Canadian Maritimes Vacation – 290 New Province Birds, September 2015 – Part 1 of 3 – New Brunswick

A subtitle for this post could be – Finally Bitten by the Province Listing Bug

Over my four decades of working on my Total Ticks, I’ve concentrated on birding in the states, with very limited birding time in Canada.  That is until recently- with short forays into Quebec, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba in the last year I’ve increased by Total Ticks in Canada to 476.  A pretty small total compared to my 12,873 in the US, but it’s a start. 

While on a 2-day birding vacation in southern Quebec in early September I started thinking about the possibility of doing a short birding trip in the Canadian Maritimes.  My grand total of Maritime province ticks is 2 – Leach’s and Wilson’s Storm-petrels seen in NS waters when on a pelagic trip out of Bar Harbor, ME.  So with virginal territory ahead of me, I quickly came up with a planned loop starting in coastal NB after a long drive through ME, then north to PEI, and back south through NS, ending with a ride on the ferry from Yarmouth, NS to Portland, ME.  But could I squeeze a trip in between work and home commitments?  The only open window in my calendar was a 7-day period toward the end of September.  That was getting late for many landbird and shorebird migrants, but that was my only option. 

With only 7 days including travel time, and lots of area to cover, I had to come up with a very efficient itinerary.  Given the time of year my key goals were to focus on passerine and shorebird migrants, but I would also try to make stops in as many habitats as possible given the limited time.  And since this was basically my first trip to each province, I wanted to spend most of my time at the very best birding spots, rather than focusing on specific species.  I was able to purchase reasonably recent birdfinding guides to NB and NS, which did a good job of pointing out those best hotspots.  But I had to rely on less detailed on-line sources for my PEI research.  Luckily I connected with a birder on PEI who was a big help, but more on that later. 

It wasn’t until the day before I left that I finally finished up my itinerary– about 2 days in NB, roughly 1 day in PEI, and 2 days plus the ferry ride in NS.  Given the limited amount of time, and the late dates in September, I hoped for 75-100 birds each in NB and NS, and 50-75 in PEI.  And not only will the birds have to cooperate to reach these totals, but I would have to get lucky with the weather too.  It can get pretty stormy in the Maritimes in Fall.  So although I wished I had set up the trip to be earlier in the year, I was excited to be on my way to start listing in 3 new provinces – I had been bitten by the province listing bug!

This post summarizes the NB portion of my trip; the next 2 posts summarize the PEI and NS portions.

Day 1 – Near Saint John, New Brunswick

After a 5-hour drive through MA, NH, and ME, I was at the Canadian border in St. Stephen, NB by 1 PM.  As I drove toward my first stops in Saint John in some intermittent showers I added my first 8 NB species, including fittingly Canada Goose.  I pulled up to my first stop at the Lancaster sewage lagoons as the rain was ending (it would turn out to be the only rain of the entire trip), and I maneuvered the car to a high spot where I could look down onto all the lagoons.  The one lagoon was full of bathing gulls (just Ring-bills), while the other had many dabbling ducks of 7 species, and the only Lesser Scaup of the trip. 

My next stop was the adjacent Saints Rest Marsh, which the birdfinding guide described as an excellent spot for shorebirds at high tide.  With a late day high tide, I had planned to spend most of the rest of the day there.  With high tide still 3 hours away, I had time to make a couple stops along the way.  The first was at a small loop road of Irving Nature Park overlooking the marsh.  In the brush along the loop I picked up a few migrant passerines including the only Chipping Sparrows of the trip.  From here I had a couple vantage points into the marsh, and picked up a pair of Great Egrets, but found no shorebirds in the pools.  Hmm…  Next stop was along the beach overlooking the open water to the south, along with these ominous clouds as the front passed by. 

There were no shorebirds on the beach, but a distant Peregrine was nice, along with a flock of Surf Scoters and a few passing Common Loons.  I then headed back for views of the marsh but still there were no shorebirds in the nearby pannes. 

