1
Hammond's Flycatcher 3
Dusky Flycatcher 1
Pacific-slope Flycatcher 3
Eastern Kingbird 1 Jericho, Western Rough
Warbling Vireo ~50
Northwestern Crow ~30
Violet-green Swallow 6
Northern Rough-winged Swallow 4
Barn Swallow 12
Black-capped Chickadee 6
Chestnut-backed Chickadee 2
Bewick's Wren 1 m, song
Winter Wren 1 m, song
Swainson's Thrush 10 m, song
American Robin ~12
European Starling 6
Cedar Waxwing 2
Orange-crowned Warbler ~10
Yellow Warbler ~60 all locations
Yellow-rumped Warbler 3
Townsend's Warbler 1
MacGillivray's Warbler 3
Wilson's Warbler ~150 all locations
Western Tanager 5 3m 2f
Spotted Towhee 7
Song Sparrow 2 2m, song
White-crowned Sparrow 6
Golden-crowned Sparrow 4
Black-headed Grosbeak 3 3m
Brown-headed Cowbird 5 3m 2f
House Finch 10 incl 3 jv
American Goldfinch 2 m
House Sparrow 3 2f 1m

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)