Chatters,
The Auklet was seen at 15 foot range this past Saturday by Kate
Tillotson, Richard Streuve and myself. This was after about 3 hours of
searching by boat. We started at 12:00 noon and looked for 2 1/2 hours,
then fished for awhile and finally found the bird at 5:30. All told we
were out on the boat for 6 hours. The bird was seen south of the mouth
to the bay, on the right hand side (Benthick's island) about 100 metres
after the first wide channel. This is about 10 minutes from the dock
area. The bird is very mottled in appearance, looking very different
from any of the pictures in the guides.
You can rent boats out of Pedder Bay. They cost about $30 Canadian (US
$21)per hour. Fog can be a problem in that the people in the marina
won't let you rent the boats if it's too bad. Some have overcome this by
hiring someone with a boat to take them out. Seeing the bird from land
is possible, but not easy because of lack of access. You pretty much
have to rent a boat and be willing to do this for the full day.
Another reason for those that are thinking about trying for this bird is
that there are Sharp-tailed, Stilt, Baird's and Pectoral Sandpipers, as
well as both Pacific and American Golden Plovers around the area.
Overall we had a fabulous weekend in a very pictoresque part of the
world.




Barry Levine
Seattle.Wa.
levineb at bsd405.org

-----Original Message-----
From: Michael G. Shepard [mailto:mgshepard at PACIFICCOAST.NET]
Sent: Tuesday, October 07, 2003 10:35 PM
To: BIRDCHAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
Subject: [BIRDCHAT] Crested Auklet in British Columbia


Greetings,

As you may know, a Crested Auklet has been hanging out in Pedder Bay and
vicinity, near Victoria BC for the past few weeks. This is apparently
only the second record for the province. Updates can be heard on the
Victoria RBA at (250) 592-3381.

Thanks to an anonymous source, I have acquired a photo of the bird. It
can be viewed at www.birdinfo.com/CrestedAuklet_2003.html

Cheers,

Michael G. Shepard
Victoria BC Canada
North American Bird Information Web Site: http://www.birdinfo.com
mailto:info at birdinfo.com

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