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!

European Golden Plover Invasion!!!

In my last post I was predicting a fall of southern vagrants on the southern Avalon Peninsula, following the passage of several low pressure systems that swept from the great lakes to NF in a couple of days. Well, that was pretty much a bust. Aside from a deceased Gray Catbird we never had much. Another birder( Julie Cappleman) was able to find Newfoundland's(4th?) Upland Sandpiper, so maybe my predictions weren't way off afterall.

However, all of this has been overshadowed by a flight of European Golden Plovers into eastern Newfoundland this week. When searching for southern vagrants at Cape Race on May 10th I discovered a single Euro Golden Plover flying high overhead. Then about 1.5 hours later I had a flock of 19!!! flying north, soon to be followed by a flock if 17 flying south!! In addition to this there have been flocks of 7 and 3 seenin St.John's and a flock of 6 currently at Cape Bonavista! All together,this could mean that over 50 have been seen this week so far!!



Perhaps even more unusual then the numbers being seen, are the weather conditions they have arrived in. A quick look back at the last two posts will show the pressure maps for Newfoundland over the last week or so. They are not even close to being "Plover winds". But hey, I'm not complaining. There was,however, a pretty big low that stationed itself between NF and Greenland, I believe May 4th-7th. This is not the type of system we think of as traditionally being good for bringing Euro Golden Plovers,but maybe that's what did it? If that's the case though,where have they been,since the 7th and why are they now arriving into SW winds??

Aside from the Golden Plovers, there have been a bunch of other cool birds,most being hangers on from our previous southern blast. It seems that the numbers of Rose-breasted Grosbeaks continue to climb. This species is generally a spring vagrant to Newfoundland, however this year there have been easily over 50 reports. There must be huge numbers of this species in the province right now. With this many reports of males and females it seems likley that this species will breed somewhere in the province this year and will makes a welcome addition to the islands avifauna,even if ,only temporarily.







For me though,the star attraction this week was an adult female Red-necked Phalarope in the Goulds( farming town on outskirts of St.John's). We see these bird almost exclusively in fall among flocks of Red Phalaropes, well offshore. It is a rare treat to see a breeding female in a small pond. Oh and in case you didn't know,Phalaropes are the deviants of the bird world. In most bird species the males are the flashy ones,while the females are often crypticly colored to blend in with the surrounding habitat. Well the female Phaleropes don't plan second fiddle to their male counterparts, as they are the more colorful of the two. Aside from that,they leave the males to tend the nest after mating!Below is a photo of the stunner and possible 1st inland breeding plumaged RNPH for Newfoundland.

Predicting Another Wave- Cape Race Here I Come!!

As I've stated in earlier posts choosing a time and location to go birding is often not a random decision. For many experienced birders, there is much forethought,analysis and planning behind the scenes prior to any birding trip,especially in times of heavy bird migration migration. This is especially true for regions such as Point Pelee,Ontario, High Island ,Texas, Cape May,New Jersey and various other hotspots.

These locations are often referred to as 'migrant traps". A migrant trap is a strategically situated piece of land, often an island or Peninsula. It could also be a particularly luch area in a very arid region, or a heavily wooded sector in a heavily urbanized area,such as Central Park in New York City. Migrant trap don't actually trap birds of course,but they act as a falling out point for birds that might be stressed after a long migration.They are appealing because they are the first point of land available to tireed migrants or because they have some ecological component that makse them superior to the surrounding environment.

For us in Newfoundland we are often at the end of a birds migratory route, we get very few transients other than late summer and fall shorebirds. In short, if your a bird that makes it this far to the north east, you don't intend on going any further, and even if you did,where would you go? We do however have a few locations that have proven to have the ability to concentrate birds after the appropriate weather conditions and Cape Race is one such area.

Cape Race is the most south easterly point of land in Newfoundland. The Cape itself is a barren area,with a few buildings,tundra and some short grassy areas. There aren't any trees at the Cape itself so vagrants settle in the grass and are often found sheltering around man made structures- under steps,parked cars anything that provides shelter. Cape Race is situated at the end of an approximately 20km dirt road that trails along the coast from the community of Portugal Cove South. Along this road there again is little cover aside from scatted patches of stunted spruce,referred to locally as tuckamoor. The tuckamoor and various parts of the road has shown a remarkable ability to hold vagrant songbirds. It consists of extremely dense,often tangled spruce tress that have been battered for perhaps a decades or perhaps even hundreds of years by the often fierce and unrelenting winds,blowing off the northern Atlantic Ocean. At first glance, this habitat doesn't look like much,but imagine your a tiny 6 once bird that has just flown 1000 km's during a storm out over the Atlantic, in 80km winds and it starts to look exponentially more appealing!

