Tweeters,

The first known breeding attempt by BLACK-NECKED STILTS in British
Columbia has had a happy ending. As of yesterday, July 22, the four
young stilts at the T'Kumlups Marsh are fully-grown (or nearly so) and
flying!

Dave Whiting told me that on July 21, he visited the marsh and was
pretty certain he saw one of the young stilts fly across the pond. He
was watching an adult and a young bird on the shore of the pond. The
young bird flew, leaving the adult by itself on the shoreline.
However, he did not see the other three young birds.

I had already planned to visit the T'Kumlups Marsh (just north of the
South Thompson River on Highway 5, on the Kamloops Indian Reserve)
yesterday after work, but Dave's observation provided an even stronger
incentive.

I visited the marsh from about 5:40 to 6:15 P.M. On my arrival, the
adult female stilt was foraging along the south side of the pond, not
far east of the roadway that runs along the west side of the pond.
(The female can be distinguished by her brownish back, compared with
the glossy black back of the male.) The adult male was resting about
30 metres farther east along the south shore, and near the male the 4
young birds, close together, were foraging along the shoreline, moving
in and out of the cat-tail stems. A couple of the young birds
stretched their wings at intervals, and it looked like the wing
feathers were fully grown and that the birds should be capable of
flight.

After a few minutes of this, the male began giving "vit-vit-vit" calls
in typical Stilt fashion. He then took off and flew around a point to
the southeast corner of the pond (next to Highway 5), as did all four
young birds! They landed in an area which I could not see. The female
stilt did not fly, but continued feeding along the south shore of the
pond, moving gradually east toward where the rest of the family had
been.

It has been an exciting few weeks since Ian Barnett and I first saw
one stilt at the T'Kumlups Marsh on May 10. The nest was found a few
days later, and the newly-hatched young were first seen about June 9.
I was not necessarily expecting the pair of stilts to successfully
fledge 4 young, and I am pleased that they have done so.

Rick Howie and I are planning to write an article for publication
about this first B.C. breeding record of Stilts. Thanks to everyone
who has contributed their sightings of the stilts, by E-mail, by
phone, or in person. We are still interested in hearing of any further
sightings of the stilts, including how many birds were seen and what
they were doing. However, now that the young birds can fly, they could
easily move elsewhere, and they may not remain much longer at the
T'Kumlups Marsh.

I saw my first Black-necked Stilts in 1969 at the Malheur National
Wildlife Refuge in southeastern Oregon. At that time, that was the
northernmost known point in their breeding range. They first nested in
eastern Washington in 1973, and are now a widespread, if not common,
breeder over much of the Columbia Basin of eastern Washington. It is
amazing to me that they have now nested in Kamloops, 500 miles north
of Malheur. Stilts are now being reported almost every spring in small
numbers in the B.C. Interior, and it seems likely that within a few
years, they may become a regular breeding bird in the province. This
is one of the most remarkable range expansions of any North American
bird. (They have also expanded west into western Washington and
Oregon, north into Alberta and Saskatchewan, and northeast into places
like Indiana.)

I'd also like to acknowledge the foresight of the Kamloops Indian Band
and Ducks Unlimited Canada in preserving the T'Kumlups Marsh. Not only
has this beautiful urban wetland hosted the first breeding Stilts in
B.C., it is also home to many breeding American Coots, Yellow-headed
Blackbirds, Soras, and several duck species every year, and it has
provided many happy hours of birding for me and other Kamloops area
birders.

Good birding to everyone!

Wayne C. Weber
Kamloops, BC
contopus at shaw.ca