Down East with Sue, August 20 to 28

I know that those in the Atlantic provinces refer to the Maritimes as “down east,” but for us in Southern Ontario we are going northeast.  No matter how you get there, I once again returned to Nova Scotia and Newfoundland on a trip with Sue, for her summer vacation.  She chose the spot, flying in to Sydney, NS and touring around Cape Breton, followed by an all night ferry over to Port Au Basque in Newfoundland, and touring around there for a day and spending the night before taking the daytime ferry back to Sydney.

Though I have been to Nova Scotia and Newfoundland multiple times this year, I have not spent that much time in Cape Breton or the southern part of Newfoundland.  Sue also came up with the itinerary and made most of the reservations.  So it was a vacation for me from planning.  I did have some target birds while there, namely Thick-billed Murre, Great Shearwater and Red Knot. I had hoped something unexpected or rare would show up, but that was not to be.  But, as I have said, it was Sue’s trip and she was excited to see Atlantic Puffins and Northern Gannets, along with the many other birds we found throughout the week.  Not to mention the seals and whales!

We took a few boat trips, and had a couple cancelled as well, including Sue’s Zodiac whale trip.  I did book a last minute whale trip and we did see Pilot Whales, which was a first first for Sue as well.  We actually took two puffin trips, because, well, you can’t get enough puffins.  We also got amazing looks at Great Cormorants nesting on the Bird Islands in out of Englishtown.  I also got much closer looks at the Northern Gannets than I did earlier in the summer.  I am only a little disappointed I didn’t get to Cape St. Mary’s and the gannet breeding colony.  I also got to see my first Great Shearwater of the year, as well.  And we took a drive up to a place called Meat Cove.  All the roads were twisty and winding and either went up or down, almost never flat.  I was thankful for the rental car with automatic steering, that gave the feeling of a self-driving car at times.

The all night ferry over to Port Aux Basque, Newfoundland was like a mini cruise.  We checked in at 9:30 in the evening and were in bed on the boat in our tiny cabin before the boat,(ship?) even left port.  No time for dinner or breakfast, and I slept in and missed the sunrise and seabirds as we made our way into the ferry docks the next morning. 

 After getting off the boat we found a nice place for breakfast and  birded around southern Newfoundland until midafternoon, heading up to Stephensville Crossing Estuary, where we saw a bevy of shorebirds, including three Red Knots, my second year bird of the trip.

 That night we stayed at the Hotel Port Aux Basque, which sounds fancier than it really is.  Nice hotel, and we had a good breakfast in the morning, including the Newfoundland specialty, fried bologna.  It was a nostalgic thing for me as well.  I loved fried bologna sandwiches as a kid and never imagined it would be a staple on almost every breakfast menu when I visited Newfoundland.  They do things right out east, ahm, Down East!

The ferry right back to Sydney, NS was during the day, and it was like a six hour pelagic, but without the seasickness.  Lots of seabirds, including a Parasitic Jaeger.  But the real excitement was seeing warblers following the boat on their migration and in the case of Magnolia and Yellow-rumped Warblers, landing on the boat to feed on crumbs and rainwater.  Actually, when we left port it was still raining, and I was worried the whole crossing would be spent trying to spot birds from the windows from our seats in the front row of the ferry.

Overall it was a fantastic, and slightly more relaxing trip than all those preceding it.  We visited Baddeck, where we toured the Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site and had an amazing dinner for Sue’s birthday at the Cable Room restaurant in the aptly named Telegraph Inn.  Alexander Graham Bell, who also invented the telegraph, prior to the telephone, hoped that one day telegraph wires would “laid on to houses” as was the case at the time of water and gas pipes, and that friends could “converse with each other without leaving the home.”  Sounds like he was way ahead of his time and actually predicted the infrastructure of fiber optic cables being “laid onto houses” and our ability to message friends from our cell phones, again, without leaving the house.  The more things change, the more they stay the same.

We spent the last night Membertou, just outside Sydney, at the Hampton Inn, and dined at the lovely Kiju’s Restuaurant, where the only disappointment was that the pork belly appetizer was sold out.  The locally made hard cider was great. And the blueberry cake for dessert was one of the best desserts I’ve ever eaten. In fact, the food throughout he trip was very good and I became a fan of the fish cakes, though do prefer crab cakes when available.

