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Post by Randy on Jul 18, 2018 12:26:29 GMT -8
It’s been a month since I checked in! We are leaving for NFLD tomorrow. The birding is slowing a bit. We’ve done some great hiking in Cape Breton recently. I found a Black-billed Cuckoo in NS and a Bicknell’s Thrush in the White Mountains of New Hamshire! These were first timers for me. We are 3 months in and still enjoying the open road. We tend to travel a few 100 kilometres and then stay in 1 spot for 2-4 days. Each province and even each area have there own unique flavour. The small villages are distinct as well. Today is a rainy day and we are catching up on laundry, emails and journals. Hoping for Puffins, Great Cormorant and perhaps a Razor Bill or two! Ed Klassen What an amazing trip! Can't wait to hear your NL reports! My wife and I were there a couple years ago. The primary reason was not birding but I did manage to squeeze a little bit in with a visit to Cape St. Mary's and a puffin tour. Cape St. Mary's was unbelievable and a must-see spot for any birder in my opinion. My wife is not a birder but loves nature and thought the place was amazing as well. We had 1 razorbill at Cape St. Mary's. Many kittiwakes and common murres and a handful of thick-billed murres. The gannet colony was absolutely amazing though. You will definitely see puffins! We did Gatherall's puffin tour from just south of St. John's. There were numerous razorbills here on the island that the puffins nest on. Also had a pair of northern fulmars that one of the guides was able to point out to me on the island. Here are my posts from the trip if you're interested: bcbirding.proboards.com/thread/6747/trip-atlantic-canadabcbirding.proboards.com/thread/6748/cape-st-marys-ecological-preserve
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Post by kestrel on Jul 18, 2018 14:35:17 GMT -8
It’s been a month since I checked in! We are leaving for NFLD tomorrow. The birding is slowing a bit. We’ve done some great hiking in Cape Breton recently. I found a Black-billed Cuckoo in NS and a Bicknell’s Thrush in the White Mountains of New Hamshire! These were first timers for me. We are 3 months in and still enjoying the open road. We tend to travel a few 100 kilometres and then stay in 1 spot for 2-4 days. Each province and even each area have there own unique flavour. The small villages are distinct as well. Today is a rainy day and we are catching up on laundry, emails and journals. Hoping for Puffins, Great Cormorant and perhaps a Razor Bill or two! Ed Klassen That's awesome. All of those birds would be lifers for me.
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Post by ed on Jul 18, 2018 15:50:40 GMT -8
Thanks John, we are having a blast! Randy, I looked at those posts with renewed interest. They are awesome! We are staying on the west side...NL is very large! We have 12 days and we want to spend 5 nights in Gros Morne! We are staying on the west side and won’t get to St. John. I hope to find birds on the west coast though!
Since this is also not primarily a birding trip I’m pretty chill about finding every bird😁 I have seen about 33 species of warbler so far, of which 1 was a lifer (Prairie Warbler)and 1 other was an ABA bird for me( yellow throated warbler)which I had seen in Costa Rica. Still hoping for Kirtland’s in Michigan in August.
Joel, hope you’re having a good time at Arocha. Ed Klassen
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Post by ed on Sept 18, 2018 22:00:54 GMT -8
Elaine and I left home on April 15 and arrived home Sept 13. We drove 31100k and spent 2.5 months travelling through 22 states, from Washington, south to Arizona, then across the southern states to the eastern seaboard and up to Maine. We headed to NL then back through the Maritimes and across Canada to BC for another 2.5 months.
So I thought a recap of lifers would be a good overall picture of this trip! Firstly, this was in no way primarily a birding trip, although as birders you know I was always scanning. I chased several birds such as Red cockaded Woodpecker, Kirkland’s Warbler, Bicknell’s Thrush and a Pelagic trip from Cape Hatteras off N Carolina. Otherwise the birds came to me.
Common Eider- easily found on ocean throughout Maritime provinces.
Northern Bobwhite- saw them in pine forests.
Black-billed Cuckoo-found while watching kids soccer practice in Nova Scotia!
Chuck-will’s-widow-seen and heard several times from Ok to Arkansas, almost comical and loud! Also an admission:my Eastern Whippoorwills were actually CWWI🤗
Razorbill, Black Guillemot, Atlantic Puffin seen in waters off Gaspe CapeBreton, and NL. The usual way to see Puffins is to take a Puffin tour to a colony. I took my chances without the tourist boats and got lucky with 2 solitary sightings!
Great Black-backed Gull-I thought I had seen this in the UK but it turned out to be a lifer...they were everywhere!
