Hi Tweets,

Up to Cecil Green for the mid-day period; fairly good passerine migrant
numbers until the sun broke out. There were two main areas of activity: most
of the warblers, thrushes, and some sparrows were in the broadleaf maple
forest to the W of the Museum of Anthropolgoy, especially in the area around
the paved drive-in loop bordered by yellow concrete abutments at the UBC
Security office next to the museum, and, secondly, the lawns behind the
Cecil Green Manor, where there were mostly Zonotrichia (the stripe-headed
genus) sparrows, in particular, Golden-crowned Sparrows Z. atricapilla and
migrant gambelii-race White-crowned Sparrows.

Ran into Evelyn Whiteside there (turned out to be a lucky encounter as she
had a camera for a record shot when we needed one).

Highlights: the damnedest thing--Evelyn and I are walking along the fence
behind the Anthrop Museum talking about the absolute flood of
Zono's---they're everywhere---when I spotted one perched atop one of the
10-15 meter tall totem poles in the display area behind the museum. Funny
place for a Golden-crown, I think, better check it...hm, White-crown
maybe--nah, can't be, it's got a pale face...that's funny, the whole face is
pale grey, what the---hey, is that breast reddish-brown? Holy Hannah, it's a
*Rosy Finch*! Hey, Evelyn, bring out yer camera...!!!

Yep, a GRAY-CROWNED ROSH-FINCH Leucosticte tephrocotis atop the totem pole
sunning itself and occasionally whispering away to itself with a series of
needle-thin, nearly supersonic trills and notes. Bizarre! The last species
I'd look for there and definitely the last place I'd think to look.
Eventually, a second bird joined it atop the pole, and then flew down to the
pebbles along the edge of the museum, where they foraged on dandelion seeds.
Cool technique for bringing the head down to their level: they jump up and
land *sideways* about three-quarters of the way up the stem and use their
weight to bring it to the ground, then, still standing on the stem, they
reach over and begin feeding on the seeds. Evelyn got some shots of that,
too, but said they were just a little too far. We could have got closer if
the park had stayed empty, but suddenly, dontcha know it, everybody north of
the Mexican-US border decided right then that they just *had* to squeeze
into this one small secluded corner that *no-one* had gone near all
afternoon: dogs, cyclists, busloads of students and tourists suddenly
appeared from nowhere (I've come to suspect they're on permanent call at
Central Casting for just such situations), and a few minutes later that's
exactly where we could see the finches: they took off when the zoo hit town
and we couldn't see them nowhere.

Both---one male, one female or first-year male---were, provisionally, of the
'littoralis' type, with a completely pale grey face, narrow black forecrown
and equally narrow black throat bib, and reddish-brown feathering on the
underparts extending all the way up to and including the upper breast.

We located the white-striped morph WHITE-THROATED SPARROW Z. albicollis in a
big mixed-species flock just beyond that loop referred to earlier. A singing
male AMERICAN REDSTART (rare in Vancouver BC), a silent male NASHVILLE
WARBLER and, later, a female Nashville, were at the same location.

Western Grebe 5
Canada Goose 2
Mallard 3 2m 1f
Surf Scoter 1 subad m
White-winged Scoter ~300 in flight SW
Bald Eagle 3 1a 2 imm
California Gull 1 Alt 1
Glaucous-winged Gull 15 var ages
Sterna sp. ~100 offshore
Rock Dove 6
Band-tailed Pigeon 2
Rufous Hummingbird 1 m
Humm sp. 1
Downy Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker 1
Hammond's Flycatcher 1
Pacific-slope Flycatcher 2 1 singing male
Warbling Vireo 5 singing m's
Northwestern Crow 15
Violet-green Swallow 4
Northern Rough-winged Swallow 2
Barn Swallow 12
Black-capped Chickadee 5
Chestnut-backed Chickadee 2
Bushtit 1
Red-breasted Nuthatch 1
Brown Creeper 2 pair
Bewick's Wren 1 singin m
Winter Wren 3 2 singing m's
Golden-crowned Kinglet 2
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 5 2 singing m's
Swainson's Thrush 3
Hermit Thrush ~15
American Robin 8 4 pairs
Varied Thrush 2 singin m's
European Starling ~25
Orange-crowned Warbler 22
Nashville Warbler 2 1m 1f
Yellow Warbler 2 singing m's
Yellow-rumped Warbler ~250 approx 75% Aud
Black-throated Gray Warbler 1
Townsend's Warbler 5
AMERICAN REDSTART 1 singing m
MacGillivray's Warbler 2
Wilson's Warbler ~30
Western Tanager 1 singing m
Spotted Towhee 9
Savannah Sparrow 1
Fox Sparrow 1 singing m
Song Sparrow 1
Lincoln's Sparrow 3
WHITE-THROATED SPARROW 1 white-striped morph
White-crowned Sparrow ~40 95% gambelii, 5% pugentensis
Golden-crowned Sparrow ~150
Dark-eyed Junco 30 100% oreganus-type
Brown-headed Cowbird 2 1m 1f
GRAY-CROWNED ROSY-FINCH 2 1m, 1?
House Finch ~50
Pine Siskin 2
American Goldfinch 6
House Sparrow 4

Cheers,

Michael Price
Vancouver BC Canada
mprice at mindlink.net