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High swan counts highlight the Spring migration of 2012

As nesting begins dog owners asked to keep pets away from reeds
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No two spring migrations are the same, and there were many surprises for this year's.

The migration began in mid-winter for a few species and finally wound down to only a few tardy birds by the conclusion of the fourth week of May. The first migratory wave of significance was with the Trumpeter Swans.

Yes, there were a couple that hung around throughout the winter but their brethren from the lowlands began passing through in mid-March, peaking at 84 counted on March 19 and 73 on March 24. The final tally is a local record of 316, with the last flock of five birds heading north on April 19. Undoubtedly, the count was a minimum because of lack of continuous observation, blocking cloud cover and possible night passage on other days.

Nonetheless, the count is a significant three to 15 per cent of the approximate 10,000 counted during the Christmas Bird Count sessions in the Pacific Northwest. If those seen were some of the 2,000-3,000 birds hanging out in the Fraser lowlands during the winter, it demonstrates the importance of the Sea to Sky corridor as a migratory flyway. By way of interest, Vancouver Island is the prime winter sanctuary for the swans, roughly 4,000-6,000 each winter with 2,000 or so being a typical count at Comox.

For other migrants the third and fourth weeks of April were particularly significant. The storm of April 22/23 saw about 1,000 waterfowl hunkering down on our lakes, providing peak counts of several species (American wigeon, Ring-necked duck, Bufflehead, scaup, goldeneyes and Green-winged teal). Mallards, which had an especially early start to migration, peaked in early April followed by a subordinate wave in the last week of May.

Counteracting the high volume movements, several duck species "dribbled" through in erratic intervals in low numbers. Altogether, the migration of waterfowl was noteworthy in that all ducks, loons and grebes showed up with the exception of the rarely-observed Eared grebe, an interior species, and the Yellow-billed loon of winter marine coastal habitat, breeding exclusively in the high arctic.

The only other missing waterfowl were Snow and Cackling geese, which somehow managed to elude us in Whistler, but were seen several times at Squamish.

In the songbird group, there were hefty flocks of Robins from late March into mid-April, along with their cousins, Varied thrush, in the second week of April, and Hermit thrush in the fourth week. The latter two are now ascending mountain slopes for the summer period.

In May the rush of warblers began in earnest. So-called "canary" reports are actually Wilson's and Yellow Warblers, the latter arriving in the third week of May. Late April-early May also saw the arrival of several species of swallows, flycatchers and Ruby-crowned kinglets. Their presence is concomitant with the appearance of flying insects.

Of particular interest is the status of migrating shorebird species and whether some of them will resume successful breeding at Whistler. Seven species in the sandpiper group have been tallied and among them the Wilson's snipe is certainly in breeding mode on our wetlands.

Of the others, the recent arrival of the Spotted sandpipers may breed, if the local rambunctious dog population will leave them alone, whereas the Western and Least sandpipers had only a token overnight stay before moving along to the arctic front. Colourful Killdeer are in very low numbers about Whistler so far, but one or two have been on the Fitzsimmons Creek delta for two months, already.

The other component of shorebirds, the gulls and terns, are equally low in numbers, with nine species seen, and all continuing northward. In the last week of May, a pair of large Caspian terns have been seen over our lakes. Unmistakable, they have long, bright orange bills.

The migration season had more surprises. Elsewhere along the B.C. coast birders were lamenting on the tardy spring arrivals, brought on by the cool and moist weather. Not so for Whistler, although I cannot argue with the unseasonable spring. Based on 10-12 years of local data for 106 migrant species, the arrival times for the year, as compared to the long-term averages, shakes out as follows: 31 arrived within three days of the average arrival date; 36 arrived one to two weeks ahead of the average; 16 were more than two weeks ahead of their usual date; 17 were one to two weeks late; six were more than two weeks late (Coot, N. Pintail, Redhead and Gadwall ducks, American Gold finch and Bushtit).

Surprising? Yes, but we also have a handful of no-shows (yet), namely: Great blue heron, Kestrel, Common tern, Pygmy owl, Willow flycatcher, Red-eyed vireo, Horned lark, American Redstart and a few other listed "casuals" on our local checklist.

During the spring, two new birds were added to the list. The first is the Eurasian sub-species of the Green-winged teal, seen at Green Lake on March 31. This sub-species was also recorded at several localities near Vancouver at about the same time period.

The second, a season highlight, is a Sabine's Gull, seen on the Fitzsimmons delta, May 23, and apparently not seen elsewhere in B.C. this year, although several were counted in Bellingham Bay. This bird is offshore Pacific in winter and breeds in the Arctic.

Unfortunately, we failed to photograph it, which means the record will likely not be accepted by bureaucratic birding officialdom. Nonetheless, there are now 261 species on our checklist, plus a second sub-species. Of these 230 are on the spring list; 158 were spotted this year for a 68.7 per cent recovery, down a bit from last year, but with Sparky away on holidays for the month of May, and his bird feeders being empty, we missed those exotic tidbits which are unique to Toad Hollow.

May 30 is the end of spring for birds; many are now in nesting mode, and so there are fewer to be seen and less musical chatter. Broods of Canada geese and Mallards are already out on our lakes.

Please keep Bowser, Fido, or whomever, away from bushy, reedy or grassy edges of our waterways. This is the protective habitat of many of our young birds, especially the waterfowl!