Subject: Lost Lagoon Trip
Date: Apr 17 23:30:29 1999
From: Michael Price - mprice at mindlink.bc.ca


Hi Tweets,

Nancy Kingston writes:

>Yesterday finally took time to try for a lifer in Vancouver. I saw the
>Tufted Duck, my lifer, at the stone bridge end of the Lagoon. Later had the
>opportunity to see it within three feet along with a male Ringed-necked Duct
>and a Male Greater Scaup. What an opportunity for comparison.

That male Tufted Duck Aythya fuligula has been returning to that part of
Lost Lagoon for at least the last five years I know of as either a bird
spending a significant part of later winter or as a northbound migrant.

Compared to the other Tufted Ducks over the last fifteen years wintering or
staging through the Lagoon (a regular staging area, a less-regular wintering
area) --none of which will come anywhere near a human feeding--its tameness,
unique to this species on Lost Lagoon, has more than once incited a
suspicion that it's an escaped aviary bird which has joined the wild
migration. All the other Tufteds have had many equal and long opportunities
to learn the value (?) of human feeding, yet have eschewed unanimously the
feeding scrums around the edge of the lagoon.

There also
>was an Oldsquaw on the Lagoon. This was a first for me as I thought they
>only were on the salt water.

But they nest on fresh water lakes and ponds. This had to be a migrant.
April and May will often see Long-tailed Ducks Clangula hyemalis either as
singles or small groups on the Lagoon and other small bodies of water
contiguous to the coast as they begin their transit to their breeding lakes.
One of my favorite Lost Lagoon memories is of watching a small group of four
rowdy Long-tailed males courting two get-lost-creep females on a lovely
early May evening, a wonderfully noisy display about ten meters away from
shore.

Michael Price
Vancouver BC Canada
mprice at mindlink.net