Birders,

A male KING EIDER was discovered yesterday, October 30, with a large
flock of SURF SCOTERS off Dundarave Pier at the foot of 25th Street in
West Vancouver. I'm not sure who first reported the bird, but it was still
there from about noon to 1:30 PM today. It was well seen at least by Len
and Dian Jellicoe, Colin Clasen, Graeme Stevens, and me, and seems
likely to stay for awhile. Len got some photos, and hopefully others will
too.

The bird appears to be a second-year male, as far as I can determine.
The body plumage looks pretty much like an adult male's. However, there
is only a suggestion of a knob on the bill, the breast is not pure white,
and the head is pale gray all over and does not look quite like an adult's.
Nevertheless, it is a striking bird.

In the last few years, there have been a couple of brief (single-day)
sightings of King Eiders among masses of scoters off the Iona Island
south jetty. However, assuming it stays for at least a few days, this could
the first "chasable" King Eider for Vancouver in at least a decade. It is
the first one I've seen since 1986. Let's hope it sticks around!

Here's a list of what I saw along the West Vancouver waterfront between
21st Street and 25th Street:

Common Loon 1
Horned Grebe 3
Double-crested Cormorant 6
Pelagic Cormorant 1
Green-winged Teal 1f
Mallard 12
American Wigeon 10
KING EIDER 1m
Harlequin Duck 11
Long-tailed Duck 1f
Surf Scoter 1500 (conservative estimate)
Barrow's Goldeneye 40
Bonaparte's Gull 1 ad.
Mew Gull 10
Glaucous-winged Gull 30
Rock Pigeon 1
Northwestern Crow 3
Black-capped Chickadee 2
European Starling 10
Spotted Towhee 1
Song Sparrow 2
House Finch 5
House Sparrow 1

It was remarkable that in this huge flock of Surf Scoters, there was not one
BLACK SCOTER or WHITE-WINGED SCOTER.

Good luck and good birding,

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