We returned home Sunday and the next morning I was off and running to Norfolk County to find an American Golden Plover, but that’s another blog.

Late Summer Birding and the Return of the Migrants

The Neotropic Cormorant might not fit directly into the category of returning migrants, but it does only seem to show up in during the two migration seasons.  I had hoped for one to land locally, near Burlington in the Niagara region, where I had seen them before, but not this time.  This one showed up in Cataraqui Bay, in Kingston, Ontario and had me spending most of the day in the car and less than an hour enjoying the bird.  The 8 hours round trip was worth it, especially because I was able to visit with my daughter, Helen, who moved to Kingston many years ago, to work with Autistic children.

Neotropic Cormorant on the right, defending its rock against the Double-crested Cormorant:

Meanwhile, I should have just kept driving, as my nemesis bird, the Stellar’s Sea Eagle was once again found off the coast of Newfoundland.  I have a couple more trips to the east coast, so I will bide my time and take advantage of some time at home to relax, recharge my batteries, and not spend too much money for a few weeks before Sue and I head to Sydney, Nova Scotia for our, well her, summer vacation.  Maybe the birds will be with us and the sea eagle will come close enough for us to get to.  I have accepted that I can’t see every bird and that some are going to slip away.  But that’s birding.  If it was easy, what fun would that be. 

Just a little closer to home, in Chatham County, near Rondeau PP I was able to view a Buff-breasted Sandpiper, a common fall visitor to southern Ontario.  Often seen on sod farms or in freshly ploughed fields in the fall, this one turned up at the Blenheim Sewage Lagoons.  Fellow birder Kelly Sue had recently moved out there, so I messaged her that I was coming for the bird and arranged to meet her there. Two hours later, I arrived and was able to get the bird in my scope for a few minutes until a flock of Killdeer took flight and flew right over the buff-breasted and flushed it, not to be seen again that afternoon.  Kelly Sue arrived five minutes later and for the second time that day missed the bird.  I know her pain.  I have missed that darn sea eagle three times this year.  Of course, I had to travel a lot further.

Bad photo of a Buff-breasted Sandpiper from a few years ago…  I don’t have any good ones…

Those two species were 417 and 418 for my Canada Big Year, and I’ve been out birding most days since I returned, but other than those two, nothing I haven’t seen already this year, somewhere in Canada, has shown up.  Maybe that Swallow-tailed Kite, we had come visit last year will drop by before we head to Nova Scotia, or a rarity I can’t even imagine, like when we had the Groove-billed Ani show up.  Either way, the anticipation of something rare or just getting on a plane again and heading out on another adventure, keeps me going.

BC Puffins and Such

Well, the winds and birds took me straight back to British Columbia… 

My mission, which I obviously chose to accept, was to fly to Vancouver, British Columbia, take a ferry over to Victoria, drive to Tofino, and take a boat to the North Pacific Ocean to see a Tufted Puffin.  But like all Mission:Impossible plots, it didn’t go exactly to plan, even though, through luck and planning and the need to succeed, the IMF team, or in this case the Whale Centre team, eventually finds a solution.

Let’s back it up to the beginning.  Or even further back.  I was just in BC.  But I was doing the interior for owls and such, and the mission plan did not yet include puffins. It had been a successful mission, and I came home not expecting to go back until September.  Back home in Ontario, I saw that a juvenile Little Blue Heron was being seen at Valens Conservation area in Hamilton, so once again I was home just on time for another rarity.  I headed over, and found it had flown from the little pond it was last seen in, but after about an hour of searching other ponds, I returned to the original spot and the young heron had returned to the scene of the crime, so to speak.  After getting some photos, I raced up the road to get a few other birders to come down and see it too.

Later that day I called The Whale Centre in Tofino to see when the best month was to come to see the Tufted Puffin.  Jen, one of the leaders out there, told me that my best shot at the Tufted Puffin was between now and the end of August.  Since Sue and I would be on the east coast until the end of August, now was the only option.  So, as Ethen Hunt, often does, I changed the mission plan and booked a flight, ferry, rental car an accommodations and planned my trip back to the west coast.

