Nary a Peent....

Sorry, I haven't posted anything lately.I'm currently doing some bird surveying and have been incredibly busy. I thought I should post the result of my Woodcock adventure though, so as not to leave you all in suspense! Well, as the title suggests we did not hear any Woodcocks. This likley means that I will now not add American Woodcock to my year list. I will get back to the Codroy valley ( only known breeding location in NL) but not until the first week of June and it's unlikley they will be calling or displaying then- I will try though!

Having said that the trip wasn't a complete bust. The weather was decent the first night, so that can;t be blamed for our missing Woodcock. The second day however was a different story. We were faced with jurricane force winds (seriously!!)and horizontal rain, which made finding birds nearly impossible. Despite the weather we re able to pick up the Redhead that had ben reported fours previously.In many ways this makes up for missing Woodcock. Redhead is extremely rare in Newfoundland (only about 6 sightings ever!!) so I have to be happy with that. I was also able to pick up a few other odds and ends liek American Tree Sparrow (could have missed that for year!) and Pied-billed Grebe. The story of Pied-billed grebe in newfoundland is an odd one. There is one or two seen every fall on the eastern Avalon Peninsula between St.John's and Trepassey and they are known to breed in the province from only as single location, a small Pond in Loch Lomand, Codroy Valley. Every year there is asingle pair in the same small pond ( one year there was two pairs) sometimes they breed successfully and sometimes they don't, but there they are every year. It's quite amazing really since they have never even been seen in in suitable breeding habitat anywhere else in Newfoundland.Anyway, my point is it was nice to see cause you never know when they part might pack up and leave for good and reduce NL's breeding population of Pied-billed Grebes to zero!..

Allin all despite the weather the trip was worthwhile, I added 10 year birds and couple since to bring my year list to somewhere over 130, which is not bad.

Look for more content in the coming days. I promised to write something about weather and bird migration and vangrant probabilities, etc..etc..etc. So I'm hoping to get started on that tonight and maybe have it ready to post tomorrow.


See you then...

Woodcocks Await..errr Maybe

One of the great things about doing a big year is it motivates, or perhaps forces one to do things that they might otherwise deem to be..well.. stupid!I found out a while ago that I would have the opportunity to go to Corner Brook
(600km W of St.John's) to participate in discussions about protecting some of Newfoundland's more vulnerable bird species. While that in itself is pretty cool, I immediately realized that trip trip would have a huge fringe benefit. It would put me within 190 km's of the Codroy Valley, the only place in Newfoundland where the elusive American Woodcock can be reliably seen..check that heard, they're almost never seen. Now the issue is I will have only a single evening to hear Woodcock. This might not seem like such a Herculean task if it weren't for the fact that A) Woodcock is a rare bird in Newfoundland and B) the weather forecast is horrible!! So, it seems the odds are definitely stacked against me, but the plans are made and I'm going to give it a try anyway.

So,I'll be attending a meeting on Wednesday until about 4:30, then bolting for the Codroy Valley asap, hopefully in time to orient myself,do some very quick scouting and then get set up and ready to hear a Woodcock during the small window of time when they display after sunset. Thankfully, I won't be alone during all of this. Fellow intrepid birder, Jared Clarke, has agreed to join me. He has yet to see American Woodcock in Newfoundland, so it wasn't that hard to convince him to take part in my misadventure!

I've just taken an opportunity to check the forecast for the Codroy area and it looks like we can expect winds between 20-50 km/hr along with up to 5 cm of snow and some rain, sounds great- NOT! Nevertheless, trips like this are part of doing big years. There are species you just must have and Woodcock is one of these. So in spite of snow, or rain, or hail, or wind, Jared and I will be out tomorrow night straining our ears, bracing against the wind, listening for that distinctive peent, peent. So think of us when your relaxing in nice warm homes and maybe even wish us some luck, because I think we'll need it.