Codroy Valley Birding Retreat - May 16-20, 2013

John Wells, Ken Knowles and I made a five day holiday out of the Victoria Day Weekend.  We drove 900+ km across Newfoundland to the Codroy Valley.  The cold weather (including snow flurries and sleet) had delayed migration by about 5-7 days. This resulted in many of the warblers and most of the Codroy Valley specialities that we went for not being in yet.  The birding was still OK and we had a good time overall.  Photo opportunities were few.

An Eastern Phoebe was the only rare bird we found in the Codroy Valley area.  It is barely annual in the province. It was so cold it was picking up earthworms off the road.  This was my only shot of the fleeting bird.

Warbler photography is a highlight of a Codroy trip in spring, but we saw a mere six species of warbler.  Palm Warblers were still in full migration. 

The only place the Great Blue Heron nests in Newfoundland is the Grand Codroy River valley. We saw up to 11 per day.

Not a Codroy speciality but when there is nothing else to fire the camera at there is always a cooperative Gray Jay.

Piping Plovers nest at nearby Cheeseman Prov Park.  We watched a pair feeding on wet sand on the barachois side of the beach.

They became rather tame walking up to us while feeding. 

When the birding gets slow these introduced birds start to look attractive.

We had a chance encounter with a Codroy Samsquatch on the loose.  We retreated to the safety of the car and let this fearless, demented animal walk past us.

The rarity excitement of the trip was saved by two Little Egrets that showed up in Fair Haven, Placentia Bay while we were in the Codroy Valley.  We saw them on the drive back home and got lucky with a good photo opportunity. 

 

 

 

Little Egret Interruption

Nothing like a duo of LITTLE EGRETS to shake things up a little.  Two Little Egrets showed up in Fairhaven, Placentia Bay (Isthmus of Avalon). Seems they arrived up on May 12 with word reaching the birding community on May 17. At least one has been visible for all who went for a visit.

 

Here are a couple of pictures taken today (May 20) on the way back from driving across the island. More later.

Two Little Egrets for the price of one. They showed no interest in one another perhaps indicating they are of the same sex.

This Little Egret found small fish in a brook.
 

A classic head pattern of Little Egret with the two thin plumes and blue lores. During the height of breeding season the lores can show yellow, the other bird has a yellowish wash in the lores closest to the eye.

Alberta May 2013 - Willet Wrestling

On the dry prairie regions of southern Alberta, water holes are a valuable resource that has to be shared by birds and animals. Birds are highly territorial at the beginning of the breeding season and sometimes bring their fighting spirit to the communal watering holes.

 

Near Writing-On-Stone Provincial Park I came across a watering hole built for cattle.  A handful of shorebirds came and went - Willets, Avocets, Marbled Godwits and Wilson's Phalaropes.  I witnessed a particularly aggressive Willet fly in calling loudly and attack another Willet that had been feeding there for 15 minutes.  The first Willet stood its ground and would not be moved by the persistent aggressive antics of the new Willet. Maybe these two birds already had a history between them.  The Willet battle lasted nearly a minute before it was broken up by a Marbled Godwit.The original Willet won out and continued to feed while the aggressor flew off without feeding. 

 

An intruding Willet flew in calling loudly and attacked a feeding Willet by grabbing it around the neck and forcing it into the water.

 

Both Willets grabbed one another around the neck  and began pushing back and forth.

 

The aggressor broke free and tried to get on top of the other Willet and push it into the water.

 

  Despite the fierce attack the original bird stood its ground. when it could have simply flown away.

 

When all else fails go for the head.

 

A Marbled Godwit quietly feeding nearby could no longer stand the commotion and flew over screaming loudly and broke up the melee.

 

The bouncer flexes its out stretched wings triumphantly while the Willets separate.

 

The original Willet won. It stood its ground and went back to feeding looking only a little ruffled in what sounded like a fight to the end.

With peace and quiet restored, the godwit went back to feeding.

 

 

 

 

 

Alberta Birding early May 2013 - Post # 1

I was birding in Alberta May 3-11, 2013. The purpose of the trip was largely to try out a new lens - the Canon 600 mm f4 version II.  Alberta has lots of great targets for a photographer.  Having been there a half dozen times during the breeding season in the last dozen years I had a pretty good idea what to expect and where to go. What I didn't expect was how the exceptionally cold month of April would severely delay the  arrival of spring migrants. During the first three days of the trip I saw no more than a handful of blackbirds. But the weather was excellent during my visit and migration soon caught up to normal.

 

The Alberta sloughs are great for photography with lots of large species to shoot at - Yellow-headed Blackbirds, Wilson's Phalaropes, five species of grebes, and endless ducks. But I am always drawn to the southeast corner of the province. Here the prairie is more arid. Sage brush grows. The Red-tailed Hawks disappear and the Ferruginous Hawks take over.  Sage Grouse may still occur here.  People look for Mountain Plover with half a realistic chance of seeing one. (I've yet to connect). Sprague's Pipit is common.  I particularly enjoy the breeding longspurs. Colourful and numerous, their songs breath life into the prairie.

