Newfoundland & Nova Scotia Jul 02—12, 2008
Posted by Kim Eckert
Kim Eckert
Kim Eckert, with over 40 years of birding experience throughout the U.S. and Canada, has now been guiding birders or teaching bird identification classes for more than 25 o...Related Trips
You might think that this tour's weather was ideal, considering almost every day's highs reached the 20s (Celsius, that is—remember, this is Canada), and the only rain the entire time was a brief, light shower on the last day. The problem this year, though, was the fog, that unpredictable meteorological variable that can threaten to dampen our birding success here every year.
Unless our passage by ferry from Nova Scotia to Newfoundland is fog-free, views of fulmars, shearwaters, and storm-petrels become problematic. Dense fog at Cape St. Mary's the next day will obscure our view of the Thick-billed Murre ledges. And fog-bound headlands and bays along the Irish Loop the two following days can limit our chances to see ptarmigan, seabirds, caribou, and whales. This year's score on these four days: Fog 4, Visibility 0.
Well, that's perhaps too harsh an assessment. After all, even though we were entirely fogged-in from noon on during the ferry crossing, we still managed two clear morning hours with visible pelagic birds, and we still saw all six of the expected pelagic species! The next day at foggy Cape St. Mary's, we at least dimly had one Thick-billed Murre, plus our closest look at Razorbills, along with the usual spectacle of gannets, murres, and kittiwakes. The fog then continued to obscure parts of the next two days at places like Pt. La Haye, St. Vincent's, Cape Pine, and Cape Race, but at least there were lots of scoters, a pair of ptarmigan crossing the road (!), and a caribou standing in the highway.
But Newfoundland wasn't all about the fog. For one thing, after too many heard-only, fly-by White-winged Crossbills in Nova Scotia, some crossbills finally posed for all to see in the conifers along the Colinet Line. And for another, our last day's tour with the O'Briens at Witless Bay featured two humpback whales swimming within 10 metres (this is still Canada!) alongside our boat, lots of Atlantic Puffins and Razorbills at point-blank range at Gull Island, and the always amazing sight of Green Island's slopes salt-and-peppered with literally tens of thousands of Common Murres.
And let's not forget about the first half of the tour in Nova Scotia! The always-difficult Black-backed Woodpecker drummed away from a snag along one of Liscombe Lodge's hiking trails. A lone Piping Plover ran into view at its nesting site at Pomquet Beach. A totally unexpected Sandhill Crane flew by at our first stop in Cape Breton Highlands National Park, which apparently was a first park record for this casual Nova Scotia species. Later that morning, three Bicknell's Thrushes finally (!) emerged into full view, maintaining this tour's perfect record with this highly sought specialty. Earlier on this same road, a family of Ruffed Grouse nervously wandered into view, and on this same day in the park we had two moose standing in the highway and a black bear along a different section of this same road.
Another measure of this tour's success was certainly our list of 20 warbler species. Such a total is not achieved most years, and it took a bit of luck in Nova Scotia, where 18 of the species were seen, to make this possible. A singing male Black-throated Blue at Dollar Lake on our very first morning was a complete surprise, as was a pair of Bay-breasted Warblers carrying food in the Margaree Valley. A Chestnut-sided and a Canada, both highly local, cooperatively reappeared where we had them last year. And an always highly sought Mourning Warbler actually made us turn our backs on those Bicknell's Thrushes at Cape North.