Birding on The Rock

WELCOME BACK BIRDERS! Sorry for the long wait between posts, but I have been on a birding trip to Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, by far the best trip this year. It definitely hits the top 5 best trips of my life. Newfoundland is a memorable place, not just for the way people talk or the puffins – but all of it, from the Bay Bulls to Gros Morne to Cape Ray.      

From Nova Scotia to
Newfoundland is a 16 hour ferry ride

The pitcher plant is Newfoundland and Labrador's provincial flower and we saw lots of them. These plants are related to the Venus Flytrap and Sundew because they eat flies. Their method, which gives them the name Pitcher Plant, is to trap the flies in the sticky liquid at the bottom of their pitcher shaped structure. 

One of the most amazing hikes we went on was at the Tablelands. This is a phenomenal landscape, where Earth's crust is exposed, also exposing many very different and different types of rocks. The strange orange colour is because of the peridodite, which is so full metals that no plants can grow. Another amazing rock was serpentenite.

Serpentenite among the peridotite

Moose are supposed to be EVERYWHERE in Newfoundland, but of course we didn't see one. Everyone's excuse was that it was hunting season which was true, because the only moose we saw had been freshly shot and was in the back of a pick-up truck. We did, however, see moose tracks everywhere, to the point where we thought that someone was going ahead of us with a moose track mold, planting the tracks in the ground....

BIRDS OF NEWFOUNDLAND

The signature bird of Newfoundland is the Atlantic Puffin and we saw them. 
At gull island in bay bulls we saw about 500 puffins, and we didn't even come at the best time
 to see them 

The Piping Plover is an endangered species that lives in some parts of Newfoundland.
It would have been nice to see one, but we didn't

 

 

 

 

 

 

where we went Yellowlegs were all over the place!

 

If you ever go to Newfoundland, I strongly recommend hiking Mount Gros Morne this is a great 8-hour hike with some of the best views I have ever seen

TRIPS, BIRDS AND MORE BIRDS

Recently I went birding/backpacking in Joffre Lakes provincial park near Pemberton with some friends, where we spent 40% of the time chasing away naughty chipmunks trying to steal our food and 60% of the time looking for and at birds. The first day passing through Nanaimo we saw three Bewick’s Wrens and the next evening after eating at a Pemberton restaurant, we saw the beautiful Black and yellow Evening Grosbeak followed by a very very very blue Indigo Bunting while we were looking for a lazuli bunting – what a lucky mistake! On our way up to the mountain lake (which is the same indigo as an Indigo Bunting) there were a few very loud Clark’s nutcrackers, one baby Townsend Solitaire sitting on a gorgeous moraine and a tiny pine siskin eating pine cones.

Matier Glacier

Upper Joffre Lake

Joffre Boulder Field

I’d barely unpacked from Joffre lakes, when I went out on another amazing birding trip, this time with some of the best birders in BC. So after seeing five new birds – most of which I might not have found on my own – I would like to thank Ian Cruickshank and Ann Nightingale for helping me find Red Crossbills, Brown Creepers, Hammond’s Flycatcher, Hutton’s Vireo and Black-Headed Grosbeak.

The Swallow Eggs Have Hatched!

Introducing . . . Tiny, Tadpole and Merlin. And possibly Peregrine, (I just can't see him or her). Stay tuned for more swallow updates soon to come! Or to meet the proud parents, see my blog post, Swallows, Swallows, Swallows ...
http://birdymcbirdface.blogspot.ca/2016/05/swallows-swallows-swallows-oh-and-some.html

Tiny, Tadpole, Merlin . . . and possibly Peregrine (underneath!)
Such a soft warm nest

Snowy Plover!

Lately I have had bad luck with finding rare birds. We didn't see the code 5 White Cheeked Starling or the code 4 Scissor Tailed Flycatcher on Chesterman's Beach. After a very disappointing mission to look for a White Winged dove in Ucluelet, we got a call from Adrian Dorst stating that there was a Snowy plover at Florencia Bay. So we set out again, readying ourselves for another defeat. Following the instructions, we walked to Lost Shoe creek, then headed southwest after about 20 paces. We set up the scope and this is what we saw. A Snowy Plover, very rare here and we were the second ones to see it!

Snowy Plover in breeding plumage

Thank You Pentax

Thank you to Sun Camera Service, who repair all Pentax equipment. They fixed my broken monocular at a discounted price. I'm so happy to have my trusty companion back by my side!

Neighbourhood Rescue!

Our neighbour Joey found a crow making off with a baby robin yesterday. She saved the robin from the crow. It dropped the robin, but we had to prevent the crow from returning. All the robins in the forest were very angry at this one crow. Joey's daughter Aqua and I took care of the baby robin and every once in a while it would open its mouth wide and gaping – and squeak! We fed it salmonberries. We put it out of reach of cats, in a box, near its parents. When we came back later to check on it, we found it had made its getaway into the trees. The evidence is here:

Before

After

The story of a small duck called a... SMEW!

This is a bird only rarely spotted in Canada on the Aleutian islands 

but found commonly in Europe and Asia. I love this bird (I have to confess mostly because of its unique name,) but also because of its perfect combination of adorable and elegant.
Even before my big year, my family I loved this bird and we have a standing joke about it.