Birders,

As a follow-up to Gary Wiles' report of 7 BLACK-NECKED STILTS near
Westport, WA on April 9, stilts have showed up subsequently at 4
locations in B.C.-- 3 locations east of the Cascades, and one on
Vancouver Island. Details (gleaned from the several B.C. birding
E-mail groups) are as follows:

(1) Beaver Creek Park, east of Trail, BC-- 4 stilts on April 18
(Gwen Nicol).

(2) Alki Lake, near Kelowna, BC-- 5 stilts on April 21 (Ryan Tomlinson
& Jamie Fenneman), and 12 there on April 25 (Les Gyug). This locality
is the site of an AMERICAN AVOCET breeding colony, one of only 3 known
in B.C.

(3) Elizabeth Lake at Cranbrook, B.C.-- 19 stilts on April 26 (Tony
Wideski et al.). This may be the largest group of stilts ever seen in
B.C.

(4) Englishman River Estuary at Parksville (Vancouver Island)-- 2
stilts seen on April 26 by Guy Monty. This is reportedly only the 5th
sighting of the species on Vancouver Island.

Stilts, as a rule, are seen no more often than every other year or so
in B.C., although there are sometimes multiple sightings at several
localities in years when they are seen. However, this is a record or
near-record invasion, and it may not be over yet! There are no
breeding records of stilts in B.C., and the species is not normally
found north of Douglas and Grant Counties in Washington.

Wayne C. Weber
Kamloops and Delta, BC
contopus at home.com