McCown's Longspur is the uncommon species.  I happened upon a little fallout of migrant McCown's after a day of strong north winds.  A ten km stretch of road near Wildhorse contained 150+ McCown's right on the road and by the flock on May 8. This was exciting for an east coast birder. Got more good looks at the species then all my previous trips to Alberta combined.  Photo opportunities were good. 

The new lens performed well.  The new Canon 600 mm is very sharp, even with the 1.4x and 2.0x converters and there seems to be some extra magic with the image stabilization.  I am being conservative here - the lens is in a nutshell phenomenal!

Below are some McCown's Longspur shots. I hope to get to other Alberta species before the trip becomes a distant memory but already we are planning a five day trip to bird southwest Newfoundland this weekend which is going to no doubt produce more priority photos that will need to be look at.

The male McCown's Longspur is far more attractive in life than any illustration has made them look.

 

 

I imagine the female McCown's Longspurs is poorly known in life. During the nesting season they vanish from sight because they are incubating eggs.  Later in the summer (August) when the birds are fledged and longspurs form small mixed flocks in southeast Alberta, they are wary and difficult to view let alone separate from the more abundant Chestnut-collared Longspur.

 

Off Blogger but Still Birding - in Alberta

Just to let readers know I am actively birding but have not been in position for posting lately.  Currently in a hotel room in Medicine Hat, Alberta taking a break from the camping. This was Day 6 of a nine day birding/photography trip to Alberta.  Turns out I was a little early and the spring was very late for some of the birds I was hoping to point the camera at but everyday something interesting happens.  Today it was running into a flocks of migrant McCown's Longspurs at the southeast corner of the province.  There will be plenty of photos to sift through when I get home on Sunday.

May there always be more Swainson's Hawks!  This is one of the species I was counting on to be present in full summer numbers but they were late in arrving due to an exceptionally long cold prairie spring. However, they waste no time once arriving.  I saw another Swainson's Hawk sitting on a nest.

One Birder's Trash is Another Birder's Gold

The rarity value placed on a bird's head is all relative.  The Bahama Woodstar in Pennsylvania last week was gargantuan on any rarity scale outside of the Bahamas. A bird common in your neighbourhood, say Black Guillemot, would be an off the rarity scale in the state of Iowa.   This introduction is how I explain to any mainland readers of this blog why Ken Knowles, John Wells and I left St. John's at 4:30 am this morning and drove 2 hours and 50 minutes to Sandy Cove, Eastport Pen to see a White-breasted Nuthatch.

 

It was the second record for Newfoundland. The first record only two years previous at St. Lawrence, Burin Pen was completely unexpected for a bird with a marginal record of migratory movements.  It is fairly common in the adjacent province of Nova Scotia.  The St. Lawrence bird was at least on a southward facing coast where a vagrant bird blown off the coast of Atlantic Canada or New England States might end up after a long flight over the water with a tail wind.  Sandy Cove is on the Eastport Peninsula facing the northeast. The Eastport Peninsula has a good list of European vagrants from  over the years because it faces the northeast, i.e. Euro Oyc, Common Redshank and several occurrences for Euro Golden Plover.  Word of a White-breasted Nuthatch appearing at a feeder in Sandy Cove on 23 April was almost passed off as too unlikely to be true until a photo arrived.

 

The rest is history in the making.  Why and when this bird ended up on the east coast of Newfoundland in April is incomprehensible at this time. It does not match any patterns. But there is no doubt the bird was there.  It did some calling which sounded like the calls commonly heard from eastern North America.

 

Any day you see the unexpected is a good day even if it is a White-breasted Nuthatch.

Newfoundland`s second ever White-breasted Nuthatch was just too rare not to see.

 

Weekend Photos in the Fog

It was pure fog on Saturday when Ken Knowles, John Wells and I did our 425 km round the Southern Avalon Loop trip. This includes side trips to Cape Race, St Shotts, Pt LaHaye etc - the full Loop deal.  We completed the Loop in record time because it was so foggy we could not see.  Photo opportunities were near zero in fog.  A pair of ptarmigan on the Cape Race road posed nicely in the pea soup and would have brought out the camera if it wasn't in the trunk.  Three female  Harlequin Ducks were rather close in Cripple Cove and the camera did come out for those.  Photoshop has away of dispersing fog but can't really fix the low light conditions under a mile of cloud and fog.  The Greenland White-fronted Goose was in place at Biscay Bay and was closer than last time but the fog and drizzle was drifting between us and the goose being driving by a gale of SW wind.  We were heading home up the north side of the Loop when we came to the photo stopper of the day.  It was too close for my telephoto lens so Ken took the picture below with his scenery lens.

 

What does it mean? Our guesses were 1) someone is having a baby, 2) someone is getting a warm welcome home after six weeks at sea, 3) it is someone's 40th birthday.

Lawn art near the little community of St. Mary's on the southern Avalon Peninsula on April 20, 2013. Forty bras waving in the wind.  What happened here???  Photo by Ken Knowles. 

 

 

Three female Harlequin Ducks swimming out of the inner most part of Cripple Cove near Cape Race.  Harlequins are tough to get photos of in Newfoundland because they are generally feeding at exposed rocky points or over shoals where you can not get with a camera. This photo opportunity was challenged by thick fog and low light.