Since I was striking out at the marsh, I decided to head into the Irving Nature Park peninsula where I had planned to spend the morning of Day 2.  This area covered in conifer forests looked to be excellent for landbirds, and also offered a couple more opportunities to view Saints Rest Marsh.  Unfortunately a stop overlooking the marsh and a walk onto a boardwalk well out into the marsh still provided no shorebirds.  So I decided to bird the woodlands of the peninsula, at the very least to give me a handle on what to expect at dawn the next morning.  It was a bit slow until on one of my stops I heard some faint call notes that I didn’t recognize initially.  Then it dawned on me – Pine Grosbeak.  There were calling birds in 3 different directions around me. 

When I exited the peninsula it was close to sunset, and I thought I’d give the marsh one more try for shorebirds.  I decided to try walking out on the marsh to see if other viewpoints were feasible.  I was just 15 feet off the road when I flushed a calling Least Sandpiper.  A couple minutes later I starting to hear calling Yellowlegs – both Greater and Lesser.  Finally I realized that they were dropping into a very distant salt panne which was not visible from this side of the marsh.  But this spot was right behind a visitor’s center on the highway.  Since I would be in that area the next evening at high tide I made a note to check this spot the next day.  The last bird of the day was a calling Solitary Sand that dropped into a panne nearby, giving me a disappointing 4 shorebirds species. 

I ended the day with 47 species for my NB list, which I guess wasn’t bad for a late afternoon of birding, though I had to work hard for most all of those species.

Day 2 – Saint John and Saint Andrews, New Brunswick

My plan was to spend the morning at Irving Nature Park, and then take an afternoon whale watch out of Saint Andrews, before heading to my hotel in Sussex a 2-hour drive to the east.  I arrived at Irving Nature Park pre-dawn, and played some tape for owls and rails with no luck.  Though I did hear Semi and Black-bellied Plovers calling nearby.  The road into the park didn’t open till 8, so I decided to bird near the entrance at the northern end of the peninsula in the meantime.  As dawn arrived I started to notice small flocks of warblers flying north coming in from the peninsula, then turning back into the woodlands.  I had a feeling that there could be a good morning flight on this day after the passage of the cold front – and that turned out to be an understatement!  I positioned myself to be next to the first trees to be lit by the morning sun, and sure enough warblers and vireos started to appear as soon as they were in the morning sunlight.  Soon there were so many birds that I couldn’t focus on them fast enough.  Over the next 90 minutes I conservatively estimated 150 warblers of 9 species (mostly Black-throated Green and Yellow-rumps), and another 20 Vireos of 3 species (mostly Red-eyed).  And this included nice views of a Yellow-throated Vireo as a rarity.  Plus who knows how many more that slipped by without stopping long enough to be identified.  What a start to the day.

Later I was able to get views of the mudflats on a rapidly falling tide in the amazing Bay of Fundy.  I was finally able to find a number of shorebirds, though all were very distant.  While scoping a flock of plovers a White-rumped Sandpiper flew through my scope field – thanks to that white rump.  And I added Sanderling in the distance, giving me just my 8th shorebird species for NB.  With one last stop looking out on the water I added Red-throated Loon and a Gannet, and this very nice scenery shot.

 

A few more stops in the conifers gave me a few more migrant warblers but nothing new.  So at 10:30 I decided to leave Irving Nature Park a little early giving me time to bird near Saint Andrews before the whale watch.  That would enable me to spend my only time in a deciduous forest in the NB part of my trip, where a number of more southern birds are possible.  And speaking of southern birds, a pair of flyover Turkey Vultures were nice in route to the area.  When I got to the Saint Andrews area I headed to Chamcook Mountain where its hardwood forests had a definite southern feel.  Although it was a bit slow at midday, I added Broad-winged Hawk and Hairy Woodpecker.  Plus I made a mental note to come back to this spot at dawn during breeding season for a number of passerine possibilities.  A non-birding highlight for this spot was seeing a life amphibian – Spotted Salamander.

Then a quick stop at a bay just outside town yielded a family of Red-necked Grebes, a couple White-winged Scoters, and a pair of out-of-season Horned Grebes.  Finally, just before the whale watch I had a bit of time to walk through the town of Saint Andrews as my first opportunity to bird in a suburban setting and added Starling (though it was tough to get too excited about a Starling). 

