Hey Tweeters,
This is a little late but Tyler Davis, Irene Potter, Carol Schulz, and I
got back late last night from birding on the southwestern mainland of British
Columbia, mainly around Ladner and Vancouver. The highlight was obviously the
2nd year IVORY GULL at it's previously described Robert's Bank location. We
arrived on location just before 9:00am, where we found Dennis Duffy and Steve
Mlodinow at the gull's favorite barge. They had been there for a while, but
the bird was nowhere to be seen. Soon thereafter the Sullivans drove up, as
did Bill Tweit, Ryan Shaw, etc. The bird had still not been found when we
decided to go to Reifel.
On the way to Reifel, on the roof of a partially submerged house (in Frager
River), viewed from Lion's Gate Fishery at the intersection of 41B St. and
River Rd. we had a 2nd year GLAUCOUS GULL with a flock of Glaucous-winged and
"Olympic" Gulls. We also peeked into an abandoned barn near Ladner and
located 4 BARN OWLS.
At (and near) Reifel Refuge we observed:
1 Northern PintailxMallard hybrid
1 Northern Shrike
1 Black-crowned Night-Heron
4 Sandhill Cranes
1 Hutton's Vireo

We then headed further north into downtown Vancouver to search for the
remaining pair of CRESTED MYNAS. Indeed, we found 2 very active mynas flying
around the area, mainly around Crowe & Second, and Crowe & First, both of
which are only about a block from Wylie.

As we headed south to look once again for the Ivory Gull, we got a cell
phone call from Bill Tweit, saying that the bird flew in 5 minutes ago. So we
drove back to Robert's Bank and found at least 15 birders looking through
scopes at the IVORY GULL which was somewhat hidden behind from ropes. It then
started walking around, and eventually we got beautiful views of the whole
bird at less than 30 yards distance. You can view some stills of the bird
from the video I got yesterday at:
http://hometown.aol.com/birdking88/IVGU.html

After sunset, we saw an Asio sp., probably Long-eared Owl, at the end of
River Road flying low over the river. That's about all for now, good birding!

Charlie Wright, 13
Birdking88 at aol.com
Sumner, WA