Avalon Peninsula Rarity Round Up

I've been trying for about two hours now to figure out google maps so I could show a fancy map of all the rarities currently residing on the Avalon peninsula of Newfoundland right now, but it seems it doesn't want to cooperate right now, so I guess everyone will have to settle for a write up and some photos, and use your imaginations for the map.

Newfoundland is a well known for hosting unusual combinations of birds from time to time, but currently there is a truly bizarre mix,which covers species from three continents. The list goes something like this, Northern Lapwing,Black-tailed Gull, Slaty-backed Gull, Yellow-legged Gull,Common Moorhen, Redwing,Yellow-throated Warbler and Common Chaffinch. At first look Common Moorhen seems out of place on this list but believe it or not it's a actually a much rarer bird in Newfoundland than any of the other birds on the list aside from Black-tailed Gull. That of course is assuming this is an American Common Moorhen and not the European subspecies.

Anyway, in my efforts to create a map showing these rarities I calculated the distance Newfoundland birder would have to travel round trip to see the birds listed above and came up with a rather ridiculous 22,500 km's or 14,000+ miles!!! That means leaving St.John's flying to England for Redwing,Northern lapwing and Common Chaffinch, then leaving there and jetting off to teh Azores for Yellow-legged Gull (ours are presumed atlantis ssp.). From there off to Florida for Common moorhen and Yellow-throated Warbler. After basking in the Florida sun you fly to Vancouver to tick Anna's Hummingbird,finishing your trip with a stop in Japan for Black-tailed and Slaty-backed Gulls, before the flying across the world back to where you start in St.John's-- talk about jet lag! Of course, currently one could potentially see all of these birds in a single day on the Avalon Peninsula in a 500 km round trip- pretty amazing!

Just to enhance the visual, here a re a selection of photos of the birds mentioned.




Yellow-legged Gull- atlantis ssp, probbaly from Azorean population.



Black-tailed Gull- 2nd record for NL. Lack record in spring of 1998.



Gotta love that bill!!



Slaty-backed Gull- Annual since our first record in 2006. This is about the 14th individual for NL.



Common Moorhen- Oddly rare in NL. Just the third in the last decade.



Redwing- there was a time when Fieldfare was easier than Redwing in NL. Now Redwing is annual with most records December- February.



Yellow-throated warbler- Annual in NL in late fall. Thi sis oe of three this fall/winter




Anna's Hummingbird- 1st record for NL. There was a rash of Anna's Hummers in mid west and east with many states and provinces getting 1st records. An individual into Fegruary in NL is almost ridiculous!

Photo- Jared Clarke


Common Chaffinch- 2nd record for NL.Last recorded at a feeder in Middle cove, north of St.John's in 1994? With the numbers of Northern Lapwings, Redwings and way above average numbers of Common Teal, this is about as "wild" a Chaffinch as your ever goning to get in North America.


I'm going to add photos of the Northern lapwing and Anna's Hummingbird tomorrow. I have to process my lapwing photos and have to get permission to add a shot of the Anna's since I didn't photograph that bird. I was too busy soaking in knee buckling views at 60X mag from 30 feet! Also, my camera was broken ;)

I know I keep saying I'm going to write something about gulls, but I really have to be in the right head space to get in depth with gulls and this wasn't the night for that. So maybe I'll get around to it tomorrow. I'm teaching gull identification workshops for the next two weekends so I might as well get warmed up.

Plans for tomorrow...It's a toss up between the usual QV Lake stake out,or I'm considering travelling around in search of wet areas that might be holding Euro Turds, Euro Snipes, Woodcocks, who knows, we dream big here. Then again when you consider the list of birds featured above,it's not that unrealistic.

Making Sense of Moorhens

About two weeks ago now the St.John's biridng community was alerted to the presence of a Common Moorhen in the Community of Chapels Cove, west of St.John's on the Avalon Peninsula. Common Moorhen has been surprisingly rare in the last decade with possibly just two reports that I can think of, so this was cause for some excitement.

This Moorhen would be even more exciting if it turned out to be the Eurasian subspecies G. c. chloropus, rather than the North American, G. c. cachinnans. The European chloropus has been recored just once in North America, it was an immature bird collected on Shemya, a tiny island off the coast of Alaska. Given Newfoundland's history of producing Eurasian rarities, one can never be too careful with a bird like this,so we wanted ot make sure we could rule out the Eurasian subspecies of Common Moorhen.

Currently there are 12 Moorhen subspecies world wide. However, there is good reason to think that most or all of these forms will be granted full species status in the not too distant future,therby making a "European Moorhen" infinitely more appealing to a North American birder. The catylast for these splits will likley be a study,which showed that populations of Moorhens differed markedly in their vocalizations. In fact, it has already been proposed to some records committees, that the splits get underway. You can get more infomation regarding this proposal here, http://www.museum.lsu.edu/~remsen/SACCprop416.html

So, the vocalizations are different, great, but our bird was not calling. It's barely clinging to life in sub zero temperatures, in small open patches of ground keep open by a small stream, it's not in the mood to talk!

