The White Thighs of Spring
ByBack in Vancouver, and suddenly it’s springtime: the trees are blooming, crocuses and tulips and daffodils splashed across green lawns, American Robins and European Starlings singing away in the odd bright moment of the day.
Of course, there are still a few winter birds down on the beach. The swimming pool continues to draw bathing Mew Gulls among the abundant Glaucous-wings, and Bufflehead, Barrow’s Goldeneye, and American Wigeon remain the only reliably seen ducks.
A bit farther out, the snaky black necks belong to Pelagic Cormorants. The smallest cormorant on this coast, it is also the only one to develop white flank patches in the breeding season. Interestingly, the white feathers of the thigh are thought not to be generated in the pre-alternate molt, but rather to arise separately as special basic feathers that temporarily conceal, but coincide with, the “normal” dark feathers of the basic plumage. It will be interesting to see how long these fragile filoplumes persist.
Meanwhile, if the weather continues to improve, these may soon not be the only pallid extremities on view on Kitsilano Beach.
