Hi Tweets,

Of interest, the only other visit by a Sage Thrasher Oreoscoptes montanus
('mimic of the mountains' according to Cannings et al, in their Birds of the
Okanagan Valley, even though it's hardly ever found in the mountains but in
the semi-arid basin lands) was also in May, on May 18-20 1982, also at Iona.
That particular bird was identified by Brian Kautesk and was Vancouver's
first-ever. Being much more familiar with Brown Thrasher Toxostoma rufum, I
was surprised by the Sage Thrasher's small size and compact road-racer jizz,
totally unlike the Brown Thrasher which somehow gives this impression it's
living in a state of permanently-arrested explosion: each part of the bird
seems to have chosen a different direction in which to go off from all the
other parts as it (only-seemingly) awkwardly straggles its way through
shrubbery.

The timing is coincident (Weeks 1-2 May) with their first arrivals on
breeding habitat in the Okanagan Valley, so it's most likely perhaps that
this bird is an off-course northbound migrant---maybe the massive snowpack
and this May's frigid weather in the Interior has something to do with
this---rather than a failed breeder.

Len Jellicoe writes:

>Sorry I didn't give more specific directions on where to locate this
>bird on Iona but I'm always a little leery of being too exact in case it
>causes a stampede of interest and I would feel guilty of disturbing the
>bird. However if you contact the bird alert It will take some of the
>guilt off me.

Uh-huh. So leery about disturbance of the bird were you that you posted it
on the Internet in capital letters in the subject heading and crowed about
it in the body of your post, making it abundantly clear it was a *very* rare
bird. Yessir, Len, that's the way to ensure no-one else but you knows about
it and the bird remains undisturbed.

Come off it. If you'd had the slightest trace of your professed concern, you
would have kept silent. You can't have that one both ways.

> To M. Price; thank you for pointing out that my report was a little
>boastful. Sometimes I get a little exuberant when I find a rare
>species.

You're welcome. Exuberance does have that habit of crowding out all other
considerations, leaving the mind empty of all but joy, doesn't it?

Michael Price
Vancouver BC Canada
mprice at mindlink.net