As adults separation of these American adn European Moorhen is pretty straightforward. The American Moorhen (G. c. cachinnans) has a much bigger culmen shield than it's European counterpart (G. c. chloropus),which has a much smaller rounded culmen shield. However, it looks as though our birds culmen shield is not fully grown,indicating it's an immature,so what do we do now? In fact, can we even be sure it's an immature?




This is pretty small and somewhat rounded culmen shield, but perhaps larger than an average European Moorhen (assuming this is an immature bird)


Photo courtesy of Jared Clarke


Apparently Moorhens can be aged by the color the dorsal wing coverts and the shape of the tertials, with the immatures haveing more pointed tertials than adults. having very little experience with Moorhens, this means little to me.


I've already been advised by one expert that these subspecies are virtually indistinguishable as immatures, so I don't have any real hope of getting a definite answer here. However, when you bird in Newfoundland you always have to be aware of the possibility of European birds, especially in a year when there was a big cold weather movement in the UK and Western Europe, which has brough us numerous Northern Lapwings, 3 Redwings, a Chaffinch and an above usual number of Common Teal and Common Gulls.

Speaking of gulls, expect something in that vein for tomorrow!

A Day With Bohemians and a Quiz Raptor

Today I did something radical. Instead of going right to Quidi Vidi lake after dropping my fiance off at work,I went in search of Bohemian Waxwings. Over the last week or so there has been an invasion of these birds into eastern Newfoundland. This in itself, is not surprising, but usually they show up in December or early January, gorge themselves on Mountain Ash berries then move on. This year, they're over a month later than normal and they don't have any food, because we had an abysmal Mountain Ash crop this year.

So, this means there are lots of starving Waxwings. I heard of a lady who was feeding waxwings yesterday and today I decided to help her out by bringing a bag of apples and maybe I'd take a few photos as well ;) I cut a few apples in half, impaled them on a hedge and within 5 minutes the Waxwings appeared and began feeding hungrily on the apples.It was amazing to basically stand among the birds as they fed totally unconcerned by my presence. Ive had Waxwings over winter in my garden in the past and it's my experience that they get tame fairly;y quickly once they realize your the one providing the food. I actually spent most of the time I was there just enjoying the bird and kind of forgot to take photos. Below are a few I did get.











While I was spending some time with the BOWA's I noticed a raptor soaring high above. To be more specific, it was an Accipiter, but which one? My first impression was that this was a decent sized bird that was definitely crow sized or approaching crow sized. Then again impressions can be deceiving. I flip flopped a bit on this identification. Aside from size, which is not useful in a photo of a single bird, what can you make out about the birds tail shape, overall jizz etc.What do you think? Any remarks about this bird id are gladly welcomed and appreciated. Below are some distant photos of the bird in question.

*****REDWINGS*****

To start with,no the s at the end of Redwing in the title is not a mistake. Today there were TWO Redwings found together feeding in a kelp bed at Portugal Cove South (extreme SE Avalon Peninsula).We were expecting that there should have a been a Redwing out there lurking somewhere, but with no berries and consequently no Robin flocks, a Redwing is tough to find.

EDIT: A third Redwing was found yesterday by visiting British birder Richard Lowe, that makes three now. New arrivals? Seems late...

The birds were found by Richard Thomas,who should know them well having grown up in the UK. He was on his away to a local store when two thrushes flew across the road. Assuming they were just Robins(a number had been feeding in the immediate area recently)he never thought much of it. On the way back from the store he stopped to look at the 'Robins' and was nicely surprised to find not one, but TWO Redwings!!Below are a couple of record shots he captured with his point and shoot camera.



Photo by Richard Thomas



Notice the extremely dense streaking on the breast of this bird compared to the relatively sparse streaking of the bird above- photo again by Richard Thomas.

So hot on the heels of the Chaffinch we get two Redwings, what are we missing!! This is really just an addition to a growing list of amazing birds currently residing on the Avalon Peninsula.


NOTE: Redwing is now basically annual in Newfoundland. It is usually found between December- February, often feeding on Mountain Ash berries amongst American Robins. While we have had multiple Redwings present in Newfoundland at the same time,I think this is the first occurrence of two birds at the same location.

*****COMMON CHAFFINCH*****

I was having a lazy evening on February 3rd, when I signed into my email to find an email from Bruce Mactavish, entitled, "here We go Again". As soon as I saw this my pulse doubled knowing i was about to learn of some great rarity. We I wasn't disappointed when I opened to message to find a photo of a Common Chaffinch.



Male Chaffinch in Freshwater Newfoundland, February 5th

Common Chaffinches are probably one of, if not the commonest bird in Europe with an estimated 85-240 million pairs and maybe as many as 30 million (at certain times of the year)in the UK alone. So there are lots of individuals out there that could possibly make it across the ocean to the coast of Newfoundland. Well,things aren't quite that simple. Chaffinches are kept in captivity in North America. Many are imported by bird fanciers etc, for sale, I believe, mainly in the US. Because of this fact the vast majority of Chaffinch records in North America, have not been accepted, or have severely tainted by the possibility of the bird being an escapee.

