Hi all

Well, I managed to get back on my old run, between Coquitlam and North
Bend, for the day and it started at 1:30 AM. Not much to see at that
time of the morning except for one Coyote, In downtown Vancouver, that
took a few minutes to figure out that as long as it stayed between the
rails we were going to keep on following it. When dawn actually broke it
was raining and the light was very poor.

This afternoon, on the trip, home birding was much better. I discovered
that there are still small flocks of undispersed Dark-eyed Juncos in the
central portion of the Fraser Canyon. Flock size was about 10 to 20
birds with around 100 birds, in all, being seen.

The main wave of Band-tailed Pigeons seems to have passed through as
well with only pairs and small flocks of up to 6 birds seen.

Near the town of Agassiz, at the eastern end of the Fraser Valley, I
caught a quick glimpse of a flock of 100+ Vaux's Swifts swarming over an
open field. I have never seen this bird at this location before so I am
assuming they were migrants. One of them even flew across our path about
15 ft in front of the engine.

As is usual every year at this time we are constantly flushing Killdeers
from their nests on the ballast that forms the rail bed. Those stones
must be really cold this year.

We also flushed a Spotted Sandpiper from the bank of the Fraser River
were we pass near to it and I also caught a brief flash of colors from a
Black-headed Grosbeak in the bushes beside the tracks.

Good Birding All

Roger Craik
Maple Ridge BC
east of Vancouver