This was a lot of mission planning, as this was a last minute trip at the peak of summer travel season.  And failure was not an option.  Neither was sleeping in my car, but I was prepared for that.  Getting the rental car was the hardest part.  I tried to book for the actual days I’d be there and nothing was available.  Then with less than 48 hours before my trip, I checked to see what days they would let me have a car.  It turned out that if I reserved until August 1, instead of my return date of July 29, a car was available.  Go figure.  I just had to pay a higher day rate when I returned it early.  Happy to do so.

After a ferry ride and a long drive to Tofino, I turned in early for the night so as to be well rested for my morning boat trip with the John and the folks from the Whale Centre.  The pelagic I went on in May didn’t go well, so I was hoping summer weather, calm seas and plenty of anti-nausea meds would keep my insides in this time around.  And it all went well, except for the target bird, which was the Tufted Puffin.  We saw lots of great birds, including beautiful Heerman’s Gulls and  close looks at a Wandering Tattler, both Canadian Lifers and species 410 and 411 for the year, but try as he might, John couldn’t locate a Tufted Puffin.

I wasn’t in trouble yet, as I had scheduled two boat trips,( every IMF operative has a backup plan), knowing that sometimes birds work on their own schedule and have wings and can easily fly away from boats or hide in the waves.  The next morning, I allowed myself to sleep in a bit, and enjoyed a great breakfast at the Common Loaf in Tofino, but after that, things didn’t go exactly to plan as I was soon to learn. 

Here is the timeline of the events as they unfolded:

11:30: Fabulous breakfast at the Common Loaf Bake Shop. Your mission, and I implore you to accept it, is to go there if you’re ever in Tofino.

12:00: Jen from The Whale Centre informs me that the boat won’t be going close enough to the puffin colony because this was primarily a whale watching trip and the whales were in a different location.

12:30: We decided to wait and see if the 1:30 trip would get me to the puffins.

1:00: Jen informs me that the next whale watch trip will also not be pursuing puffins.

1:01: I tried to hide my disappointment.  I came a long way for just one bird, though I did get the Wandering Tattler, so can’t really complain.

1:10: Jen offers me a full refund and an invitation to come back at the end of August and try again.  I don’t think I can make it, as I will be on the east coast until the end of August.

1:15: I ask if a water taxi could get me near the colony island.  Jen tells me to hang on and makes a phone call or two and a call on the radio.

1:30: Jen announces that, though it is his day off, John will take me out on his boat.  Jen has received news from a competing whale watch that a Tufted Puffin was seen amongst the Rhinoceros Auklets and given the coordinates. I get suited up and wait.

2:00: John and I head out on his boat in search of a puffin.

2:40: We spot a single Tufted Puffin, and I celebrate and thank John profusely and we head back.

3:00: Jen meets me at the Whale Centre and is relieved to know I’ve seen the puffin.  She tells me to contact her in August to get details of the fall pelagic.  I can’t thank her enough for the efforts everyone put in to help me see my first Tufted Puffin in Canada.

Mission Accomplished!

Thanks to John and Jen and everyone at The Whale Centre.  I can’t wait to go back in September for their fall pelagic.

Oh and if you ever want to feel like a king on a throne while sitting on the toilet, check out the bathroom seating at The Whale Centre.  Unique, to say the least.

The next three days proved to be productive too.  I added a Cassin’s Vireo in Squamish, finally.  The next day I made my third trip up to Lillooet and this time saw a Chukar, as it ran down a hill, across the road in front of my car and vanished over another hill.  Later that same day I saw a pair of Spruce Grouse along the side of the road as I drove along the Cariboo Highway.  And lastly, I finished the day up at Tranquille Criss Creek where I counted species 416 for the year, a Dusky Flycatcher.  

The next day I was flying to Toronto and driving home to Brantford.  Time for some well deserved rest and down time.  In three weeks Sue and I fly to Sydney, Nova Scotia for her summer vacation.  I hope to add a few new birds between now and then and some good sea birds on the east coast.  In August I will be taking it a bit slower and gearing up for my next mission.  September’s missions may not be impossible, but they will be taking me from coast to coast and on boat trips in both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.  These missions, I will always choose to accept.  I just hope I am not caught or killed, as Sue will not disavow any of my actions.

Birding Western Canada by Trains, Planes and Automobiles

It was quite an adventure through the “heartland” of Canada to steal a term from the Americans.  We call it The Prairies, but Heartland is more descriptive and evocative of the true nature of the vast stretches of flat, windblown farmlands that feed the country.  Oh, and the birds are spectacular too.

