Subject: Tsawwassen Ferry (Bonaparte's Gulls)
Date: Jun 6 09:42:36 1999
From: Pterodroma at aol.com - Pterodroma at aol.com


Michael Price writes:

<< ...Sweet Fanny Adams on the pelagics, and very low numbers of everything
else---only young- (Alt 1) and middle- (Alt 2) adolescent California Gulls L.
californicus showing anything approaching usual numbers once away from
shore---with the lowest number of all--*zero*--of Bonaparte's Gulls Larus
philadelphia; normally at this time of year, first- and second-summer birds,
which don't usually join the inland/northward migration, are all over the
Tsawwassen ferry berths, feeding on stuff churned to the surface by the
ferries' screws. Where are they all? .... >>

Good question! The coastal California migration this spring which normally
features Bonaparte's by the tens of thousands over the course of the season
simply didn't happen at all. Hundreds of hours of monitoring effort, 12
hours a day, 6 days a week from mid-March to the end of May from Point
Piedras Blancas (PB), and the species was recorded on less than 10 days with
season totals probably not exceeding much more than a few hundred to maybe
2,000! There were *exponentially more* BLACK-LEGGED KITTIWAKES (many
thousands!) than Bonaparte's, a truly strange turn of events in a region
where the mere sighting of one or two from the beach sets the birding
community abuzz. I suspect that the paucity of Bonaparte's Gulls may be a
significant event for whatever reason and some followup might be worthy of
investigation. Does anyone else have any comment based on your birding
experiences this Spring? And what about all those kittiwakes along the
central California coast all spring? Anyone around here noted higher numbers
then usual along the OR/WA coast and at such spots as the Columbia River
jetty and on spring pelagic trips?

"Sweet Fanny Adams on pelagics" ??? I take it that is another way of saying
the trip was a bust? :-)) Never heard that one before. The Heermann's Gull
sighting is interesting to know since the northward dispersal past PB was
slow and late.

****I'm still looking for a housemate (private, quiet, and birdy, you get the
upstairs main floor, 2br, I am in the basement). My Pileated Woodpeckers
have been busy ripping away at the Douglas Firs in the yard this morning.****

Richard Rowlett (Pterodroma at aol.com)
Bellevue (Eastgate), WA