Birders,

Stimulated by Jim Duemmel's report, I made an afternoon visit to
Blaine on May 19. I found fewer shorebirds than Jim, but a lot more
gulls and terns.

Birds of interest at Blaine included:

Barrow's Goldeneye pair off the crab pier (very late!)
Osprey 1 on a piling off the crab pier
Whimbrel 10
Bonaparte's Gull 35 (mostly imm.)
Ring-billed Gull 25
California Gull 6
Caspian Tern 29
Common Tern 54

The DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANT colony on the marina breakwater
was in full swing, with nearly 100 birds in attendance. Washington
birders may be interested to know that this species is on the provincial
"red list" in BC (meaning threatened or endangered), because of
dramatic declines in breeding colonies over the last 20 years. If it were
in BC, this would rate as one of the largest colonies in the province.

Also at the south end of Drayton Harbor:

Whimbrel 17
Caspian Tern 1
Mourning Dove 1


A belated report from Mount Baker on May 17 (Heather Meadows ski area,
and the access road above the Silver Fir campground:

Blue Grouse 6 (one seen well, hooting from the top of a mountain
hemlock at Heather Meadows)
Rufous Hummingbird 1
Red-breasted Sapsucker 4
Hairy Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker 4
Olive-sided Flycatcher 1
Violet-green Swallow 2
Barn Swallow 5
Gray Jay 3
Steller's Jay 2
Red-breasted Nuthatch 2
Winter Wren 1
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 1 (singing)
Varied Thrush 2
American Robin 8
Dark-eyed Junco 5
Evening Grosbeak 5

There was far less snow around than normal for mid-May, but even so, the
road from Heather Meadows to Austin Pass was still blocked by snow, and
likely will be for a while yet.

The weather was marginal (broken clouds, intermittent gusts of wind, even
a brief hail shower), and bird activity was decidedly less than normal.
(E.g., no COMMON RAVENS, HERMIT THRUSHES, or TOWNSEND'S
WARBLERS were noted.) However, it was a worthwhile visit for me
nonetheless.

At Silver Fir Campground on the way down, a MOURNING DOVE in the
overflow parking area seemed out of place. Also recorded here and not
elsewhere were PILEATED WOODPECKER, HAMMOND'S and
PACIFIC-SLOPE FLYCATCHERS, and BLACK-THROATED GRAY WARBLER.

Good luck and good birding,

Wayne C. Weber
Delta, BC
contopus at telus.net