Summer 2015

Summer has more or less arrived on the island of Newfoundland. True the wind swept alders along the coast do not have leaves yet but the birds are not waiting.  The birds are heavily into the breeding season.  The last of spring migration was a week ago.

It is time to look ahead into summer. The shearwaters and whales hunting for spawning capelin along the coast is something to look forward to.  Maybe there will be a rare southern tern or rare dark hooded gull harbouring among the common local species. Some of the very rarest and oddest birds hardly on the rarity radar can show up in summer.  

June is nesting month. There are lots of warblers and songbirds in the woods in their best plumages and singing up a storm. In two weeks the song will already be winding down and the songbirds will be looking a little rough around the edges.

It is easy to get complacent and let summer roll by.  Don't let it happen to you!  Below are a few pretty birds from the past weekend.

The Blackpoll Warbler, male above and female below, are one the commonest breeding warblers on the Avalon. They are attractive enough in their way.

The Black-and-white Warbler is also an abundant Avalon nesting warbler. And is the tamest and most curious warbler.

A pair of Pine Grosbeaks feeding on dandelions seeds on the roadside is a regular June sight across the province.  Goldfinches, siskins and juncos also take advantage of this food source. The pink of the males Piner turns a more fiery red in summer. 

South Meets North - SUTA & WIPT same day

I photographed only two species of birds on 10 June 2015.  It was a 'work' trip to Cape Race, Newfoundland.  I really didn't need to bring binoculars, telescope, tripod, big lens and camera to meet with a person from Newfoundland Power to discuss details on a proposed trailer installation for a marine mammal study - but I did.  Rounding the corner at Portugal Cove South I wasn't even looking for the Summer Tanager first discovered ten days earlier when I saw it fly up off  a lawn near the location of original discovery.  I had assumed it was long gone.  Being such a rare calm and sunny morning I decided to take the opportunity to photograph the bird in the early morning light.

The female tanager looked robust and happy fly catching from a lawn, a rock and various power lines and clothes lines. There was not a tree in sight.

The 'work' went well quickly at Cape Race allowing for plenty of free birding time.  Nothing out of the ordinary. Lots of the expected few species in the tuckamore.  On the way back out on the Cape Race road one of those red chickens walked across the road. I stopped and switched the rental SUV into stealth mode.  I crept the vehicle up on the male Willow Ptarmigan.  In no time it accepted me and went about pecking at the ground often stopping to look at me.  We had a grand conversation for 30 minutes. Twice other vehicles drove by on the noisy gravel road and the grouse crouched down low but regained composure soon as they passed.

It was mid day and a very bright sunny day. The power of the sun is still drawing the coldness of winter out of the ground on the coastal barrens in June. The shimmer in the air over the land was intense. It basically makes photography impossible.  That didn't stopped me from pointing the camera at the bird and taking a couple hundreds shots. It was close so I was hoping the shimmer would be minimal between me and the bird.  However, I was not surprised that  99% of the picture completely useless. For brief moments the air seemed to stop shimmering. I couldn't see it but the camera did. A very few shots came out OK. Had it been earlier in the morning before the difference in the air and ground temperature grew, the photo opportunity would have been excellent.

All in all it was an excellent day out of the office....

 This female Summer Tanager first found at Portugal Cove South on 30 May was one of a record five this spring in Newfoundland.  

Despite regular hunting pressure  on Willow Ptarmigan along the Cape Race road in the fall they move back to habitat by the road every spring/summer.  People are thinking numbers are good this year. This male is likely on watch for a female sitting on a clutch of eggs.  The black flies were out in numbers today.

Happiness is Two White Spaghetti Noodle Plumes

Arriving in Renews on my way back home from a birding trip down the Southern Shore I was startled to see an egret on the tidal flats near the main road.  My initial reaction without thinking it through was how did the long staying Snowy Egret that I'd seen just an hour ago at Biscay Bay get here to Renews so quick.

The Snowy Egret living at Biscay Bay and Portugal Cove South for the last two weeks was alive and well at Biscay Bay Saturday morning with its ever brightening yellow lores.

I put my binoculars on the bird just as the wind blew out its two long spaghetti noodle white head plumes. THIS WAS A LITTLE EGRET ! ! !  A very pleasant surprise especially since the bird was not there in the morning.

This was the 11th Little Egret for Newfoundland, a semi-regular vagrant with a huge aura of excitement around it.  It stood still for about 30 minutes before suddenly springing into feeding mode. I am guessing it was tired from a hard flight from somewhere (Europe? North America?) in the strong SE to SW winds during the previous 15 hours.  