So, how can one be sure that this particular Chaffinch is not an escapee? Well, the answer is you can't. However, there are a number of factors to consider when judging the probably provenance of a bird such as this. Records of Chaffinch from the interior US and California have been scoffed at by local records committees. I believe that there might have been a couple of records accepted from New England. However, there is still great deal of doubt surrounding these.

having said all of that, why am I so excited about this bird. Well that answer is easy, this is Newfoundland, anything can happen. IN fact the first accepted record of Common Chaffinch was at a local birders feeder in the early 90's. The foreign bird trade is not a popular activity in Newfoundland. there isn't anyone importing Chaffinches into the province that we know of and there are any aviaries housing exotic birds that this particular bird could have escaped from.

One should also consider proximity and Newfoundland history of attracting European vagrants. We are by far the most easterly land mass in North America, therefore it stands to reason that a Chaffinch that has flown the 2000 miles or 3200 km's from the UL would be pretty happy to see the shores of Newfoundland,just as are the Northern Lapwings, European Golden Plovers, Northern Wheatears, Redwings and the list goes on.

Also, if Newfoundland doesn't have any captive Chafficnhes, that means if this is captive bird it would have had to migrate from some location outside Newfoundland, enduring an overseas flight. What would possess an escaped Chaffinch to do this? Would it be trying to get back home to the UK or Europe, I doubt it!

Anyway, getting back to the story, we arrived in the small town of Freshwater, Placentia bay on the western edge of the Avalon peninsula around day light. We met with the home owners and waited for the bird to show- it didn't. After a while we wandered to a different feeder down the road that had more birds, we waited, saw scores of Crossbills and other finches but no Chaffinch. Brice decided to head back to the original feeder, while myself and fellow birder Jon Wells continued the stake out at what seemed like the more busy feeder. After about another 15 minutes we headed back up the road to see a birder waving their arms, telling us it's there! I took off in a sprint up the road, only to hear that the bird had circled the yards landing in the top of a few spruce trees and departed, oh no!! I took a look at a photo on the back of Bruce's camera and felt sick- we had to see this bird.

About 20 minutes later we heard a lispy chink- that's it,but where is it. No one got on the bird and it wasn't heard again. Then about 1.5 hours later, I heard the call again. I scanned the trees methodically and there it was only 20 feet from in perched in the center of a thick spruce. What a stunner. I fired off a few photos and the bird was gone. Over the course of the next hour the bird made two more very brief appearances. it never visited the feeders with the other feeder birds, it as considerably more weary. This is perhaps another point in favor of a genuine wild vagrant Chaffinch.We congratulated each other, thanked the home owners for their gracious hospitality and headed out to continue birding, not wanting to disturb the bird any further.

Another fact worth mentioning regarding this birds possible provenance is the existence of extreme wintry conditions in Western Europe and the Uk in early winter. This is an ecept from the Portland Bill Bird Observatory in extreme southern England on November 9th.

http://www.portlandbirdobs.org.uk/latest_nov2010.htm

A morning of atrocious conditions - a blasting north-easterly and almost constant rain - provided some compelling interest on the birding front as a constant stream of migrants battled in low over the sea at the Bill and continued northwards. Chaffinches and Starlings figured most conspicuously, with sample counts of 5660 Chaffinches and 730 Starlings north along the West Cliffs at the Bill in 2¼ hours and 2710 Chaffinches and 780 Starlings north over Ferrybridge in 1½ hours; with passage of both going on throughout the morning it seems likely that something of the order of 10000 Chaffinches and 2000 Starlings


Ten thousand Chaffinches!!! You think one of those could have made it here. then wandered around enjoying the unusually balmy conditions in eastern Newfoundland before being driven to a feeder recently after a series of storms? Seem plausible to me. The movement of Chaffinches continued over the course of the rest of November and into December. We also got about a dozen or so Northern Lapwings this winter, another cold weather migrant noted at Portland Bill over the same time period. So, if there was ever going to be a 'countable' Chaffinch in North America, then I think this bird is it.

Catching Up!!-and The Big Year= Fail

Ok, I know it's been way too long since my last post! So much has happened since I last posted a little over 3 months ago,that it's tough to know where to start. Well, I won't try to get caught up completely in one post,but maybe I'll take a couple of posts to try to do that. I'll dedicate this post to some discussion of my big year,since I've gotten some questions about that recently,then I'll move on to a bit of a review of the 2010 birding year in Newfoundland.

So, the big year. I started off with such vigour,chasing every bird I could and cleaning up on all the winter specialties. By the third week of January I had already ticked Northern Lapwing, Redwing, Hoary Redpoll, Gyrfalcon, Snowy Owl and Ivory Gull, a nice start!

From there we move to spring,which was greeting by a Pink-footed Goose, a major surprise. This was also a decent year for European Golden Plover. I personally had my biggest total for this species this spring,mainly due to a flock of 22 on the Cape Race Rd in May.