The whale watch was most enjoyable even though we didn’t go very far into open waters.  As a result we spent much of the trip snaking around conifer-covered islands north of Campobello Island, where large flocks of Bonaparte’s Gulls were feeding wherever the currents converged.  Although I couldn’t find a Little Gull mixed in there were numerous Kittiwakes in the area.  There were also many Guillemots, including a vocal flock of 35 at one spot.  Plus I spotted a single Great Cormorant, Common Murre, Common Tern, and Pomarine Jaeger.  But the best bird on the trip was when we stopped at small Spruce Island just north of Campobello Island to check out several roosting Bald Eagles.  When the captain cut the engines I heard the familiar “peter peter” song of a Tufted Titmouse – it continued to sing the whole time we floated by.

Back on shore I spent a little more time in town, this time to try for the elusive House Sparrow.  I didn’t find the Sparrow, but did get Grackle, White-breasted Nuthatch, and a Mourning Dove and a Cardinal at a feeder.  Back on the road I planned to make a late day stop at the visitor center along the highway outside Saint John to look for roosting shorebirds in Saints Rest Marsh.  But it was closed – odd that it would close so early in the day.  So although I was unhappy that I wouldn’t have a chance for more shorebirds, I was pleased with 75 species on the day, and now a total of 89 for the province.  Well within my target range of 75-100, and just 11 more to go to reach my highest target. 

Day 3 – Morning in Fundy National Park, New Brunswick

The plan for Day 3 was to spend the morning and early afternoon in excellent boreal habitat in Fundy National Park, before heading to Prince Edward Island for my first birding there.  I started at dawn for a 2-hour hike on the Caribou Plain trail in really nice spruce/fir forest and boreal bogs. 

Highlights here included several Boreal Chickadees and a small flock of Hermit Thrushes in the woodlands, and a Lincoln’s Sparrow and Ring-necked Duck in one of the bogs.  Plus a calling Red-shouldered Hawk was near the edge of its range.  Other stops yielded Bluebirds, Purple Finches, and Ruby-crowned Kinglets to get to 98 for the province.  And although I found Boreal Chickadees in 4 locations, I wasn’t able to find other boreal targets like Gray Jay, Black-backed Woodpecker, and Crossbills. 

With just a couple stops left, I was worried that I wouldn’t get to 100.  But then I was able to find a distant migrating Red-tailed Hawk at #99, along with several Sharp-shins.  That left stops near the headquarters where I hoped to find some new birds at feeders.  Although there were no feeders, I did run into several flocks of migrants.  It was more of the same for the first several flocks, but then I ran into another flock that included a lone Philadelphia Vireo - #100. 

Now I needed to decide if I should continue with other stops at the National Park in NB or start on my way to PEI.  I was sure I could get a few more for my NB list, but a brand new province was waiting.  Just then I got a call from a PEI birder, Dan McAskill, who had heard that I was on my way to PEI and offered to meet up with me later that afternoon.  It was an easy decision to take Dan up on his offer, and at 1 PM I left Fundy National Park on route to PEI.

I was extremely happy with my first trip to NB, not only reaching the upper end of my target range of 100 birds, but also getting a couple rarities in Yellow-throated Vireo and Tufted Titmouse.  Plus twelve of my birds were new for my overall Canada list which is now at 256. 

My next blog post will pick up the PEI portion of my trip.

61 new Province Birds in Quebec, September 2015

The ABA’s “Total Ticks” reporting category includes one’s lists both in the US states (except Hawaii) as well as in the Canadian provinces.  Despite this broad geography, the vast majority of my efforts to work on my Total Ticks have been in the US.  Similarly, my life-long goal has been to get to the ABA reportable thresholds for all the US states, though not for the Canadian provinces.  As a result, although my Total Ticks are 13,284, the Canadian portion of that total (called All Territories and Provinces by the ABA) is only 415. 