So,why am I even talking about all of this? Well, I've been looking at the upcoming weather maps for the next couple of days and they're looking really really good for potentially bringing a pile of birds to the southern Avalon Peninsula. It has only been two weeks since the last fallout at Cape Race,which brought Cattle Egret, Hooded Warbler, Scarlet Tanager and a pile of Thrushes. This next system looks every bit as good as that one to me and shares a lot of features as the previous system. Looking below you can see the system I'm talking about.



Saturday May 8th- Notice the system centered around the Great Lakes Region



Sunday May 9th- System is further east and generating winds from the SW dirctly to the Avalon Peninsula.



Monday, May 10th. A continuation from the previous day,still giving S winds to the southern Avalon Peninsula



Notice the movement of the low pressure system from the Great Lakes to the Maritimes. Notice especially, how the isobars(lines on the map) in the maps for Sunday and Monday are tightly packed(indicating strong winds)blowing out over the Atlantic Ocean and straight to southern Newfoundland( the winds flow parallel to the isobars.) Now look back at the weather maps from the Cape Race fallout a couple of weeks ago and notice the similarities. This low pressure system actually originated in the Midwest near the Texas panhandle then started to rapidly move to the North East.As well, system happens to coincide with the main migration of warblers into the Great Lakes and the NE US.

If things play out like just right,there could be some legendary birding coming our way in the next few days. if you have sick days banked I'd suggest you use them. Make sure you have a full tank of gas and have your bins and camera within reach.Good birding and stay tuned!

More NF Spring Birding Craziness

Ok, I'm not even sure where to start with this one. Things are happening here, we're getting hit by vagrants from all sides,every other day there seems to be some sort of mini-fallout of some sort, in short some really exciting birding these days and I'm glad to be a part of it. This is Nirvana for Newfoundland birders,with each trip proving to out do the next.

In my last post I spoke of a combination of southern and European vagrants, well this has just continued and has gotten even stranger. Maybe someone can explain this to me. How is it possible to get a fallout of Neotropical migrants such as Grey-cheeks Thrush( a month early!!!) and European Golden Plovers at the same location, on the same day??? It just doesn't make any sense does it? Winds that carry us European Golden Plovers should push northbounds Neotripical migrants away from Newfoundland and vice versa. Well I guess anything is possible at Cape Race. if you have never been there,do yourself a favor and make a visit. It's a mainstay on all my southern Avalon tours and for good reason- it rarely dissappoints. If your not impressed with the birds then you'll surely be impressed with the awesome coastal scenery.

Anyway, getting back to the exciting stuff. Here is a list of birds I saw during an leisurly afternoon birding outing from Ferryland to Cape Race on Wednesday May 5th. Note all of these birds are classified as vagrants to Newfoundland.

CHIMNEY SWIFT,CLIFF SWALLOW,PURPLE MARTIN,INDIGO BUNTING,ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK,SCARLET TANAGER,HOODED WARBLER,VEERY,RUFF,CATTLE EGRET...I think there are a few more,but this is enoguh to give you an idea of what the birding is like right now. All of these birds have been carries north by low pressure systems moving up the eastern seaboard and across to Newfoundland from the Great Lakes Region.On May 6th I made the same trip again with my fiancee,Jen,so she could cash in on a few lifers that we missed on a previous trip. We had most of the birds listed above but also witness a pretty extraordinary event, a fallout of Grey-cheeked Thrushes,Hermit Thrush and White-throated Sparrows!! The Hermit Thrush and White-throated Sparrows aren't that unusual,but the Grey-cheeks...really weird,almost a full month early. A birding friend told me that Point Pelee got the first grey-cheeked yesterday and it was deemed early. If that bird was early the Newfoundland birds are..well insanely early. It is likley the birds arrived here on the fast moving southerly winds. Many of the arriving birds appear stressed and this is eveidenced by two emaciated carcasses that I collected (note you need a permit to collect birds carcasses- I have one.

So the Thrush eent was quite exciting,but combine that with the sudden arrival of 9 European Golden Plovers at three locations on the southern Avalon Peninsula and you have a total mind bender..WTF??? I knw that after the last low pressure system passed it sat of the north east coast of the Newfoundland gicing us wrap around NW winds that almost reached southern Greenland. I guess it's possible that there were some Euro Golden Plovers that were already off track and got whipped around to southern Newfoundland.