The next big birding event for me was my annual Codroy Valley trip. The trip was excellent as usual. There were lots of Blackburnian, bay-breast and Cape May Warblers. As well, we found 5 singing Chestnut-sided Warblers and all were still on territory when we left in mid June,indicating that this species is following the route of Northen Parula and is now becoming established in the Codroy Valley.

After the Codroy Valley the big year lost some steam, I lost motivation. The summer months,especially June is the best time in Newfoundland to see big numbers of seabirds from land,especially Shearwaters and Jaegers.I never birded much during these months,but wasn't worried because I figured I'd pick them up in the fall- boy was I wrong. As a result I missed Great Shearwater for the first time ever on a year list,since I started birding. I also failed to see any Jaegers!! Combine this with the fat that I never made an effort to See Wilson's Storm Petrel, Northern Hawk Owl,Spruce grouse, Rock Ptarmigan or Three-toed Woodpecker and I decided the big year just wasn't gonna happen.

Well fast forward to late fall. It was good fall for warblers. I managed to catch up to a number of southern strays including two Kentucky Warblers and finally a caught a quick glimpse of a Worm-eating Warbler in early October. Going into the December I was sitting about 240 species. I picked up a few more random species,not the least of which was a Black-tailed Gull I found on December 1st to end the year at a respectable 243 species.

The Newfoundland record big year of 247 species was certainly within reach and so was my goal of 250. In fact if one went full speed all year long,chased every possible vagrant and ticked all the breeders, I think 260 is an attainable number.but that will have to wait for another year. After two consecutive years of Newfoundland year listing, I'm taking a year off.

At some point in the near future I'd like to write a blog dedicated to all the best birds of 2010. Before I can do that I've got to get permission to use some photos. Also, I'm going to be starting to post identification articles on a regular basis, or at least that's the plan. So, that's it, I'm back, look for the Rare Bird's of 2010 post later this week.

Weekend Birding Forecast

Well, I'm not really into making bold predictions and maybe this doesn't qualify.However, looking at the current weather maps, I can't help but get a little excited about the possibility of some birds being pushed our way over the next 48 hours.

Currently there is a nice low pressure system that stretches from The Great Lakes to the Carolinas. This has been kinda stalled there for a few days,but will start motoring east, then north east reaching the Avalon Peninsula of Newfoundland by Friday. See the maps below...








Notice the progression of the low pressure system as it moves from SE of the Great Lakes to Newfoundland. Notice the isobars showing a nice SW flow,off the eastern seaboard, up to the Avalon Peninsula, especially for Thursday night,Friday and Friday night..White-eyed Vireo anyone???

With any luck birds will lift off on the NW wrap around winds that follow the passage of the low pressure system and fly with the NW wind in a SE direction towards the coast. Some will likely get carried out over the sea and may get caught up in the SW flow, then follow these SW winds with the low pressure system until they reach land on the Avalon Peninsula. At least, in a perfect world ( from a birders perspective), this is how it would work. Either way, I'm hoping for some kind of an influx. If you were on the fence as regarding my southern Avalon trip, this weekend,maybe this will serve to entice you a little further. Again,this is all best guess,but the weather maps show the potential exists!!Guess we'll see on Saturday....

Fall Recap- Looking Forward and a Few Photos

Well we're about half way through the fall vagrant season in Newfoundland right now and to this point the birding has probably been about average to slightly below average. There has been a rarity here and there,but no real major events that really get the adrenaline pumping.

The reason for our relatively mundane fall thus far is the lack of any real major weather related bird influxes,or fallouts. Maybe I'm just spoiled from last fall, when there was a nice fallout event on the Cape race Road( extreme SE Avalon Peninsula) in early October that brought a couple of Hooded Warblers, Kentucky, Yellow-breasted Chat,a couple Chestnut-sideds, Prairie Warbler,as well as both Scarlet and Summer Tanagers,Cuckoos and a selection of less rare warblers,such as Ovenbirds. This was a remarkable event and was the result of a low pressure system that generated warm SW winds directly from the Carolina's and even further south directly to the southern Avalon Peninsula.

As I said there have not been any such event to this point, this year,but we're still hopeful!Three weeks ago we were hopeful too as Hurricane Igor rushed ashore,but all it did was carve a path of destruction, not leaving even a single pelagic stray as a consolation. This was disappointing. Since the storm was almost entirely pelagic,never really getting close to land,aside from Bermuda, we knew the possibilities were limited,but similar storm have dropped a White-tailed Tropicbird. We were hoping for a repeat, or maybe even something more significant,but despite lots of searching,nothing was found.

Just before Igor,however, word got out about the rarity of the season, so far in Newfoundland- a FORK-TAILED FLYCATCHER. This is a primarily South American species breeding from central Mexico to Argentina,but is an austral migrant( migrates north,instead of south for the winter) and it known for it's wandering habits. The bird that was photographed in Chapels Cove, Conception Bay on the northern Avalon was just the second or third record for the province.