But over the last couple years as my statelists have improved, the opportunity to increase my Total Ticks significantly by birding just in the US has diminished.  So recently I’ve done just a bit of birding in Canada.  For instance last year while birding in North Dakota I added brief 1-hour forays for my first visits ever to Manitoba and Saskatchewan adding 88 Total Ticks – not a lot but a start.  And last summer while birding in northern NH and ME, I added a morning in Quebec, picking up 63 birds during my first ever birding time in that province.  But my 415 ticks in Canada already includes those totals.  And since my only semi-respectable province total is Ontario at 181, I have lots of potential to add ticks in most any Canadian province.

As the summer of 2015 progressed I lamented not having taken what has turned out to be a nearly annual spring/summer statebirding trip this year.  So I started thinking about taking a short trip into a nearby province to add some relatively easy ticks in Canada.  Quebec is the closest province – a little less than 4 hours away along the northern VT border.  And with just 63 ticks on my province list, there was considerable potential to greatly increase that total.  I picked a 3-day vacation period in early September as a likely time to be able to focus on migrant passerines and shorebirds.  And since I wouldn’t likely get to Quebec too easily in winter, waterfowl would be a good focus as well.  So I started doing some research on-line to find the best birding hotspots not too far from the VT border.  Although many of the resources were in french, I was still able to use my very rusty high school French and an on-line translator to come up with a game plan.  And with the help of recent eBird data, I hoped for about 50 new birds for my province list.

Day 1

I left my hotel in Rutland, VT (after adding Yellow-crowned Night-Heron to my VT list the night before) in the early morning, and was at the QC/VT line by 9:30 AM.  By 10 I was at the Centre D'interprétation de la Nature du Lac-Boivin.  This eBird hotspot had considerable woodlands, marsh, and a lake, with quite a number of species reported there recently.  I spent 4 ½ hours there on foot, starting and ending with walks on woodland trails, with a couple stops at the lake and marsh.  It turned out to be a very birdy spot, getting 55 species, including 13 species of Warblers and 3 species of Vireos even though I couldn’t be there at dawn.  No real rarities, but lots of diversity.  Perhaps the highlight was the extremely tame Chickadees which were undoubtedly very used to being fed by hand along the trails – this Chickadee landed on my hand even though I had no seed with me.

With stops around the wetlands I added 6 species of waterfowl, Osprey, and cormorant.  When I left at 2:30 I was already nearly half way to my goal of 50 new province birds. 

The next stop was nearby Parc National de la Yamaska.  A brief visit at the reservoir yielded a large flock of Ring-billed Gulls (but no other gull species), and 3 extremely distant Redheads, but little else.  It was here that I ran into two very helpful birding couples who told me about a second location at the park, the alternate spillway for the reservoir, where they had shorebirds earlier in the day.  We all walked back to that spot and added 6 species of shorebirds though in very low numbers, along with 3 additional Warbler species I had not seen earlier. 

In route to my hotel in Drummondville I picked up a couple more new birds – Kestrel and Nighthawk – before calling it a day.  I ended up with 75 species for the day including 33 new birds for my QC list – a very nice start to the trip

The birders I met at Yamaska also told me about a spot not too far away where a couple rare shorebirds had been seen recently – Stilt Sandpiper and Long-billed Dowitcher.  It took a little time to figure out the location, but it turned out to be Domaine-de-la-Pêche-au-Saumon in Sainte-Martine southwest of Montreal.  That evening I went on eBird and saw that quite a number of possible new province birds were being seen there, so I decided to add it to my itinerary for the next day.

Day 2

I started at dawn in woodlands north of Drummondville along Riviere Saint-Francois, hoping for some early morning migrants.  But the woodlands were rather inaccessible and I only spent a few minutes there.  Despite the short trip I did pick up Cardinal at a suburban feeder, a singing Pine Warbler, and Gadwall in the river.

The next several stops were at or near the Saint Lawrence River, with several shorebird, waterfowl, and gull opportunities.  The first stop was at the Station D'épuration (sewage treatment ponds) at Baie-du-Febvre where lots of waterfowl had been reported recently on eBird.  The site did not disappoint, with 8 species of waterfowl including a nice group of lingering Snow Geese, Common Gallinule, Harrier, and Marsh Wren giving me 8 new province birds.  At the neighboring Etangs de la Defence I added Black-crowned Night-Heron, Merlin, Cooper’s Hawk, Semi Plover, and Pectoral Sandpiper for 5 more.  Unfortunately the shorebirds were seen flying into a spot in the marsh which was not visible – who knows what other shorebirds may have been in there.

