Subject: Migrant Canada Geese etc., Vancouver BC Oct 03 1998
Date: Oct 3 23:00:45 1998
From: Michael Price - mprice at mindlink.bc.ca
Hi Tweets,
Many pure flocks of large-race Canada Geese Branta canadensis are moving
over Vancouver this afternoon and evening. As with most migrating waterfowl
here that do not continue directly southward, they moved southeast over the
Strait of Georgia then turned east at Point Grey to overfly the Burrard
Inlet south shore and Vancouver city proper; typically, they then maintained
a mainly eastward course tending only very slightly southeastward until out
of sight over East Vancouver &/or Burnaby. I don't know where their route
then takes them from here, whether to feeding/staging sites in the Fraser
Valley, east to the Skagit and then south, or whether they maintain their
flight until much further south. The main migrant waterfowl route into the
immediate area is clear, though: down Georgia Strait, often down the middle,
then turn east.
They are migrating through after the passage of a cold front, though instead
of backing to the W and NW, the wind--unusually--remains for the birds a
directly contrary E-SE moderate breeze. The first flocks at low altitude
flew just below a low rainy scud, the later flocks flying very high in long
skeins of 100-200 birds each, occasionally in much larger (~500) flocks,
coming in even as night fell. Flocks are still arriving, and several
thousands of birds are involved in this southward flight.
Had I simply heard them without visual confirmation I would have been
tempted to ear-ID them as Snow Geese Chen caerulescens, but visually ID'ed
them as Canada Geese of one of the larger forms, possibly B.c. occidentalis
or taverneri. I realised that either these birds were of a form which has
higher-pitched calls than the local sedentaries (which, unconsciously, I
have come to use as a standard) or distance made the calls sound
higher-pitched than they actually might have been at point of origin.
Typically, I began to hear the approaching flocks (at a beach, traffic noise
far off and not a factor) while they were still at the very least a 1.0--1.5
km (0.6--1.0 mi) away and about 750--1,000 meters (~2,000--3,000 ft) high.
I've noticed that Canada Geese tend to migrate through Vancouver BC en
masse: there seems to be none and then, one day a few days either side of
Oct 01, massive flocks move over all day and well into the night. Snow Geese
seem to have a different migratory pattern, where the first few flocks
(parenthetically, a few hundred Snow Geese are at the Reifel Refuge right
now, BTW, with more of the usual couple-few tens of thousands piling in and
on the way) filter in after pioneer pairs arrive (may I ask a second time
why they might do this?) in mid-September with large flocks spread over many
days.
In the residential neighborhood streets of Kits, the cold front brought in
fresh influxes of Winter Wrens Troglodytes troglodytes (particularly),
Varied Thrushes Ixoreus naevius, Northern Flickers Colaptes auratus and Song
Sparrows Melospiza melodia. At Kits Beach, was a forlorn-looking adult male
Greater Scaup Aythya marila hanging around on the seaward edge of a flock
(2/3's adults, 1/3 juvs) of American Wigeon feeding on Ulva at the water's
edge, maybe one of a small arriving flock of scaup which flew over the Inlet
earlier in the day.
And, near West 5th and Dunbar, one of those tantalising, you'll-never-know
things in a weather context where much of this cold air came from Alaska
over the ocean and the Queen Charlotte Islands before making landfall here:
a thrush obviously of the Turdus genus singing a vaguely robin-like song but
about half an octave deeper and harsher. Not being able to locate the bird
visually in the maze of private yards--no back alley access--and noting that
it's unusual to hear any thrush, turdine or otherwise, singing at this time
of year, it remains unidentified.
Finally, if anyone in a bar offers to sell you a somewhat thrashed
20-year-old pair of 10 X 40 Leitz Trinnies with a yellow paint-stain on the
righthand side of the bridge between the barrels, let me know, will you?
They don't belong to that person.
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)