Notice the low pressure system off NE Newfoundland. This originated in the Great lakes moved to this position in a couple days. It could have carries a bunch of swallows erc with it,pushed them off the eaast coast of NF,then slingshotted them back with the wrap around NW winds that followed the passage of the system. Thjis same winds could have pushed Euro Golden Plover to SE NF.

So getting back to that list of birds I mentioned earlier,below are some photos that I took. Thsee photos are mostly just record shot quality. I never had the luxury of spending the time rewuired with these birds to get great photos,but for the record here are some of the birds I've seen recently.



Purple Martin(female)- Ferryland May 5th



Cliff Swallow Ferryland May 5th



Chimney Swift- Ferryland May 5th



Scarlet Tanager- The Drook, Cape Race May 5th



Indigo Bunting- Renews May 5th



Cattle Egret- Portugal Cove South, May 5th



Ruff- Renews, May 5th


I'm planning a couple of more southern Avalon trips in the next two weeks, before I leave for the Codroy Valley for a month. If you are interested in attending one of these trips you can pre book your spot by contacting me @ dave.browne@gmail.com. After the excitement of the last week I'm sure these trips will book quickly.

PS: excuse the typos that undoubtedly plague this post, I'll edit them out when I get time, just wanted to get this out there.

Spring Birding,Newfoundland Style!!

Sorry again that there has been some along time between posts, at least the interval has been reduced! Anyway,things have really gotten exciting on the Newfoundland birding scene over the last week,with a combination of mini fallout of southern vagrants and a mini European invasion, as odd combination that would never happen anywhere else on earth! This odd combination of vagrant birds is what makes Newfoundland such a unique and exciting birding destination. We may not have 300+ breeding species,but when things are"happening" in Newfoundland, there is really no place I would rather be birding.

The events that I speak of above were likely precipitated by a couple of weather events. One a nice low pressure system sitting south of Iceland that generated winds directly to Newfoundland and a series of low pressure systems that quickly moved up the eastern seaboard that generated offshore winds from the Carolinas directly to southern Newfoundland. Below are a series of images showing the surface pressure maps for April 27th-May 3rd.



April 27th


April 28th



April 29th



April 30th

Birds likely started arriving in Newfoundland on Thursday April 29th. On that day there were a few Veeries reported from Cape Race and Trepassey and a Cattle Egret from nearby Portugal Cove South. Over the following days the true breadth of the event would be realized,when reports of southern vagrants poured in from all over the Avalon Peninsula and the entire south coast of the province. it is interesting to note that there have not been similar reports in other parts of Atlantic Canada and the NE US,indicating that the winds that blew offshore from the Carolinas carried birds from there or points south,directly to the shores of Newfoundland. The bird that has been reported the most has been Rose-breasted Grosbeak. This species beeds in the Canadian Martimes,but is still considered a vagrant in Newfoundland. There are a few reports each spring,but nothing like the influx of the last week. So far there have been over the 30+ reports of this species from birders and feeder watchers. One can only guess how many have gone unseen,perhaps hundreds! Other birds included in this even are Indigo Buntings, a few Scarlet Tanagers, A few Baltimore Orioles, Veeries, Swainson's Thrush, Grey Cheeked Thrush( a month early!!),Gray Catbird,Purple Martin,Eastern Phoebe,HOODED WARBLER,PROTHONOTARY WARBLER,Snowy Egret, Great Egret(several) and Cattle Egret. Who knows what else is lurking out there waiting to be discovered.

Well, if the above even was not extraordinary enough, we managed to find a few "decent" European birds to round out the week. The juxtaposition of the European and North American rarities is what makes Newfoundland bird so great and yet so unique. Where else in the world could you see a Garganey, Ruff and Hooded Warbler in the same day? What about Northern Lapwing and Cattle Egret?Yes, in the past Newfoundland had been referred ot as Attu east and it is times like this that the name is so rightly deserved.

I mentioned in the my previous post that Euro Golden Plovers might be on the way,due to a nice weather system that was generating winds from Iceland to Newfounldand. Well, we didn;t quite get an influx of Euro Golden Plovers,but we have gotten two this week, which is more than the rest of North American can say ;)Along with the Plovers,are the aforementioned Northern Lapwing,Garganey, Ruff and throw in a Northern Wheatear and you have yourself a nice little mix of European birds,not bad for a weeks birding in North America's most easterly province.