The egret caught many sticklebacks in the tidal shallows which it had trouble swallowing at first but seemed to get better at it over the next two hours.  Photography of a glaring white bird in the brilliant midday sunlight is the biggest challenge of digital photography, and a challenge I have not mastered if it is even possible to master. The following are some of the better photos after a first run through the hundreds of shots this evening.  Maybe more chances tomorrow in less demanding light.

Little Egret at Renews, Avalon Peninsula, Newfoundland  on 23 May 2015

A dull Snowy Egret in Spring

WHAT AM I?

Photo: 14 May 2015, Biscay Bay, Avalon Peninsula, Newfoundland

A somewhat off the grid looking egret.  The black bill and black legs leave only one obvious answer in most of North America, a Snowy Egret with a few parts missing. Where is the bright yellow lore, the feathery crest and why are the legs less than a shiny ebony?

Another look at the same bird confirming that the classic Snowy Egret bright yellow lores and crest of any kind is not there.

Another picture which thankfully shows the golden slippers characteristic of Snowy Egret but also Little Egret. The lighting is good for revealing the actual colour of the lores: a dull dirty yellow but still no crest.

Here is a Snowy Egret photographed at Virginia Lake. St. John's Newfoundland 24 July 2006. Relief at last. A Snowy Egret looking like we expect them to look after years of looking at them in the book. You don't even need to see the yellow feet with bright yellow lores and shiny black bill and legs like this.

A Little Egret at Little Harbour East, Placentia Bay, NF May 21 2013.  It shows the classic dual white ribbon head plumes and bluish lores.

The photo presented of May 14 2015 bird do not readily fit either the confirmed Snowy Egret or a Little Egret pictured here.  To complicate matters, Little Egrets at the height of breeding season can show yellow lores.  This bird is not in high breeding plumage since it does not exhibit much in the way of head plumes and the bill and legs look a dull uneven dullblack.  Any yellow in the lores of a Little Egret should occur only during the height of the breeding plumage at which time the two  head plume ribbons would be evident.

If you watched the bird long enough rudimentary feathery head plumes blew up in the wind totally supporting the identification as Snowy Egret. But over all an unusual individual Snowy Egret to see during spring in Newfoundland where both Snowy and Little Egret are nearly equally rare in spring.

                                                             

GARGANEY GIFT in St. John's, Newfoundland

Sometimes you just feel it in your bones that there is a certain rare bird out there waiting to be seen. As I drove to Lundrigan's Marsh in east St. John's I was thinking about the May 2009 Garganey that turned up at Quidi Vidi Lake then spent the next few days hiding out in Lundrigan's Marsh. That bird showed up during very strong west winds. Yesterday there had been strong west winds.  Garganeys are a European/Asian species.  It is thought the the good many records from the interior of North America in spring are birds that wintered in North America arriving via the Alaska.  It is also possible this long distant migrant could have crossed the Atlantic during migration from Europe to Africa last fall. Maybe... well you can speculate until the cows come home. Garganey like the Ruff has a difficult to explain pattern of occurrence in Newfoundland and North America. Unlike the Icelandic vagrants, the Garganey (and Ruff) does not need NE winds to carry it here. For the record, Garganey is fairly rare in Iceland.

This morning when my scope landed on a silvery gray duck with a broad icy white stripe sweeping back over a mauve coloured head it was as if this Garganey was supposed to be there.  It was the fifth record of Garganey for Newfoundland. All of them being spring drakes between the dates of 30 April and about 20 May. The bird was present all day and viewed by all who went for a look. It was a few hundred metres away from the viewing platform. There was no way to get closer to the bird as the marsh is surrounded by fenced off industrial land.  Photo opts were very poor due to distances and shimmer in the air.

Garganey at Lundrigan's Marsh, St. John's, Avalon Peninsula, Newfoundland 7 May 2015

Garganey with mixed flock of duck after being flushed out of vegetation by an eagle. Also in picture is one of two suspect hybrid Common x North American Green-winged Teal and a pair of scarce in Newfoundland Northern Shovelers.  

Garganey was strikingly silvery-white when flying with the teal and other ducks.

The Garganey foraged almost continuously and often out of sight among the vegetation.

The Garganey at Quidi Vidi Lake on 15 May 2009 was exceptionally cooperative for a couple of hours after arrival before finding out about Lundrigan's Marsh just over the hill.

