Saskatchewan Part II - The Geese

The geese in Saskatchewan are amazing. The sheer volume is incomprehensible. Yah! so you come across 50,000 Snow Geese in a roadside lake. No big deal. No one rushes out to see such, for such events are commonplace scattered about the southern half of the province.  They feed in the cut wheat fields in the morning and evening and rest by day in the larger ponds/lakes.  Snow Geese were the most numerous species.  Among the Snows there were always some Ross's.  White-fronted Geese seemed more local.  However, we came across 25,000 resting by day at a lake that also hosted 100,000 Snow Geese.  A local farmer said he'd never seen so many geese as this fall. Canada Geese were abundant but often formed their own concentrations separate from the Snow Goose throngs. Among them it was fun to see the Cackling Geese. Sometimes there were sizable flocks of Cacklers with a few large Canada Geese sticking out like ugly ducklings among the flock. I am a non-believer in giving Cackling Goose full species status. The experience in Sask did nothing to change my mind. There are lots of in betweens. Even among the Cacklers there were differences, some with white breast some with dark breasts, a few with white rings around the neck. There is no doubt that Cacklers are a cute form of the Canada Goose but best left as a subspecies if I could change the rules back to the way they were.

One Bald Eagle fly over caused a mass flush of 30-40,000 Snow Geese feeding in a recently cut wheat field. The sound of that many panicked geese nearly lifted us off the ground.

Beware of low flying geese.

Within the flocks this is what it looks like.

Breakfast in a wheat field.

Pretty easy to pick out the two Ross's Geese by the stubby bills.

One Ross's, One Snow.

There are eight Ross's in this picture.

There are three easy Ross's  and one near Ross's in this flock.

Didn't do so well on photographs of the Greater White-fronted Geese even though they were less jumpy than the Snow Geese. They were my favourite goose to watch.

Speckle-bellies is a secondary name for the White-fronted Goose.

Who Made Who? Three Cacklers with two larger Canada Geese.

Mixture of Cacklers and other Canada Geese

A few large Canada Geese among this flock of Cacklers.

A parade of Cacklers.

Not a goose but related. Tundra Swans were commonly present in low hundreds compared to tens of thousands of geese.

Tundra Swans, gray immatures with white adults.

A sub adult Trumpeter Swan on the right with an adult Tundra Swan. Fairly easy to see the differences in the bill size and shape of feathering around bill in this photo. It was the only Trumpeter Swan we noticed. Not sure of its status in Saskatchewan.

Another Good Week in September 2019

September 16-22 was a good week for rarities on the Avalon. Nothing mind boggling just a varied selection minor rarities and these four nice birds.  First was a COMMON NIGHTHAWK found by Andrea Dicks while she was walking her dog at dusk at Kent's Pond in St. John's. Those from out of the province reading this blog will be surprised to know that nighthawk was the rarest of the four species shown here. For most St. John's birders it was to be a new bird for their provincial list.  Thinking back I could remember only three other nighthawks I had seen on the island of Newfoundland and none in more than twenty years. The bird performed well each evening for at least a week. Everyone got to see it.  It was fun trying to photograph it in the dusk.  ISO 6400 was the only hope.

 Common Nighthawk 18 Sept 2019 at Kent's Pond, St. John's, Newfoundland.

Next was a juvenile Ruff. It was at the Cochrane Pond manure pile. I visited the location before work on a very dark rainy Tuesday morning and saw this medium size brown shorebird fly in. I was expecting it be a Pectoral Sandpiper. It didn't land but as it turned around to go away I was sure I caught a flash of a white 'U' shaped rump patch. I knew that meant Ruff. Also the bird had a very fluid flight unlike a Pectoral Sandpiper.  I knew it had to be a Ruff but it happened in a flash when a mind has little chance to register all the real facts. I got out of the car and there it was - a Ruff standing next to a Lesser Yellowlegs by a pool of ripe water. A brightly coloured juvenile Ruff.  Newfoundland gets a couple or so Ruffs every year, mostly between May and September. Fall juveniles are the least common plumage to see. It stayed for about three days and was viewed by many others.