Aside from the FTFL, there has been a smattering of rarities,with a surprising three Kentucky Warblers,all found on the southern Avalon(two at Cape Race,Trepassey. Aside from that there has not really been any other vagrant southern warblers reported aside from Prairie Warbler and Yellow-breasted Chat,both of which as expected annually in fall in small numbers.



Photographed at Cape Race Oct, 2009



Photographed in my backyard in late Oct 2007

Things have also been relatively slow on the shorebird front as well,on the Avalon Peninsula at least. By that I mean there have not been any outstanding rarities, or any abnormally large influxes witnessed. Perhaps the best shorebird seen this fall on the Avalon is Hudsonian Godwit,of which there were 5 in St John's just a couple of weeks ago. Below are a couple of photos I managed of the birds during the 5 or so days they were in town.




So,thus far it seems as though this is a very negative report of birding on the Avalon Peninsula this fall and perhaps hte birding has not been exceptional in terms of rarities,but we still have a lot to look forward too. October and November often bring some of the best rarities,since this is the best time to find rare western strays, i.e. the enigmatic Townsends Warbler.

Hmmm enigmatic Towsends Warbler..what does that even mean? Well, it's an odd thing about TOWA in Newfoundland. I believe that we have about 14 records for this species sin about the last 25 years. This fact alone is somewhat staggering,since this is perhaps close to the combined number of records for the rest of the Maritimes and the NE states, but what's even more bizarre, is that all but two of these have occurred on the same street (Waterfordbridge Rd) in St.John's,and mos tof those within about a 300 m area!! I will not even attempt to offer an explanation for this phenomenon, except to say that we must be missing a s**tload of TOWA's in the rest of Newfoundland!!


Coming soon to the Waterford Valley??!!


Almost sunrise- time to go find birds,rather than just sit here and write about them. To be continued later today...

Ok,so birding today wasn't all that productive,but I did manage to refind a Great Egret and a Common Gull that I had found a few weeks ago. The Common Gull(a 2nd winter bird) was especially cooperative and I was able to get some nice photos.



Record shot of today's Great Egret at Blackhead. It probably arrived during a blast of southerly winds this week. Interestingly another Great Egret was reported on the SW Avalon Peninsula yesterday.





Note the somewhat thin,short bill, with zig zag black markings and steep forehead combining to give the familiar "gentle" expression, as opposed to the more fierce expression of similar ages Ring-billed Gull

Well,since it's been about 20 hours since I started writing this post, I now seem to have lost my place entirely. Since, I mentioned the Common Gull above I guess that's a good place to pick up. We tend to think of winter as being high season for gulls in St.John's,but fall offers exciting opportunities as well. Oue Black-headed Gull numbers are slowly increasing, I've already found two Yellow-legged Gulls ( returnees from last winter?)and now the Common Gull,not too shabby.

However,before we get too ecited about gulls yet,we can't forget there is still a little over a month of prime passerine vagrant hunting left yet. In fact, November often brings some of the most exciting birding in Newfoundland. Think of birds like the afore mentioned Townsend's Warbler, Yellow-throated Warbler,Eastern Towhee..then there are the more enticing options such as Cave Swallow and Ash-throated Flycatcher,both of which have occurred in the last 3 years!!



Newfoundland first ever Ash-throated Flycatcher,found by yours truly last November in Ferryland on the southern Avalon Peninsula. This nice photo was taken by Jared Clarke.

Newfoundland's first Cave Swallow,found in November 2008 at Long Beach,near Cape Race on the southern Avalon Peninsula.

So,that's an idea of how things have gone so far this fall and a hint of what might be yet to come. This fall has been relatively unexciting, in that we have not had a major vagrant event,but there has been a fairly steady trickle of good birds and the above two birds prove that there is still time for something exciting to happen!! We

With that I'm going to end this somewhat rambling post...next time look for something more structured..maybe a gull ID article in preparation for gull season and my upcoming workshops.

Predicting Some Good Birds

The fall birding season in Newfoundland has gotten off to a pretty slow start,with a just a few relatively minor rarities being reported thus far. As is usually the case very little of the island has been birded, or if other parts are being birded I'm not hearing about it. There are of course a few brave souls outside St.John's, on the west coast a couple in central and the Northern Peninsula,but as usual, the lion share of the birders,birding, and by extension, the rare birds, have been found on the Avalon Peninsula.

The shorebirding season has now reached his peak. Our main influxes of shorebirds doesn't really get going until the beginning of August and so far there have been few highlights but nothing really out of the ordinary. A Common Ringed Plover found on a St Shotts beach in mid August would be cause for great excitement anywhere else in North America, but this species has been annual in on the Avalon Peninsula over the last 5 years,with about 7 records,all between mid August and Mid September.

Last weekend my fiancee Jen and I witnessed the a new provincial high count for Buff-Breasted Sandpipers,which was pretty cool to see,but it still feels like something is lacking. We've only had a couple of Baird's Sandpipers reported and still not Hudsonian Godwits or Stilt Sandpipers,the later of which has become pretty rare in recent years. Also we're still waiting for some European flare alah, Ruffs or Curlew Sandpipers etc.But,there is still lots of time left to find all kinds of good stuff,especially southern passerines!