So what's next? Well spring is just getting started. There is still plenty of time for more European bird and southern US vagrants,not to mention that our own breeding birds will be arriving en masse over the next month. This is an exciting time to be a birder in Newfoundland and not a bad time to visiting birder on our shores either!


NOTE**

The songbird workshop starts this Saturday- still some room left,details in the workshops section of my blog. Also, I will be leaving for the Codroy valley in SW Newfoundland ina few weeks. I hope to be there for a minimum of three weeks. This is the most bird rich area of our province,but can be difficult to bird if you don't know your way around. If your planning on birding in the area, I'm booking day trips ( and more) now. Why waste time stumbling around trying to find the best birding spots when you can have an experienced birder,out you on the great birds? If you into photography,this is even more important. Please contact me at dave.browne@gmail.com to book your day trip or vacation today. I'm only allowing a small percentage of my time there for guiding so space is limited.

Euro Golden Plovers on the Way!!!???

First of all, I should say I'm sorry for not updating this blog in so long. I've been busy and preoccupied with non-birding related things,but hope to get back to regular updates of at least every couple days.

Anyway, it's not like you missed much. The fisrt official couple weeks of spring is not particularly exciting in NF, in terms of birding. We have a few of our breeders back suck as Fox Sparrows, Robins,Horned Larks,but it is not until the second week of May that the real flood of migrants begins. Almost all of our breeding birds wil return in about a 10 days period,when they will feverishly look for territories and mates, build nests, defend territories, feed young, then take off south again before doing it all over again next year- sounds like a lot of work!

Right so that's the common stuff, the expected species,but what we really look forward to this time of year are European visitors,particularly those travelling to Iceland. Most years in late April there are low pressure systems that sit off southern Iceland that generate, E and NE winds between Iceland and Newfoundland. European birds that are migrating from Britain or southern Europe to Iceland soemtimes get caught up in these winds and ride the transatlantic highway right to Newfoundland. This year there is an extra wrinkle thrown in,since there is a massive cloud of ash between Oceland and Newfoundland- who knows how this might affect Icelandic bird migration. Will birds ajust fly through the cloud? Will fly above it, below it, around it? Who knows what will happen,but there are all kinds of tantilizing thoughts flying arounf the minds of Newfoundland birders, about birds getting detoured to our shores.

Ok, so that might be a bit of a pipedream, but one thing we probably can count on is a few European Golden Plovers. This species is extremely rare in North American and Newfoundland is about the only place a birder could ever hope to see one on North American soil. They have occured elsewhere in North America,but very very rarely and it;s amajor event when they do. Here, we expect them. European Golden Plovers are annual spring vagrants in Newfoundland.

It is getting to be the time of year when we start to see EUGP showing up and the weather appears to cooperating as well. As I mentioned above, we want to see low presure systems south of Iceland that generate winds from Iceland to Newfoundland- well that's what is happening right now! Coincidetally European Golden Plovers are appearing in Iceland in good numbers right now,making it the perfect time for some to veer off course. Notice the weather map below shows a nice low off of Iceland with a nice flow of air from the NE Atlantic to Newfoundland, if things work out as planned, we will see our first European Golden Plovers this weekend!!





Only time will tell if these predictions hold true,but history has shown this combination of weather and date means a decent chance for Icelandic strays, there could be some exciting birding over the next few days- stay tuned!!

PINK-FOOTED GOOSE!!!

I have been waiting for weeks for something to break the late winter birding doldrums- today it finally happened. It was completely random how things played out. Many times my birding outing are planned with military presision.I try to get to best location given the season,winds, current weather patterns etc. All of this planning gives the "prepared" birder an edge over the general enthusiast,who just basically walks the same route every day, or just hits random locations without any thought to the possabilities and or any of the conditions I mentioned above. Well,it seems like it's been a long winter in St. John's,even though it hasn't really been much of a winter at all. However, it's been a while since anything really exciting happened.

The above sentance shows just how jaded a birder can get here in St. John's. I say it's been a while since anything exciting happened. Well it's been only a few weeks since our Ivory Gull bonanza and a couple weeks more since a White-winged Dove turned up( we no longer get very excited over these now annual visitors. A short time before that there was the Slaty-backed Gull, as well as Redwing, a few Lapwings and a Horenmann's Hoary Redpoll!! Anway, none of that means anything to the the seemingly rarity starved birders of "Attu East" as Newfoundland has been referred to in the past.

