Birders,

A juvenile BUFF-BREASTED SANDPIPER, a rare migrant usually seen only 2-3
times a year around Vancouver, was present yesterday on the turf farm along
72nd Street in Delta, BC. The bird was spotted in late morning by Roger
Foxall in a large flock of KILLDEER, and was still there about 5:00 PM.

The location was in about the 4000 block of 72nd Street, north of the
dead-end side road that leads to the Boundary Bay Airport control tower, and
close to the small pulloff on the east side of 72nd where 3-4 cars can be
parked. Large numbers of shorebirds were feeding in a section of the turf
farm where the turf had been removed and there was bare earth with a few
narrow strips of grass. The sandpiper remained within 20 meters of 72nd
Street most of the time, close enough for good photos!

Birds seen here between about 4 and 5 PM included:

Killdeer 100
American Golden-Plover 6
Pectoral Sandpiper 30
Least Sandpiper 30
BUFF-BREASTED SANDPIPER 1
American Pipit 25
Savannah Sparrow 15
Lapland Longspur 1

A quick check of the Boundary Bay shoreline near the "mansion" west of 96th
Street revealed about 400 BLACK-BELLIED PLOVERS and at least 200 WESTERN
SANDPIPERS plus many ducks and gulls, but the shorebirds were a bit too far
out to pick out any scarcer species (tide not quite high yet). However,
along 96th Street just south of Hornby Drive (the frontage road next to
Highway 99) were at least 12 EURASIAN COLLARED-DOVES-- perhaps the highest
number yet seen together in the Vancouver area.


Good luck and good birding,

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