Subject: Mar 1 birding
Date: Mar 1 17:28:43 2003
From: Chris Charlesworth - c_charlesworth23 at hotmail.com


Birders,

Today I gave John Brighton, of Parksville, a day tour in the Kelowna /
Vernon area. John had a list of about 10 target species that we spent the
day looking for, mostly winter specialties. The two we missed were the
rarest two; Lesser Black-backed Gull and Great-tailed Grackle, but we did
have a nice assortment of other winter birds:

Mouth of Vernon Ck (Vernon)

Thayer's Gull 8 (ads and first years)
California Gull 500
Herring Gull 200
Ring-billed Gull 100
Glaucous-winged Gull 10
Common Loon 3

Head of the Lake (Vernon)

DUNLIN 1
Trumpeter Swan 6
Lesser Scaup 1 male
Greater Scaup 10
Redhead 12
Common Merganser 4
Hooded Merganser 2
Great Blue Heron 2
Gray Partridge 2 (Desert Cove) male and female.
HARRIS'S SPARROW 1 imm. (Desert Cove) with WCSPs near feeder.
White-crowned Sparrow 2
Song Sparrow 5
Common Goldeneye 10
Gadwall 2

Silver Star Mountain (Vernon)

Pine Grosbeak 10 (all imm. or females)
Gray Jay 2
Northern Pygmy-Owl 1 on top of small fir.
Mountain Chickadee 10
Red-breasted Nuthatch 5
Pine Siskin 15
Brown Creeper 1 calling.

Thomson-Brook Pond (Kelowna)

AMERICAN TREE SPARROW 4 feeding, calling, singing and giving great looks
Song Sparrow 10
Marsh Wren 1
Red-winged Blackbird 20
Great Blue Heron 3
Red-tailed Hawk 1
American Kestrel 1 male
Green-winged Teal 5
Northern Shoveler 1 imm. male

Lakeshore Road

Bohemian Waxwing 200 feeding on Snowberry and Oregon Grape on roadside.
Pygmy Nuthatch 1
American Robin 50
European Starling 150

Overall a very enjoyable day. John was pleased to see birds like Bohemian
Waxwing, Am. Tree Sparrow, Harris' Sparrow, Gray Partridge, Pygmy Nuthatch,
Mountain Chickadee, Black-capped Chickadee and Black-billed Magpie, which
coastal birders do not see too often. Our total was a whopping 78 species.
Not bad!

Chris Charlesworth
Avocet Tours
Kelowna, BC
www.avocettours.com

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