Fingers Crossed

The bottom fell out of the sky in eastern Newfoundland 25 April to 15 May 2014. One of the best, if not the very best, Icelandic Invasions in recorded time occurred.  European Golden Plovers were everywhere in flocks up to 47 individuals, there was a record 13 different Black-tailed Godwits, two Common Redshanks were together on the same beach, Northern Wheatears arrived by the dozen and there were odds and ends like Eurasian Whimbrel and Pink-footed Goose. It was all weather related. The right NE storms occurred again and again. The adrenalin ran constantly high. There was no place on earth any Avalon Peninsula birder wanted to be.

As the 2015 Icelandic Invasion season approaches eyes are turned to long range forecasts looking and longing for the right NE winds to bring more incredible birding times to Newfoundland. Most birders that is. One birder is hoping for the opposite. He is wishing and praying for an air flow from the other quadrant of the compass. Maybe some SW winds with a few Indigo Buntings and a tanager or two. Not that this birder wants to see that.   No, he wouldn't care if that was all he missed.  This birders is me.  I will be absent from the Avalon Peninsula 20 April to 5 May 2015.  Work is taking me away.  I am very very nervous about missing Icelandic Vagrants. I can't sleep at night.  I am concerned. If I'd been away during that time period in 2014 I would have been completely robbed.  I would have died on the spot.

I can not face missing birds like these from 2014 while I am away 20 April-5 May 2015. Fingers crossed that it won't happen.

There is a silver lining. Although I'll be sentenced to a ship for two weeks at a crucial time to be on the Avalon Peninsula, I will be in the ice off the coast of Labrador where I very well could see some of these. And besides I'll be closer to Iceland than the Avalon birders if there is an Icelandic Event.  Both Graylag Geese records for the province came from the offshore.  So there it is not hopeless. That is what I keep telling myself...

Unexpected Sapsucker Wave

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker breeds in low densities in central and western Newfoundland in rich mixed birch/aspen forests. The most recent known active breeding areas in the upper Exploits River Valley are well off the beaten track of birders.  Most active birders wait for an off the wall migrant sapsucker to show up in their neighbourhood or at least within driving distance.

On the Avalon Peninsula it is being detected more often showing up nearly annually in spring and less so in fall.  On 3 April news of a sapsucker in St. Mary's, St. Mary's Bay, Avalon Peninsula. Lorraine and Eugene Bowen had one tapping the Norway maples in their yard.  It was a bird many of the newer birders had not yet seen in the province. Being a slow spring, any colour like that of a male Yellow-bellied Sapsucker was a most welcome attraction.  

Over the weekend 4-5 April most people who made the 115 km drive from St. John's to St. Mary's filled their boots with images of a dolled up male sapsucker. The bird moved to Joe Dillon's property where there were more maple trees to drill for sap.  

The date was early for a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. It was a week early even for arrival on breeding grounds in NS and NB where a common bird. But it turned out there must have been an influx of early spring overshoots that included a Great Egret at St. John's and TWO MORE Avalon Yellow-bellied Sapscukers - one in Ferryland and one in Mount Carmel.

A classic spring male Yellow-bellied Sapsucker is a striking bird.  (5 April St. Mary's)

The sap was not running too well on Sunday with high west winds and temperatures falling to sub-zero.  (5 April St. Mary's)

Eventually it moved to the ground and found some exposed roots that seemed to offer a better source of sap.

A ground dwelling sapsucker looks a little strange but unobstructed views.

The yellow belly.

While on the ground it was seen eating two carpenters (sow bugs).  The first one it choked down. The second one it crushed in its bill before swallowing.  I didn't know anything ate carpenters.

After leaving the St. Mary's sapsucker I drove toward Haricott to check out the goose and duck scene. While driving through Mount Carmel I noticed a house surrounded in Avalon fir forest but with a yard full of maples.  I didn't even slow the car down as I scanned the tree trunks for a sapsucker just in case.  Miraculously there was one!  I made a U-turn drove back and there it was - a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker stuck to the side of a poplar tree. This was the third sapsucker of the weekend on the Avalon Peninsula and it was early April. This was crazy. How many sapsuckers are there really around and what else might have come up one this early wave?

The Yellow-bellied Sapsucker clinging to the trunk of a tree in a garden in Mount Carmel on 5 April 2015. The white throat makes this one a female.

This is the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker that Jerome Curran photographed in his yard at Ferryland on 4 April.  He did not see it the next day.