This is all a long drawn out way of saying that today I was extremely excited to have "luck boxed"( obscure poker term :)) my way into finding a Pink-footed Goose!! There was no planning,no thought and this species certainly wasn't on my radar.So much so in fact that I called resident birder Bruce Mactavish to provide a description,so he could confirm.







What I didn't know is that Bruce had received an email the day previous describing a small Goose near an overpass on the Goulds bypass Rdm in Mt.Pearl! He had even been to the site just 30 minutes before me to check the report but the Goose wasn't there.Well,no matter I was still happy with my "independant" discovery.

After speaking with Bruce I called a couple of other local birders to spread the word,but by this time it was getting dark quick and all the birds ( 20+ Black Ducks and Mallards) had flushed after som kids started throwing rocks into the pond.I stayed around until dark just to advise that I hadn't seen the bird.

I left and headed back to my folks place,where I had left my dog,when I headed out for a quick,random 10 minute check of the area. I was happy to find a nice spread of BBQ waiting for me upon my return- European mega-rarities, BBQ,life is good!

Newfoundland Songbird Workshop

Note** This page will be updated in the near future with current info. If you are interested in learning more about Newfoundland songbirds, you can visit the various other pages on my blog  and if you are interested in birding workshops or a private guided Newfoundland birding experience, please see the Birding Newfoundland website. The workshop described herein, will be offered again in the future.

In the past I have received numerous emails from people asking if
there was a field guide specifically for the birds of Newfoundland, or
a bird song cd that covered Newfoundland birds only. It was with that
in mind that I have decided to offer a Newfoundland songbird workshop.
This workshop is geared toward beginner and intermediate birders and
will focus on learning how to recognize immediately what type of bird
you are looking at, i.e. Warbler, Flycatcher, Sparrow etc. You will
learn the key features to look for when separating songbirds of
various groups.

This is not meant to replace your field guide,but will greatly
enhance your ability to identify Newfoundland birds. In spring and
summer, most bird identifications are made by song. Knowing a birds
song will tip you off to it's presence and will allow you to key on
specific species. This is especially important if you are trying to
photograph particular species. This workshop will give you a great
start in in Newfoundland bird song ID.

For those of you that participated in the gull workshops,the format
will be very similar.

The workshop will include:

2 (3hr)classroom sessions- Sat May 8th, Sun May 16th, 9:00am-12:00am
1 (4hr) field session- Sun May 16th, 6am-10am
covers identification of about 80 species of songbirds,by sight and
sound.
Powerpoint presentation of all material, as well as a cd of recorded
bird songs of all species covered.
Cost: $125

***NOTE*** Terra Nova Birding Weekend participants receive a 50%
discount. Codroy Valley Tour participants receive this workshop for free!!

Attached is an add for the workshop. If you can't identifiy all of these
species at a glance and hear their song in your head,then you will
benefit from this workshop.

Maximum of 9 participants,with a few places already reserved. If you
are interested in this workshop please contact me at
dave.browne@gmail.com asap to reserve your spot.

Looking Forward to Spring and the Codroy Valley

It really feels liKE spring is on the way in Eastern Newfoundland. Temperatures have been above zero for a few weeks and there is very little snow cover left. Much of Newfoundland has no snow cover at all!

Havinf said that the bird scene has slowed significantly and this has gotten me looking forward to the things to come. However,we are seeing some signs of chang,in fact Black-legged Kittiwakes are already streaming back and they will soon be followed by Murres and Gannets. However it is not until the seocnd week of April that we wil see our first song birds. First we will see returning Robins and Fow Sparrows,thsese will be closely followed by White-throated Sparrows,Savannah and Swampers. Also during this time Hermit Thrushes and Ruby-crowned Kinglets will make their ways back to the Avalon Peninsula. All of this activity will cumlinate of the last two weeks of May when the final flood of birds will appear including all of our warblers,vireos and Flycatchers. This is the time to be birding!

I usually try to get to the Codroy valley each year for a couple of weeks in May-June to really experience summer birding at it's best in Newfoundland. This place is pure magic and the birding is like no where else on the island. The density and diversity of songbirds in this area is truly remarkable. For example last year my fiancee and I did a "big day" in this area and tallied 112 species in a single day!! This is the highest single day count ever in Newfoundaland. It was made up of 15+ species of warblers,3 species of Vireo, 8 species of sparrows,5 species of Blackbird,6 species of flycatcher, 5 species of Thrush and the list goes on and on!!











Just a taste of what the Codroy has to offer....