If you were to visit Newfoundland you might be surprised to be able to walk done a dirt road that has hosted Prothonotary,Kentucky, Blue-winged and Hooded Warblers on the same day!..in mid September! We spend a considerable amount of time each fall especially in September and October trying to uncover these rare southern gems. We generally accomplish this, one of two ways, alder bashing, or pishing the Tuck.

First off Alder bashing. The layman reading this must think that us birders have some deep seated hatred for alder trees and for a couple months each year, we let them feel our wrath....well that's not the case. You see coastal NF is not blessed with deciduous habitat that looks familiar to southern passerines,but we are blessed with an abundance of alder bushes,which, compared to stunted conifers, seem to look pretty appealing to wayward Cerulean Warblers etc!

So basically the technique consists of finding a break in the alders, or creating on of your own, if needed. You then get low,below the 7 foot canopy,so your often kneeling,and you pish and squeak madly!! Sometimes this tales a while before you get any reason,but then you get a chickadee,then kinglet,then a Blackpool and Common Yellowthroat,then you catch a flash pf rich yellow low down in the alders,30 ft away. You struggle to focus through the branches, the bird just feels like something good because of the richness of the yellow and it`s skulky habits. The it comes a little close,,the adrenaline starts to surge,,you see the black crown,with the slight hint of laper grey on top of the hea, the black face pattern reveals itself and you know you`ve found what you were looking for...KENTUCKY WARBLER!!! It often happens like this way down,deep in the dark alders. A few years ago I saw a photo of a Blue-winged Warbler taken in the alder on the southern Avalon and it was captioned ``The Essence of Aldering`` and I couldn't`t agree more!

So, now that you have an introduction to aldering, we can move on to pishing the tuck. Well to grasp this cogent is it imperative that you first understand two important terms, pish and tuck. If you don`t understand tuck, you are partially forgiven,since it may be a Newfoundland colloquialism.However, if you don`t know what pish means.....!!! then you need to find out. Type pish in google and see what you get0 you`ll get a hit in wikipedia.

So,pishing the tuck..what is it anyway.. Well when we use the word tuck we are referring to tuckamoor,which are the stunted conifers found at coastal locations around our province. One destination famous for it`s tuck is Cape Race. Cape Race consists basically of jagged rocky cliffs and coastal barrens,essentially there are no real tracts of forest of any kind. However, there are scattered patches of stunted conifers that provide excellent protection for weakened passerines. As well, we have seen some of the vagrant passerines take up shop in the tuck and stay up to two weeks, indicating the feeding can be pretty good in there as well.

So,you might be wondering how one might go about pishing this tuck.Well you be happy to know that it usually doesn`t involved diving in. Pishing the tuck can usually be done without actually having to enter the tuck itself. In fact I find those squeakers used to immiate chip notes to be very effective. These are available at most wild bird stores and are especially good for getting sparrows all riled up!.

Anyway,I was talking about the fall so far,almost lamenting the lack of really rare birds. There have been a couple of nice ones found, Yellow-breasted Chat,Prairie Warbler, a few Canada Warbler, a couple Nashvilles,a couple Orioles and few other odds and ends. We`re still waiting for te nice warbler event....couls this happen tomorrow?I think it's possible!

There are two reasons i tihn we are in for some good birding this weekend.

1) Cape May and surrounding area are reporting tremendous in and out migration between there and New York over the last 3 days. That means lots of birds heading south on NW winds following cold fronts that pass their areas.

2)Well, as it turns out for the past three days we have been getting warm humid south west winds from the southern US, between the Carolinas and Cape Cod.Now it isn' too much of a stretch to think that some of those birds heading towards the east cost riding NW winds could get pushed out over the Atlantic. In fact, we know this happens quite a bit. Once blown off the eastern US coast that may get picked up by these SW winds, therebyu depositing them directly on the Avalon Peninsula. Sounds crazy?? It happens!Will it happen this weekend...well we'll just have to waut and see.

Edit:It turns out I was right,partially. There were a number of goof birds found this weekend, including,a number of Prairie Warblers,Chestnut-sided,Canada Warbler and what do you know a KENTUCKY!!..kinda prophetic,if I do say so :)

Fall Birding at Cape Spear

Wow,look at me,blog updates on back to back days!! Well,not that I have anything new and exciting to talk about personally,since I haven't been birding for days. For the last two days I've been considering birding the Cape Spear Rd but have been unable to find the motivation when the alarm sounds at 6:00!

Having said that,the purposes of this entry are twofold. Firstly it will serve as an introduction to birding Cape Spear for those unfamiliar with the area and secondly and selfishly, it will hopefully remind me, of how fantastic the birding can be there at times, if you only drag yourself out of bed and get out and look!