The juvenile Ruff with a Lesser Yellowlegs in the Goulds on 17 September 2019.

Note the unique 'U' shaped white rump band. 

The bright wing underwings and clear buffy breast and head have quite a resemblance to the Buff-breasted Sandpiper.

The oddly small head of the Ruff with a Lesser Yellowlegs and Semipalmated Sandpiper.

While I was looking at the Ruff, Dave Brown was finding two Northern Wheatears at Ferryland. Everyone loves a Wheatear. They were bouncing around on the rock walls at the archaeological dig. Luckily one stayed until the weekend giving me a chance to see it.

A fan favourite always - a juvenile Northern Wheatear at Ferryland on 22 September 2019

After an intimate experience with the Wheatear I went warblering in the alders in a couple of old gravel pits in Ferryland.   I heard Yellow-rumped Warblers and juncos as I entered the pit. I walked in that direction.  Warblers and juncos were flying across an open pit to the trees along one edge. I stood trying to identify everything that came - Tennessee, Magnolia, lots of Blackpolls and Yellow-rumps, a few Black-throated greens then ONE OF THE BLACK-THROATED GREENS HAD A YELLOW BREAST... And a dark cheek patch. It was a TOWNSEND'S WARBLER.  In September !!!? We are used to the blast of finding a TOWA in November and December or even late October on the Avalon. There are 24 or 25 records of Townsend's Warbler. This was just one more for the bin but at a new time of year.  Frantically I concentrated on getting record shots of the bird. It was in sight or I knew where it was for 2 or 3 minutes. It was never real close but I was happy to get these results after some serious cropping. It was never found again even with a small group of first responders quickly on the scene.

 A Townsend's Warbler at Ferryland, Newfoundland on 22 September 2019 as record early by 3 1/2 weeks.

Just one more nice week in an already action packed month... Lots of fall yet to come.

Did that really happen?

Brown Boobies started moving north well beyond their normal subtropical 28C waters only a dozen or so years ago. The first in Newfoundland was on 18 July 2012 all the way north at St. Anthony. That more or less fit into the unfathomable, yet still unexplained pattern emerging of Brown Boobies straying well north of the norm. In the coming years other Brown Boobies were photographed by fisherman on their boats well offshore.  On 4 August 2015 Richard Thomas with friends from the mainland lucked into an adult Brown Booby resting on the rocks at Long Beach near Cape Race.  A chance for a chase. A small gang of us hoped it would reappear the next day - but NOPE. Over the next summers without a break more Brown Boobies were phone-snapped with smartphones adding to the annual agony.

2019 was an above average year of Brown Booby reports landing on boats in the offshore and also  the ferry between NS and Newfoundland  They were all in the warmer waters on the southern edge of Newfoundland but that was still under the 20 C. 

This morning I was pishing in the alders on the southern edge of the Avalon Peninsula at Trepassey. Was hoping to duplicate something along the lines of the male Prothonotary Warbler present on nearby Powle''s Head. The phone rang. It was Cliff.  When Cliff phones it means something. He said "someone on Facebook posted about a strange bird sitting on the mast of a boat at Pier 7.  It looks like one of them Brown Boobies". I was only 5 minutes from Cliffs house in Trepassey. Cliff showed me the picture on computer. It was indeed a Brown Booby! It was at Pier 7 in St.John's, right behind Jack Astor's and it was NOW.  I posted the news to the local Whatsapp group.

I'd like to thanks the stars above for allowing me to drive the twisting 120 km from Trepassey to St. John's with an adrenaline drip to the jugular, in a smooth and orderly manner below the speed of sound, in the lane of least resistance and getting to Pier 7 in St John's harbour five minutes before the Brown Booby lifted its wings, flew, circled twice and departed. What a bird..... What rush....Turbo Civics are made for coastal road bird chases.

Instinct was to take pictures first.  I was just starting to do that when it flew.  I feel a little robbed.  Sure I saw the bird but I hardly looked at it. The few pictures on my camera ensure happiness. A Brown Booby flying around St. John's harbour is surreal. It really did happen. 

