Hi tweets,

while Michael was in the Outer Harbour, I was on another boat doing the
same BIEAP survey in Inner Harbour west, i.e. roughly from the Seabus
terminal in N. Vancouver west to Lions Gate bridge, and the Vancouver
waterfront from Stanley Park to Burnaby.

Highlights: a logboom slightly W of N. Vancouver Seabus terminal with, at
first, 50 Mew and some Glaucous-winged Gulls came slowly alive with
another 35 Harbour Seals, 15 Sealions, and 8 Black Turnstones. 3 Spotted
Sandpiper were also along the N shore. A Merlin was in the sulphur
pile area, and a Peregrine was on the UGG (grain?) building, stirring up
Rock Doves.

I had a hard time to figure out my non-Double-crested Cormorants; all of
them looked to me rather thick-necked, and finally went down as Brandt's.
I would have liked to turn them into Pelagic's but they just didn't look
right. Confusing.

Michael also wrote
> Distressingly, *no* MARBLED MURRELETS Brachyramphus marmoratus in waters
> where two decades ago they were common, and it's clear they've been
> extirpated from the outer section of Burrard Inlet. The cause? logging of
> the old-growth by the Greater Vancouver Regional District in the watersheds
> of the GVRD's Water Districts.

While I don't see why anybody would allow logging in the GVRD watersheds,
I am doubtful that the limited logging which took place in those
watersheds in recent years (if any - I got the impression that the GVRD
pushes to start logging AGAIN) would cause such a steep decline. From
Crown Mtn, for example, I've seen this fall some roads and what I thought
was second-growth forest in the Capilano watershed, but no clearcut
blocks. On the other hand, further up the (Sunshine) coast, in the Caren
range and towards Desolation sound, former Old-growth virtually
evaporated: clearcut. Wouldn't the missing birds rather come from areas
which have changed much more dramatically than the local watersheds?


I don't have the data sheet, so numbers and species are from memory.
(additional species seen in Port Moody from land as marked as PM)

Common Loon few
Horned Grebe 1
Red-necked Grebe 2
Western Grebe 1 (some more to the E of our area)
Double-crested Cormorant many
Brandt's Cormorant many (?? see above; no Pelagic?)
Great Blue Heron 2
Canada Goose many
Green-winged Teal few
Mallard few
American Wigeon many
Harlequin Duck 4
Surf Scoter 3
Barrow's Goldeneye few
Hooded Merganser 2 (PM)
Ruddy Duck 1
Bald Eagle 2 ads
Merlin 1
Peregrine 1
American Coot few
Killdeer 2 (PM)
Black Turnstone 8
Spotted Sandpiper 3
Sandpiper sp. 2
Dunlin 11 (PM)
Mew Gull many (concentrated in flocks)
Ring-billed Gull few
California Gull few
Glaucous-winged Gull many (single or loose associations)
Belted Kingfisher 2
NW Crow many
Common Raven 1 (PM)
Rock Dove many
European Starling many
Black-capped Chickadee 1 (PM)
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 1 (PM)

Sealion (sp?) 15
Harbor Seal 40


Reto Riesen
Dept. Chem., UBC
Vancouver, B.C.
riesenr at chem.ubc.ca