Birders,

I made a brief visit to Blaine late yesterday afternoon, May 26, mainly
to look for COMMON TERNS, and I was not disappointed. Looking
west from the "crab pier" at the end of Marine Drive, there were at least
30 COMMON TERNS, most of which were resting on the concrete
breakwater which surrounds the marina at the Inn at Semiahmoo,
across the entrance to Drayton Harbor. (This was definitely a "scope
view"-- too far for ID with binoculars.) Also in the area were at
least 50 CASPIAN TERNS and 100 or more BONAPARTE'S GULLS,
most of which were immatures.

Although we have had a couple of reports of ARCTIC TERN and SABINE'S
GULL near Vancouver in the last few days, I couldn't find anything at
Blaine that looked like those species.

Looks like the shorebird migration is over-- all I could find was a few
KILLDEER.

The DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANT nesting colony on the rock
breakwater at the Blaine marina was in full swing, with at least 150
birds present, many of them on nests.

CEDAR WAXWINGS have arrived in force-- there was a flock of at least 30
in the small trees near the RRX on Marine Drive.

After Blaine, I made an even shorter visit to Tennant Lake near Ferndale,
where it was raining lightly. At least 3 AMERICAN BITTERNS were
heard "pumping". There were few ducks on the lake. most of which
were WOOD DUCKS (about 8). However, two ducks that I would not
expect to find this late in May were a drake RING-NECKED DUCK
and a female BUFFLEHEAD.

Good luck and good birding,

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