I took the train from Toronto, intending to travel all the way to Saskatoon, repeating a trip I took with my mother and siblings over 50 years ago.  But a looming Via Rail strike forced me to make alternative plans and reserve a rental car in Winnipeg and drive the rest of the way.  Though a strike was averted, I didn’t want to take a chance and was glad I made the change.  I was able to enjoy the drive through Manitoba, seeing a Ferruginous Hawk along the Trans Canada Highway outside of Brandon.  

The train trip itself, was wonderful.  I had my own private cabin, with its Murphy Bed that swung out of the wall and rested on the toilet seat.  Not quite the cabin I remembered from my childhood trip, though we had a double with 4 beds, and a private bathroom, so it was always going to be smaller.  Also, when I was a kid, the train loomed high over my head, while standing on the tracks, and the wheels were as tall as I was.

I loved the refined aspect of train travel too, with the fancy dining car, where I ate my meals, at my own private table, thanks to the kindness of the dining staff who honored my request for privacy.  The food was lovely and the atmosphere, with the etched glass bird art, was very thoughtful indeed. The train stopped for breaks along the way, providing us some fresh air and a chance to stretch our legs, though it was really easy to get your steps in on the train, walking from one end to the other.  I even did a little birding from my cabin, while watching the country go by outside my window.  Though I am not one to drown in nostalgia, I did fondly remember the conductors shouting, “second call for dinner in the dining car,” from my childhood trip.  That and the refrain, “Don’t flush the toilet while the train is at the station!”

I enjoyed the drive to Saskatchewan, stopping for a Stilt Sandpiper along the highway as I made my way to Glasslands National Park and a longstanding appointment with the resident Burrowing Owls.  What I wasn’t prepared for, was Prairie Dog Town.  It looked like the Prairie Dog version of “Meerkat Manor” Sue suggested a show called  “Little Prairie Dog House on the Prairie,” could have been created just for them. 

The Burrowing Owls will take over the empty nest holes created by the “dogs” who are not always willing to give them up, and often look like they are standing guard to keep out the owls.  Once again, it was my birding friends,  Ellen and Jerry from home in Brantford and Katelyn from Saskatoon, that supplied information to help me get my grassland birds.

My next target was the Baird’s Sparrow, at Chaplin Lake near Moose Jaw.  I have only seen them in Arizona, where you have to arrive at the break of dawn to see them pop up for 20 minutes out of the grass, and sit on the the fences on their wintering grounds.  They nest in southern Saskatchewan, along with Montana, Manitoba and South Dakota, where people often make their summer pilgrimage to get this bird as a Lifer.  On their nesting grounds they are rarely seen, so I had to rely on hearing them, which turned out to be easy, as they are very vocal from the grass.  

Baird’s Sparrow, 2012 in Arizona:

The last target for Saskatchewan, thanks to intel from Katelyn, was a Cordilleran Flycatcher, a bird that rarely makes it into Canada.  This one has been coming to Cypress Hills Provincial Park for the last three summers.  This was a fun bird to chase.  The park is located near Maple Creek Saskatchewan and has a very scenic drive to the West Block where the flycatcher was hanging out.  And by scenic, I mean cows!  Lots of cows giving me the “look,” as only cows can do.  

Once I made it into the swamp where the Cordilleran Flycatcher was, I could hear it calling but its constant movement and perching high in the canopy made it difficult to see and photograph.  The bigger adventure was when I returned to my car, to find it surrounded by cows.  I thought they weren’t going to let me go, but as I slowly walked toward it, they backed off, except for one cow who gave me the stink eye all the way back.  

Next stop, British Columbia and a search for the Flammulated Owl.  I have to admit, this one was the ultimate goal of my summer birding trip, kind of my dream bird, as I heard a young birder say when seeing his first Yellow-crowned Night Heron.  It would be a Lifer.  All the other birds I had seen somewhere in the US over the past 10 plus years.  Many were new for my Canadian Life List, which has grown by 67 species already this year.  But the Flammulated owl is probably on the wish list of every birder who travels out west.  Ellen had given me directions to the tree they had seen it in just a week earlier and I was excited to get there, so drove straight through to from where I had stayed in Medicine Hat, Alberta the previous night. Ten hours the road, plus stops for food, gas and copious amounts of coffee.

