Dear Tweeters,

In the attached message, Roger Craik comments on the apparent lack
of migratory movements of American Kestrels through the Vancouver,
B.C. area. Not so, Roger. In the more than 20 years (1970-1992) when I
served as AMERICAN BIRDS subregional editor or co-editor for the
Vancouver area, it was obvious that there were peaks in sightings in
late April and in September. However, these peaks are small compared
with the numbers seen east of and in the Cascades. I can remember one
late April day when I saw 4 Kestrels in Pitt Meadows-- a high daily
total for Vancouver. However, this pales compared with the 50 or so
Kestrels that I saw one September day along Highway 1 in the 25 miles
between Cache Creek and Savona (east of the Cascade/Coast Range). In
general, I would say that the abundance of Kestrels in southwestern BC
and western Washington, both as breeding birds and migrants, is no
more than a tenth that on the east side.
Also, Kestrels are usually not among the most abundant migrants at
ridgetop sites; most of them tend to migrate through valleys and
plains.
There is one well-documented hawk watch site near Vancouver: the
upper parking area at Cypress Provincial Park, at about 3000 feet
altitude in West Vancouver. This spot was "discovered" by Barry Sauppe
in 1978, although few people if any seem to look for migrating hawks
there now. Barry published an article in "Discovery", the magazine of
the Vancouver Natural History Society, summarizing a number of hawk
counts he did at Cypress Bowl. (Reference: Sauppe, B. Hawk migration
observed from Cypress Provincial Park: fall 1979. Discovery 8:75,
1980) Barry's hawk counts were generally low, but occasionally
exceeded 100 birds in a day, with Sharp-shinned Hawk being the
commonest species. (Peak counts: 89 Sharpies on Sept. 11, 1979, and
122 on Oct. 2, 1979.) Barry grew up in Pennsylvania and was a frequent
visitor to Hawk Mountain, and unlike most of us native Westerners, had
a keen interest in hawk watching, and a good idea of where to find a
productive hawk-watching spot. The numbers at Cypress Bowl are low
compared to most eastern hawk watch sites, but still sufficient to be
worth regular attempts to monitor hawk movements, if anyone has the
interest.
I believe that Tony Greenfield, Doug Brown, and others have also
noted significant fall movements of raptors at Mount Elphinstone, just
north of Gibsons, B.C., and directly across Howe Sound from Cypress
Bowl. Tony, can you provide any details? If you are not a Tweeters
subscriber, you could E-mail details to me and I could pass them along
to the group.
Just for the record, Barry reported a Broad-winged Hawk at Cypress
Bowl on October 5, 1978-- long before people began reporting them in
fall from southern Vancouver Island. Knowing Barry's skill as a field
birder and experience as a hawk watcher, I have little doubt that his
identification was correct. Unfortunately, his description of the bird
was so laconic that it was (appropriately) not accepted by the
Vancouver Bird Records Committee, and is mentioned in Volume 2 of The
Birds of B.C. (Campbell et al., 1990) only as an unconfirmed report.
If correctly identified, it would have been the first record for
southwestern B.C.

Wayne C. Weber
114-525 Dalgleish Drive
Kamloops, B.C. V2C 6E4
Phone: (250) 377-8865
wayne_weber at bc.sympatico.ca


-----Original Message-----
From: Roger <rcraik at home.com>
To: Tweeters <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Date: Wednesday, September 15, 1999 1:36 PM
Subject: Re: Finding hawk watch sites


>Hi all
>
>Some of you may recall that I have made mention of American Kestrels
(23 at
>one count) congregating at North Bend BC prior to migrating, south,
through
>the Fraser Canyon. There has also been a few other raptors passing
through
>the area at the same time. Unfortunately I have never been able to
spend
>time birding the area so I have no idea of the actual numbers that
pass
>through or over the town.
>
>One thing I have noticed is that there was never any corresponding
increase
>in the number of birds being reported to the Vancouver BC RBA. This
puzzled
>me to the extent that I brought this up with Mike Price and between
us we
>thought that there might be a possible migration route that leaves
the
>Fraser Canyon west of Hope BC and turns south through the Silver-
Hope
>Valley over the low pass into the Skagit Valley and continues out to
the
>coast following the Skagit River.
>
>I have only been along the North Cascade Hwy once and to me the best
>observation area appeared to be around or just down stream from the
Ross
>Lake dam.
>
>I am not overly familiar with this area but posts from Joe Mackie
(Slate
>Peak in the North Cascades above Hart's Pass) and Dean Wampler
(Cascade
>Pass, Sahale Arm hike in the N. Cascades National Park) made me
wonder if
>these locations would fit into that theory.
>
>Any comments on the movement of raptors through this area would be
>appreciated.
>
>Good birding
>
>Roger Craik
>Maple Ridge BC
>rcraik at home.com
>
>
>