The next stop was the little town of Commune de la Baie-du-Febvre on the river principally for landbird migrants.  Although I had almost no passerines here, I did pick up a lone Pintail and Herring Gull – the 50^th and 51^st new birds for my QC list.  I already exceeded my target and I still had more than a full day of QC birding ahead of me.

Next I was onto Parc Ecologique de l'Anse du Port, featuring an elevated boardwalk first though a swampy forest, then a marsh, ending at the Saint Lawrence.  Just about the only birds in the woodlands were several singing Pewees, though I played tape unsuccessfully for Barred Owl.  The marsh yielded a distant Virginia Rail that replied to tape.  The end of the boardwalk provided a great spot to scan the river and Lac-Saint-Pierre.  Here I picked out a lone late Common Tern, and several Great Black-backed Gulls (outnumbering the Ring-bills).  Four new province birds were nice for this midday stop.

The last stop along the River was at Quai Port-St-François, a pier that sticks out onto the lake.  I hoped for some shorebirds along the sandy beach but only found a Spotted Sand.  I then scanned the water in the distance but didn’t see a single bird.  But then I noticed a dark immature gull floating nearby picking at a dead fish on the surface.  Long wings, checkered back, all dark bill – a first-year Lesser Black-backed.  I got these phonescoped photos as the bird floated by. 

 

It was now early afternoon as I headed toward Sainte-Martine for a stop at Domaine-de-la-Pêche-au-Saumon.  I started to realize that not only had I already exceeded my goal of 50 new province birds, but I was starting to run out of possibilities.  Sure I was only at 119 for the province so there were many more possibilities, but they would be few and far between now.  Plus many of the next set of targets at a planned stop at the Phillipsburg Sanctuary the morning of Day 3 were nesting birds that barely get into QC.  I wondered how many might still be around, and thought that maybe the better approach would be to come back to southern QC in May or June to try for them while they were nesting.  If I made the next shorebird stop at Sainte-Martine as my last stop of the trip, I could head back home one day early.  But how many new birds would I miss?  I had just decided to call it quits after Sainte-Martine when a Turkey Vulture flew by - #120.  I wasn’t sure if I should look at that as confirmation that I should leave QC early because there was one less bird to try for the next day, or that it was an omen that I should keep birding to try to pick off additional birds even if they would be one at a time.

From photos I saw on-line, Domaine-de-la-Pêche-au-Saumon was a river downstream of a low dam, with a number of exposed rocks and shallow puddles.  It looked like a really nice spot, but I wondered how I might gain access to the areas where the shorebirds had been spotted.  But just after I arrived at 3 PM I noticed 3 birders on the rocks below, so I made my way down to their location.  Within seconds I added Great Egret and American Wigeon to my list.  And no more than a minute later I had the Long-billed Dowitcher practically at my feet, and the Stilt Sandpiper. 

A few minutes later I found a second Stilt Sandpiper – not bad for a rare species in the province.  Although I only saw 14 species at this stop 4 were new for my list.  It was a great way to end the trip, and given my focus on shorebirds, adding a couple rarer species was great.  Many thanks to those birders who told me about this spot.  I had 71 species on Day 2, dominated by waterfowl and shorebirds.

I ended up with 61 new birds for my province list, giving me 124 total for QC.  I had 109 species for the trip, including 14 waterfowl species, 11 shorebird species and 19 warbler species in a bit under 2 days of birding.  Some very respectable totals.

Looking to the future, my greatest potential for additional birds in the southern part of the province would be in the early winter before freeze up for diving ducks, raptors, field birds, and winter finches; and in late spring/early summer for nesting woodland birds.  With two short trips over the next year maybe I could get close to 200 in Quebec.

And now a postscript -  By coming home a day early I was able to take a ferry out of New London, CT the next day where I added Pomarine Jaeger to both my CT and NY lists (detailed in my earlier blog post).  Along with the Night-Heron on VT, that gave me 64 state/province birds in 3 states and 1 province in 4 consecutive days.  Nice results for a 3-day vacation.