While much is said by myself and others about the fantastic birding of the southern Avalon, there is some great birding right around St.John's, particularly at Cape Spear. Cape Spear is the the most easterly point of land in North America and scores of people visit each year just to stand there and feel like they are standing on the edge of the earth. It is this feature(the geography,not the scores of tourists) that is responsible for the good birding at this location.

If you look at a map of the Avalon Peninsula you will notice a piece of land jutting out near St. John's, this is the Cape Spear headland. Under the right conditions( N,NE, or SE winds) the Cape can offering some spectacular sea birding,if you can find shelter from the wind and often accompanying rain or snow. During summer and early fall, on any given day, you can see Gannets and a variety of Alcids,but it is during strong NE winds,particularly those following the passage of tropical storms or intense cold fronts, that the real show starts. At times, under these conditions it is possible to see thousands of Shearwaters,along with Northern Fulmars, Leach's Storm Petrels, Jaegers and Alcids. In winter I have seen over 10,000 Dovekies flying past the Cape!!

Aside from the sea birding possibilities, the barrens surrounding the Cape and the deciduous growth bordering the roadsides offer great birding and serve as an attractive landing point for weary migrants that have reached land after a long oversea flight. Practically, every North American breeding warbler from Hermit to Worm-eating, has been seen on the roadsides from Cape Spear to the community of Blackhead over the years. Finding rare birds at this area is sometimes as simple as locating a flock of Yellow-rumps, or even a couple of Black-capped Chickadees or Kinglets and just watching every bird in the flock until you see something unusual,therefore knowing the common birds is essential,cause you can't know what's rare if you don't the common stuff!

Birding this area is basically as easy as walking the roadside and pishing. We generally do a cursory walk around the Cape itself if you get there early enough before hitting the alders. It's best to tackle the area by parting on the roadside just as the deciduous growth starts are birding up the road a ways,then back, then moving your car up a beat and repeating. It is often a good idea to get off the roadside and actually get under the cover of the alders and pish,this often attracts more birds and makes then easier to see then just birding from the shoulder of the road. Those people who participate in my fall birding trips will see this method in practice!.


UPDATE

I decided to hit Cape Spear this morning and see if the strong SE winds triggered a seabird movement. I birded there from 7:45-9:00 when I was forced to leave by non stop heavy rain making birding impossible.During the time I was there I saw,

Atlantic Puffin- 1000's
Leach's Storm Petrel- 1000's
Northern Gannet- 200+
Northern Flumar- 3
Sooty Shearwater- 10
Manx Shearwater-3
Ruddy Turnstone-1
BAIRD'S SANDPIPER- flew in off ocean with a Semipalmated Plover and
sheltered only 20 ft from me.
Phalarope sp-1
Semipalmated Plover-1

Just another good old fashioned Leache's Storm Petrel wreck at Cape Spear!

Fall Birding Trips

After a long,long hiatus from updating this thing, I've finally decided to commit myself to regular updates. There likley will not be updates every day,but I can guarantee something on at least a weekley basis moving forward. I'm actually currently working on several things, including an article on the relationship between weather and birds in Newfoundland, as well as a article discussing the separation of juvenile Herring and Lesser Black-backed Gulls. I hope to have both of these finished and up on the blog within the next week.

For now, I'd like to discuss my fall birding trips, that will be running about every two weeks until mid November and then I'll probably switch to monthly winter trips. All of these trips will take place on the famous southern Avalon. The southern Avalon, deservedly has the repautation for the most exciting birding locale in Newfoundland and for good reason. What other birding location in North America can claim birds such as European Golden Plover, Corn Crake,Common Redshank,Eurasian Oystercatcher, Eurasian Curlew,Northern Lapwing,Yellow-legged Gull,Common-ringed Plover,Curlew Sandpiper adn those are just the European rarities. Looking within our own continent we've found Pacific Golden Plover,Cave Swallow,American Avocet,Black-necked Stilt,Sooty Tern,Least TernGull-billed Tern,Ivory Gull,, Swainson's Hawk,Clapper Rail,Ash-throated Flycatcher, Prothonotary Warbler,Kentucky Warbler,Worm-eating Warbler etc. Are you salivating yet? I could go on and on listing the fanastic rarities that have been found over the last dacade on this 200 km strip of coastline,but surely this gives you an idea of the potential of the location.

As mentioned I am running trips down the southern shore at least every 2nd week and possibly more often, depending on demand. The first trip in this installment went on Auguest 29th. The trip sold out in just over a day, which was not surprising given the amazing birding at this time of year. There were 7 participants,including myself and we birded from Cape Broyle to Cape Race and back again. The two main objectives of the day were fall "warblering" and shorebirding.

We hit Bear Cove Pt Rd in Renews around 8:00 and stayed there for about 3.5 hours. During that time we saw 10+ species of warbler including a Canada and a Nashville Warbler,both being rare in the province. Aside from that, we saw lots of our more common breeding species,such as Common Yellowthroat,Blackpoll, Black and White, Wilsons etc. After we had out fill of warblers, we headed for Renews beach to check out the shorebird scene.