I arrived around in Kelowna at 6:00pm, and checked into my hotel before heading to  Rose Valley Regional Park, which is basically a scrubby path located at the end of a road and the beginning of a construction site, not unlike many places I’ve birded over the years.  It was a short, easy walk, as promised, and I quickly found the nest hole in the Birch Tree where the Flammulated Owl was located.  It was only 7:30 in the evening, and the owl had not normally shown itself until after 8:30, but the Force was with me and the owl had its head poked out, ready for pictures.  

There were two big surprises left for me that evening.  The first was that I also saw one of the baby flamers sitting next to the parent in the tree cavity.  By then it was getting dark, so the photo looks more like an ultrasound, and is as difficult to see the owl-let as it is to see a human fetus.  The second was hearing the hooting of a Western Screech-Owl.  I couldn’t locate the nest hole for Screech Owl, but I was happy with the addition of another bird to the Year List.  

On another tree was this post.  Please keep an eye out:

The next day I headed to Salmon Arm Bay in the Shuswap area of BC for a Clark’s Grebe.  That is a very rare visitor to Canada, and I spent an entire hot and humid afternoon, walking back and forth along the edge of the bay with no luck, so soaked with with perspiration at the end, it felt like I took a swim in the bay.  But it was not without birds.  There were plenty of Western Grebes and the cutest ever baby American Coots, who look like animated little Koosh Balls that came out in the late 1980’s.

I stayed the night in the area, hoping for better luck in the morning.  On the way there, I birded along Beaver Lake Road and hit the jackpot with Bullock’s Oriole, Western Bluebird and California Quail.  I then drove into Salmon Arm, to happily discover that the humidity was waning, there was a nice breeze blowing and the Clark’s Grebe was showing. 

 I watched it for about half an hour, got some photos and videos and then it was time to head up to Lillooet and another attempt at the Chukar and White-throated Swift.  That evening I did see the swifts, but both attempts at the Chukar, that night and the next morning, were unsuccessful.  But I’ll be back.  I want that bird!  

There were two more species that I wanted to get before heading back to Ontario.  I had missed Long-billed Curlew on the prairies and kept missing Pacific-slope Flycatcher in the Vancouver area.  But there was a curlew in Delta, just outside Vancouver and my buddy Rich provided me with the location.  When I arrived the tide was out and only gulls and a few ducks were on the mudflats.  I decided to go for the flycatcher and return later.  

However, before I left I was surprised and entertained by a colony of Yellow-bellied Marmots, similar to groundhogs, that had moved into the rocks along the beach.  My second surprise rodent-y species of the trip.  Once again, I discovered a cute little animal that is giving my Meerkat love a run for their money.  In order, I still think that I’d go, Meerkat, Prairie Dog, Marmot.  

I finally tore my eyes away from the marmots and at the suggestion of Rich and eBird, headed to Elgin Heritage Park where it didn’t take long to start hearing and then seeing the Pacific-slope Flycatchers.  One came down to almost eye level for a great look at this west coast specialty.  And yes, another Canadian Lifer.

As it was getting late in the afternoon and I had a red-eye flight to catch back to Toronto later that evening, I headed back to Delta and resumed my search for the Long-billed Curlew.  I also enjoyed the antics of the marmots, because, well, how could you not.  However, I tried not to be distracted by the cuteness and scoped the bay, where the tide was ever so slowly coming in.  

Around 7:00pm, with less than an hour before I had to head to the airport, I spotting something that didn’t quite look like a gull or duck in the distance.  Large, sandpiper, freakishly long bill, poking relentlessly into the mud… It was the Long-billed Curlew and, though distant in my scope, unmistakable.  It is not only North America’s largest sandpiper, but also holds the honor of having the longest bill of any sandpiper in the world.  

With that, my Wild West Coast Swing was done.  I kind of wanted to rebook my flight and extend my rental car, but hotels were at a premium.  Few rooms available and crazy prices upwards of $400.00 per night.  I took a pass and will return again soon, as I want to see Tufted Puffins and have another shot at the Chukar and maybe find a Dusky Grouse along the way.  

I returned home after an overnight flight and slept most of the day on Monday.  I’ll do some local birding and recharge my batteries, watching Ruby-throated Hummingbirds coming to my backyard feeders,  a House Wren building a nest in our hanging gourd and look forward to the next adventure, wherever the wind and the birds take me.