Cory’s Shearwater and Pomarine Jaeger, New London, CT - Orient Point, NY Ferry, August-September 2015

In July I had the opportunity to take the ferry across Long Island Sound from Bridgeport, CT to Port Jefferson, NY, and of course birded from the ship while we crossed the Sound.  Unfortunately I didn’t see anything but a few gulls and Common Terns.  Afterwards I found out that birders typically take the more eastern ferry from New London, CT to Orient Point, NY hoping for the occasional pelagic bird closer to open ocean waters.  Pelagic birds are exceptionally rare in CT given the coastal geography of that state with Long Island blocking the entire coast from open ocean waters.  So on my next trip to Long Island in late August I decided to take the ferry from New London to give it a try.  I was especially hoping for birds in CT, but would be happy with new birds for my NY list too.  Though I was well aware that many trips on the ferry are pretty slow with no pelagic birds seen at all. 

As we left the New London harbor there were many gulls and a few terns, but the numbers dropped off dramatically soon after we got into the open waters.  For quite a while I saw just a few Laughing Gulls, with a couple larger gulls mixed in, but that was all.  As we got roughly halfway out I checked the GPS on my phone and I estimated that we were now in NY waters.  So much for a new CT statebird that day.  But just a couple minutes later I noticed two birds flying along with the boat low over the water.  I got them in my binoculars and was shocked to see that they were Cory’s Shearwaters.  They continued to fly roughly southwest, passing the boat and then heading west when I lost them in the sun glare.  If only I had picked them out a little sooner they would have been in CT waters.  A little later I spotted another Cory’s now well into NY waters.  I took this picture with my iPhone (no magnification) of the third bird right next to the boat. 

Even though Cory’s Shearwater isn’t a rare bird in NY (they are seen regularly in season on the ocean side of Long Island), they are pretty rare on the Sound.  And of course just as rare in CT waters.  In fact I don’t remember seeing any reports of Cory’s from the ferry in either state.  Cory’s was number 277 for my NY list, which was my 7th Atlantic coastal state for this species (see my statebird map below).

I posted my sightings to the CT listserve that evening because even though the birds were in NY waters, they were tantalizingly close to being in CT.  And sure enough a number of birders went out on the ferry the next several days and spotted Cory’s in CT as well as NY.  Unfortunately I couldn’t get back on the ferry for at least another week, so I would have to be content to have gotten them in NY.  And I was happy to know that my initial sightings resulted in a number of CT birders being able to add them to their CT lists. 

But now it was a week later and surprisingly the Cory’s sightings continued.  So on a whim I decided to take a round-trip midday ferry, hoping to find them this time in CT waters.  This trip started very much like the first one, with few birds in the open sound.  We were now very close to the CT/NY line and I was just about to give up hope in seeing a shearwater in CT.  But just then I noticed a large dark bird flying alongside the boat with white wing patches – a Jaeger!  I got good looks at this sub-adult bird which was very stocky, making it a Pomarine Jaeger.  I rechecked my GPS and we were still in CT, but just barely.  The bird continued to fly south, and soon crossed into NY - #321 for my CT list and #278 for me in NY.  Although I’ve seen this species in just 11 states, they are scattered across the country including most all the “corners” of the US.

The return trip was very quiet with no Jaeger or Shearwaters.  So although I missed Cory’s in CT (there were no further reports of these birds), I was very happy to have discovered the Pomarine.  It appears that Pomarine Jaeger is even rarer than the Cory’s Shearwater in CT.  I checked the 1990 reference “Connecticut Birds” by Zeranski and Baptist, and Pomarine is not even included in the book.  So it was likely not even on the CT state list as of 1990.

I once again posted my sightings on the listserve, again resulting in a number of birders heading out on the ferry.  The next day another birder had a Pomarine Jaeger at the same spot near the stateline – undoubtedly the same bird I had.  Although others on subsequent days could not find the Pomarine, they had a couple different Parasitic Jaegers.  I sure could have used that one for my CT list, but home and work commitments kept me from heading back out.  Maybe I’ll get lucky again on a future ferry trip.