There was a decent diversity of shorebirds present on the each,despite the high tide and among them were several Lesser Yellowlegs(resaonably uncommon)a Short-billed Dowitcher and a juvie Red Knot. One participant,who shall remain nameless, was left feeling underwhelmed with his life encounter with Red Knot,lamenting the fact that it was in fact not red at all and better yet seemed devoid of any remarkable features! Personally, I think Juvie Red Knots in their frosted, scaly plumage, are quite attractive in a subdued way!I think this particular participant had come to see my way of thinking after point blank views at 60X!! That one of the great things about these trips, you WILL have the opportunity to see many different species of shorebirds at very close range,allowing for careful study of all their intricate details.

After the Renews shorebirding experience, we headed for Cape Race in search of Whimbrels and whatever else might come our way. We did in fact find several flocks of Whimbrels and had some amazing views,especially when a couple of birds circled our heads repeatedly. Aside from the Whimbrels, we had some great encounters with a number of raptors, including Merlin,Sharp-shinned Hawk,Northern Goshawk, Bald Eagle,Northern Harrier(many) and a Peregrine Falcon. I should also mention a nice look at two Moose,that seemd to look out of place on the Cape Race barrens.

We decided to head back towards St.John's after Cape Race since points west seemed to be cloaked in fog. We ended the day with some more study of the Renews shorebird flock and some leisurly scope views of a Beaver eating lilly pads.Overall, it was a great day,with some great birds and good time was had by all.

The second installement in my southern shore birding series happens this Sunday September 12th. Unfortunately, that trip is completely booked and has been for some time.It also promises to be a spectacular trip, with even more promise for exciting rarities.

Following the above trip I have a tour scheduled for either Sat September 25th or Sunday September 26th. This trip will be more focused on finding Newfoundland rarities.Of course, we will stop for whatever crosses our path,but our objective will be digging out some of the more difficult to find species. We'll be hitting all the major vagrant hot spots along the southern shore and I'll be doing a lot of talking about how, when and where to find rare birds on the Avalon Peninsula. If this trip sounds like it might be of interest you, I'd suggest you contact me asap, as there are only 2 of 5 spots remaining and it was sold out until I had a couple of cancellations yesterday.Below is the schedule for some upcoming fall birding trips,

August 29th- Southern Shore(Full)- Completed

Spetember 12th Southern Shore: Warbler, Raptors and Shorebirds-(Full)

September 25 or 26th- Southern Shore Vagrant Blitz! (2/5 places open)

October 11th- Southern Shore- Dunlins,Ducks and Sparrows( lots of potential for vagrant warblers and vireos as well!)5/5 places open

I will be announcing additional dates soon, as well as, my ever popular Gull Identification Workshops!

The Codroy Report...Finally

Well, it's much overdue but I've finally gotten around to posting my Codroy Report. I was having some difficulty with my image processing software and wanted to make sure I could post photos, so that was partly the cause for the delay. Other than that I guess my extraordinary,almost super-human, ability to procrastinate was the cause.

Anyway, on with the report. While I was there this year I spent some time guiding visiting birders, which turned out to be very successful. All of my clients reported that our trips were some of the best birding they had ever experienced in the Codroy Valley. All of my clients we able to see many of their target species, such as the 'budworm warblers', Blackburnian,Bay-breast and Cape May. Aside from that we saw several other of the rarer warblers,such as Northern Parula,Nashville and Chestnut-sided Warblers. I will be releasing the details for nest years tour within the next few weeks and will distribute the information to my mailing list at that time.







Each year birding the Codroy is a little different,of course the dates of your trip and weather certainly impact the species you are likely to see. This year we didn't arrive until June 4th, which is a little later,but I don;t think that impacted the diversity or number of species we saw. In the two weeks we spent in the Codroy we saw 136 species, including 21 species of warblers, 8 species of flycatchers,9 species of sparrows etc etc. There is truly no place like the Codroy in Newfoundland,when it comes to bird diversity and abundance.

Among those 21 species of warblers included 5 singing Chestnut-sided Warblers. This species appears to be increasing in the area and actually attempted to nest in Newfoundland for the first time last year in Loch Lomand.When we left on June 20th this year there were still 5 singing territorial males,so it seemed the chances are good that at least one of those has a female and will breed successfully.



Another species that I've heard is on the the increase in eastern North America is Bobolink. The Codroy Valley is the only place in Newfoundland,where this species breeds and this year we saw about 10 birds,most of which were splendid looking black and white singing males.





Everyday of birding presented new birds and new opportunities,especially for a bird photographer. I concentrated the vast majority of my time to birding,but I did take some time to focus on getting shots of certain species. The key to photographing the Codroy area is knowing where to find them and more importantly, knowing how to identify them by song! I'd sat over 90% of all birds seen on the entire trip were first identified by song, then tracked down to get a look or to photograph. Below are some other photos from the trip ( I'll hopefully be adding more soon!)






















TO BE CONTINUED......

Also, dates for the upcoming Shorebird Identification workshop will be released tomorrow!