If you'd like to experience this for yourself,along with stunning scenery and amazing,relaxing,birding experience check out my Codroy valley tour in the curent tours offered section above.

New Tours Announced- Including Owling!

Hey Everyone,

I just wanted to add a quick note to let everyone know that I have added a few new tours. If you haven't been here lately you might notice that things have changed a bit. Under the title header you will notice some categories. One of these is Current Tours. Click on this to get information about upcoming tours.

I have just announced some Owling trips for late March and April as well as some spring trips on the southern Avalon. Feel free to take a look and see if anything interests you!

IVORY GULL!!!

On Monday February 15,local birder Alvan Buckley and I birder the southern Avalon Peninsula. Our primary target was the Hoary Redpoll that has been frequenting a Portugal Cove South feeder.

we got underway early,weather was excellent,which was the opposite of what was forecast. We pretty much birded the entire day without anything exciting. the Redpoll was no where to be found and the meagre highlight was nice looks at a couple of Red-throated Loons.

It was only 1:00 in the afternoon and we were already heading back north towards St.John's. We decided to visit all the small coves along the way checking for Alcids close to shore and a stop in Ferryland to look for a long staying,yet elusive ( to birders at least) Dickcissel. Well, we dipped on the Dickcissel and hadn't found any Alcids until we got to Calvert.

Driving through Calvert we spotted a Common Murre floating close to the wharf. We decided to drive out onto the wharf and try for photos. Our plan was to wait for the Murre to dive then bolt out fo the car and get a few photos when it surfaced. The Murre dove and we got in position. We got some photos when it surfaced,but amazingly it swam away from us and close to shore. We bolted ot the shore where the Murre was diving. We hid behind a conveniently places warehouse and waited until the Murre dove and again we moved into position. The Murre popped up incredibly close,we got a few shots,then it dove again. Amazingly it popped up again and continued to feed only meters from us for almost 30 minutes. Not satisfied with the photos I was getting from the top of the breakwater, I decided to jump down on shore,since the tide was out and the waves were very small. This was great,until the tide began to rise very quickly. First a slightly bigger push of water,then a slightly bigger wave,then a much bigger wave! I was actually kneeling in the water and barely rose up above and got my back to wave to spare my camera equipment! But it was fun and worth it!!







Compared to the rest of our day this was exciting. I was explaining to Alvan,how sometimes on these trips we don't see anything rare,but there are usually memorable moments and we would likely remember the Murre photo session as the highlight of the trip. We had just pulled into Witless Bay as i was saying this and I had just gotten on 3 shorebirds flying across the bay. The default shorebird in winter is Purple Sandpiper,but these birds looked slightly off,probably because I really wanted to find something exciting. I followed the birds to shore and was suggesting that we drive over to have a look,when it happened! I saw a white gull way off in the distance. It looked somewhat unfamiliar. It's flight seemed unusually buoyant and reminded me of a cross between and Iceland Gull and a Kittiwake. I looked at the bird for about 5 seconds then it sunk in- this is an IVORY GULL. That is when I probably scared the heck out of Alvan, when I yelled,IVORY GULL,this is a f***ing IVORY GULL- I was a little excited.Pulse racing, I jumped out of the car,grabbed my camera and fired a few distant shots,just for the record,but the bird was drifting away.We had to chase it.

A couple of minutes later after a hairy 80km/hr drive down a narrow side road we were again watching the Ivory Gull. We were oblivious to the fact that we had invaded the property of a B&B and there were a few curious people watching us through the large bay window. I'm sure they were wondering what these two nuts we doing running around their front lawn with spotting scopes and cameras,yelling and waving to each other. we stayed here with the bird for about 20 minutes. It was working the coast and actually flre right in front of us several times. Unfortunately it was getting dark at this point and the bird was a little distant for photos. I did manage to grab a few record quality shots as the bird flew by and landed briefly.

WOW!! How things can change. What started out a one of the most bland birding days of the winter,ended out being one of the best. I often tell others that it only takes one bird to change things around and that's so true- especially when that one bird is an immaculate adult Ivory Gull.





Word is that there are flocks of Ivory Gulls in southern Labrador. Also, visiting birder/photographer Brandon Holden found three!! in Savage Cove on the Northern Peninsula. Combine this with my bird and things are shaping up for a good ole invasion of Ivory Gulls. Stay tuned- this might only be the beginning!!!

EDIT: 10-20 Ivory Gulls seen near the straight of Belle Isle in northern Newfoundland!!!