Dear Tweeters,

In the attached posting sent on September 27, Paul Talbert asked
whether the 400 or so Black-bellied Plovers he saw on Sept. 21 at
Semiahmoo Spit near Blaine might be the same ones I saw on Sept. 19 at
the foot of 112th Street on the north side of Mud Bay (Boundary Bay).
My suggestion is-- probably not, although it's not impossible. There
is normally a wintering population of between 200 and 600
Black-bellies along the north side of Boundary Bay. They move back and
forth, depending on the tides, between Mud Bay on the east and Beach
Grove on the west, but I have seen little evidence over the years of
them moving across Boundary Bay to the Blaine area. Any Black-bellies
seen around Blaine and Semiahmoo Spit are probably a separate group.
Although the wintering population of Black-bellies in Boundary Bay
normally averages about 400, there is usually a major peak of migrants
in late August and early September which peaks at 1500 to 2000 birds,
and has reached 3000 at least once or twice. For those outside the
Vancouver area (or new to the Vancouver area) who may not know, it is
worth scanning these flocks of Black-bellied Plovers for scarcer
species. Most of the Vancouver area records of Red Knots and
Bar-tailed Godwits are of birds seen in with flocks of Black-bellied
Plovers, and other more common species like American Golden-Plovers
and Short-billed Dowitchers often associate with the Black-bellies.
The trick is to be able to scope out the entire flock before a
Peregrine Falcon or Merlin causes them to take flight and land at some
other point on the shoreline.

Wayne Weber
Kamloops, B.C.
wayne_weber at bc.sympatico.ca



-----Original Message-----
From: tuisto at oz.net <tuisto at oz.net>
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Date: Monday, September 27, 1999 1:06 AM
Subject: Semiahmoo Spit


>At 08:00 AM 9/21/99 -0700, Wayne Weber wrote:
> A flock of about 400
>>BLACK-BELLIED PLOVERS feeding on the mudflats took off, circled
about
>>for a couple of minutes, and landed a few hundred metres farther
west.
>
> I wonder if this is the same flock I saw later on the 21st on nearby
>Semiahmoo Spit. 400 seems like about the right number, all in
non-breeding
>plumage. Initially I saw a few on Drayton Harbor but they fled from
me and
>other passersby, and eventually all ended up in a huge congregation
on the
>Semiahmoo Bay side of the spit. Other sightings:
>
>Common Loon ~15, scattered in twos and threes, aboput half juveniles
>Great Blue Heron at least 20 or so
>Belted Kingfisher 1
>Killdeer 2 (three times)
>Mew Gull a few
>Ring-billed Gull many
>Glaucus-winged Gull many
>"Olympic" Gull many
>Double-crested Cormorant 30-50
>Harlequin Duck 7
>Black Oystercatcher 1
>Surf Scoter dozens
>White-winged Scoter (?) ~6
>Mallard ~50
>Canada Goose ~75?
>American/NW Crow many
>European Starling 4-5
>House Sparrow a few
>Song Sparrow a few
>Savannah sparrow 15-20
>House Finch 10-15
>Black-capped Chickadee 1
>possible American Kestrel 1
>
>bunnies 3
>harbor seal ~5
>river otter carcass 1
>
>purple seastars, barnacles, mussels, white anemones, crabs, etc.
>
>
>Paul Talbert
>Seattle
>tuisto at oz.net
>