Arctic Tern- was hopeful and not disappointed, found them in a number of limited spots, always with Common Terns around. To differentiate the 2 species was a good exercise and shows how the eye can be trained to pick up the germane clues. It did get easier!
Black-capped Petrol, Cory’s Shearwater, Great Shearwater, Audubon’s Shearwater, Wilson’s Storm Petrol, and Band-rumpled Storm-Petrol were lifers on the 1 day Pelagic from Cape Hatteras, N Carolina. I was 1 of 2 West-coasters. Lucky to have Cornell expertise and Steve Howell as a spotter! We needed 2 hours of fairly rough confused seas to get out to the Gulf Stream. I was a bit queasy but forced myself to keep my head and binos up!🤪
Manx Shearwater- seen on NS to NL crossing. I had missed this one several years ago off Tofino where it was a rarity. (Bathroom break)!
Great Cormorant- boy I checked a lot of Double-crested Cormorants to find several of these...not that easy to find for me!
Red-cockaded Woodpecker-the idea is to stakeout a colony and hang around...it wasn’t working for me until the last chance in North Carolina where we stepped out of the car and saw a pair!
Sedge Wren- finally saw this little guy in Riding Mtn Nat Park in Manitoba, I was inexplicably happy to see at least one on this trip!
Bicknell ‘s Thrush was a target bird. I found one on Cannon Mtn in the White Mountains which is part of their breeding area!
Prairie Warbler, Yellow Throated Warbler-I saw 37 different warbler species, I’m not sure yet whether YTWA is a lifer or a new ABA species, I might have seen it in Costa Rica. We detoured into Michigan from Point Pelee to find the Kirkland’s Warbler. The daily tours end in early June.... we were there in mid August Other things conspired to keep me from driving out to likely Jackpine terrain so that was that😏 Bachmans Sparrow-found in exactly same terrain and area that RCWO was found.
Field Sparrow- found unexpectedly beside our camp on the outer banks N Carolina! I heard a new song and zeroed in😀
Nelson’s Sparrow- found in grasses Oceanside in Nova Scotia.
Focusing in on birds is such a good hobby, you can go anywhere and “dig” for birds. It was tough though because really this was a hiking trip. We hiked 3-8 miles daily as often as we could. Avid birders will understand that hiking or walking is hard to reconcile when you are in the company of a non-border. You have to keep moving. So I seldom lingered to find a bird I glimpsed or heard somewhere, however could often find time on my own to look👍🏻 383 species seen this year. 299 in USA, 239 in Canada. Of course I was out of Canada for the whole breeding season.
As well as birds we saw Porpoises, Dolphins, Humpbacked Whales Orcas(who knew they were on the East Coast) several types of Seals. Moose, Elk, White-tail Deer, Porcupine, Weasel, Mink, Marten, Beaver, Plains and WoodBison!
Ed Klassen
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Post by nickinthegarden on Sept 19, 2018 3:44:41 GMT -8
Wow! Thanks for the update, that sounds like a great trip. But what is a "non-birder?"
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Post by paulos on Sept 19, 2018 6:53:03 GMT -8
Nice trip! Welcome back Ed.
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Post by Randy on Sept 19, 2018 7:16:08 GMT -8
Prairie Warbler, Yellow Throated Warbler-I saw 37 different warbler species, I’m not sure yet whether YTWA is a lifer or a new ABA species, I might have seen it in Costa Rica. We detoured into Michigan from Point Pelee to find the Kirkland’s Warbler. The daily tours end in early June.... we were there in mid August Other things conspired to keep me from driving out to likely Jackpine terrain so that was that😏 Bachmans Sparrow-found in exactly same terrain and area that RCWO was found. Wow, amazing species and trip! Very jealous! I have to admit I did chuckle when I saw that you had an auto-correct from Kirtland's to Kirkland's warbler, which I was picturing to be the bulk-sized Costco branded version of the Kirtland's warbler Randy
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Post by ed on Sept 19, 2018 8:19:56 GMT -8
I’ll see you guys out in the field I’m sure! Yes I’m not sure about the non-border-birder bit. I’m sure there is some application to real life with our current political landscape! Kirtlands it is! Takes some effort to get that to stick😆 Ed
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Post by butterfly on Sept 19, 2018 8:25:02 GMT -8
It was great to see you at the Great Blue Heron Nature Reserve the other day and get a first hand account of some of your incredible experience! Nice to have such an amazing list on a "hiking" trip! See you soon, Bruce and Joanne
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Post by oldfulica on Sept 19, 2018 18:01:38 GMT -8
Wow! That's an impressive trip Ed.
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