Hi Tweets,

It never rains but pours...

After seeing Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch Leucosticte tephrocotis only three
times in my life, and all three, ironically enough, at sea level (yet to see
one in its usual montane habitat), it's shown up twice in the same week at
widely-separated locations.

This afternoon, I was taking a noon-hour walk with a co-worker when a single
rosy-finch upped and out from the gravel in the grassy vacant lot next to
our office building. We're just N of the intersection of Westminster Highway
and No. 6 Road in north-central Richmond BC.

To speculate, I suspect the current immense snowpacks on the mountains are
covering their usual montane staging areas, and they're returning to lower
levels to await some melt. They have a long wait ahad of them. The local
mountains are still accumulating new snow almost daily, and there's so much
of it that already that the company which operates the Cypress Bowl ski area
in West Vancouver is projecting the unprecedented, nearly-certain
probability that it will be able to offer skiing in Vancouver in *June*.
According to Environment Canada, this miserable late-winter weather pattern
is supposed to last at least another two weeks, maybe longer. The effect on
montane bird species and migrants is sure to be drastic, and there may be
very late nesting or no nesting at all at higher levels in many areas of BC.

Michael Price
Vancouver BC Canada
mprice at mindlink.net