I just completed a five day cruise aboard the "Island Roamer" visiting a
number of the Gulf and San Juan Islands. Birding was a little on the dull
side, but here are a few highlights.

October 14 - off the north shore of Stuart and Johns Island
Heermann's Gull 3500
Common Murre 4000

October 14 - Roche Harbour
Hutton's Vireo 1 (its whinny call was so drawn out, I thought it
was a Spotted Towhee at first)
"Slate-colored" Junco 1

October 15 - English Camp (Garrison Bay)
"Yellow-shafted" Flicker 1

Haro Strait, usually a birding hotspot was pretty much a biological desert.
We did see a few Dall porpoises and an elephant seal.


On other topics, I am curious about a few migration patterns. When did
birders first see large flocks (200+ birds) of American Robins this fall,
and what is the ratio of Myrtle/Audubon's Warblers in the Yellow-rump
flocks? In the Victoria area, it appears that close to town (i.e. Victoria,
Oak Bay, Saanich Peninsula), the majority are "Audubon's, whereas at our
Rocky Point Migration Monitoring site (approx 15km SW of Victoria), about
90% are either "Myrtles" or intergrades bearing primarily "Myrtle"
characteristics. What are you seeing?

Michael G. Shepard
VGI Vision Foundation
mgs at vgivision.com
http://www.visionfoundation.org