FOY - Common Ringed Plover

It took a while.  It was getting to the tail end of the migration of adult COMMON RINGED PLOVERS. One finally showed up on the Avalon Peninsula, Newfoundland.  Richard Thomas first noticed this bird of interest at Trepassey on 28 August but did not get a satisfying enough view to convince himself. His grainy pictures showed an intriguing bird.  So much so that Dave Brown went down to Trepassey the next day to look for it but after six hours no go, but got a small consolation in the form of a Baird's Sandpiper. Two days later I was at Trepassey with Alison Mews and Ethel Dempsey looking for the Baird's Sandpiper.  It was not on the outer beach but there was a Semipalmated-like Plover with a very nice looking white band over the eye. This had to be the bird that Richard had seen.  Finally after reaching the end of the beach it turned around and started running back toward us. The black mask highlighted by the distinct even, broad white supercilium screamed out Common Ringed Plover.

Photography conditions were challenging. It was very warm with tropical humidity with fog blowing in off the ocean and burning up when it reached 100 m inland. The sun was high creating heat shimmer off the beach sand. The following are some of the pictures. Dave Brown appeared on the scene as well.

The first picture. The bold white line over the rear ear coverts is often the first clue that you have a Common Ringed Plover in your midst. Caution: female Semipalmated Plover can have an extensive white supercilium but they lack the bold black head markings of a Common Ringed Plover.

There is a formula starting off with that prominent, sharply defined white supercilium. The black ear covert patch shaved off along the bottom edge is accented by the white supercilium. This impression is lacking with the Semipalmated Plover.

The breast band width is flexible on the little plover. With this view one could easily overlook the rarity staring you in the face.

The breast band on this bird is narrower than the average adult Common Ringed Plover in August in Newfoundland.  Is it a female?

Key features of a Common Ringed Plover are the white of the forehead hooking in under the eye.  And the lack of pale yellowish orbital ring but see below.

The breast band is of flexible width depending on the posture of the bird.

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This the more typical Common Ringed Plover we are used to seeing on the Avalon Peninsula in August. This was photographed at Renews 26 August 2018.  The breast band is much wider than the Trepassey bird.  This must be a male?

IRISH COMMON RINGED PLOVERS

Below are pictures of adult Common Ringed Plovers taken in Northern Ireland on 7 Feb 2019.  This is a different race than the birds that nest in the Canadian Arctic.  The Canadian birds are part of the subspecies psammodramus  which includes the birds nesting in Greenland and Iceland.  The birds I saw  wintering in Northern Ireland could have been hiaticula (British breeders) or tundrae (northern Eurasian breeders). Both of these races are smaller and darker than psammodramus.  I think the Canadian breeding are the largest and palest of all Common Ringed Plovers which make them more distinct from Semipalmated Plover than the other two races. The Irish Common Ringed Plovers are a different beast.

The wintering Common Ringed Plovers in Northern Ireland had the distinct black head markings but the breast bands were very similar to the width of Semipalmated Plovers.

Don't look too close or you will see a pale orbital ring. Don't you know the lack of orbital ring colour is a good clue for Common Ringed Plover and the presence of such means it can't be one! I saw several with light yellowish orbital rings out of maybe 200 Irish individuals seen close enough.

This is an allowable amount of webbing between the middle and outer toe for Common Ringed Plover. Pretty difficult to judge the extent of webbing on these plovers. I consider it a very shaky field character at best.

A Fan Fav - The Buff-breasted Sandpiper

Yah there are endless great Buff-breasted Sandpiper photos out there in the world. They are highly photogenic being on the tame side and always attract attention being a universal fan favorite among birders.  In a bit of hurry to elaborate at this time (lots of birding ahead on this long weekend) but there were three Buff-breasted Sandpipers at the abandoned runways at Argentia, Newfoundland on 30 August.  Here are some of the pictures I took. They were always actively feeding finding insects in the patches of grass growing up through cracks in the asphalt. 

Can anyone identify the moth?