Grand Bank - Day 1 & 2

Arrived in Grand Bank, Newfoundland yesterday afternoon and will be here for another 2 weeks for a medical school rural placement. Needless to say I'll be taking advantage of the opportunity to explore this region which is very much under-birded, much like most of Newfoundland!

One of the first birds I saw was this Short-billed Dowitcher roosting on a soccer field with a few Black-bellied Plovers. I'm pretty sure it's a juvenile. But what's interesting is that some of the scapular feathers are grey, indicating that it's moulting into non-breeding plumage. The time of year for the moult isn't unusual, it's just unusual to see a moulting SB Dow during migration. Oftentimes, a moulting dowitcher is the first indication that you have a Long-billed. Not this time unfortunately!

The second stop had another juvenile SB Dow. This one hadn't started moulting yet:

The tertials are relatively bland for a Short-billed. But not bland enough for a Long-billed I think...

Seems that there are quite a few Great Cormorants in this area. They're still out-numbered by Double-cresteds, but definitely more common than on the avalon peninsula:

Community of Grand Bank:

Not many trees!!

A fair number of Blackpoll Warblers were present yesterday: 

A rare/uncommon Great Blue Heron was near the town:

The best place I've visited so far was definitely the "L'anse-aux-Loop T". The place has a large tidal flat with many mussels. I saw 12 species of shorebird at this location, highlighted by 2 Red Knots, and a single Buff-breasted Sandpiper this morning.

Juvenile Dunlin are unique among shorebirds in that they begin their moult into non-breeding plumage before starting their southbound migration. And they continue to replace scapulars and other feathers, throughout migration. They can be distinguished from adults by the retained wing coverts which are still pale-fringed:

There are still quite a few adult White-rumped Sandpipers here. They were getting to be quite rare on the avalon last week, so maybe these ones found a good spot and decided to stay for a little longer while the feeding is good:

Another adult White-rumped:

I didn't get any nice photos of juvenile White-rumpeds. But this photo has an adult and a juvenile. Adult is on the left, juvenile on the right:

The highlight for me was the opportunity to photograph 2 tame juvenile Red Knots with the sun setting behind me: 

Red Knots are uncommon passage migrants in Newfoundland. These ones were only my 6th and 7th for the year: 

While photographing the knots, this juvenile Black-bellied Plover must have realized that I wasn't much of a threat and came rather close for the species: 

To top things off, I was lucky to find a tame juvenile American Golden-plover earlier this week on a baseball field in St. John's:

juvenile BB and AMGPs are often confused. Note the smaller thinner bill, longer primary extension beyond the tertials, and more pronounced white eyebrow of the American GP versus the BBPL:

Habitat can be a pretty good clue as well. AMGPs are usually found on fields, whereas BBPLs are usually found around rocky shores. However, I have seen both species in the opposite habitat so don't rely on the habitat alone for ID purposes.

Hudwits & Dunlin

While at Biscay Bay yesterday, Ed and I were keen to see the 4 juvenile Hudsonian Godwits that were reported from there the day before.

It didn't take us long to find them. We were walking along the grassy track when the birds flew in and landed very close by!

They were quick to start feeding, and seemed to have no trouble finding large juicy worms:

When I was photographing this one I thought it had a band on at first, but then it changed angles and I couldn't see anything so dismissed it. Now I can see that it appears to have an injury on its leg:

A large flock of Dunlin landed close-by while I was laying low and photographing the godwits:

The majority were juveniles as far as I could tell:

Storm Driven Birds = 0

Sir Ed and I made our way around the southern shore today. We had high hopes to capitalize on seabirds driven close to shore due to the high winds. Unfortunately, visibility was too good (meaning birds knew where the land was and could steer clear), and, probably more importantly, the winds weren't strong enough.

Nevertheless, we had a great day and saw some great birds.

I've been seeing Common Eiders semi-regularly this month. I'm not sure if all of them have been over-summering or if they're recent migrants to the area. Of the 20+ I've seen this was the only one I got close enough to photograph:

This bird appears to be of the dresseri sub-species, which breeds in the maritimes and some places around Newfoundland. In the winter most of our eiders are of the borealis sub-species, which breeds further to the North.

Another highlight from today was a flock of phalaropes close to shore that contained both Red & Red-necked Phalaropes.

The size difference between the two species is evident in the above photo (the 2 Red-neckeds are noticeably smaller, while also being darker).

Red Phalarope peaking over a wave at the RNPH:

In the field I thought the RNPHs were juveniles because of their dark backs and the golden stripe along the inner scapulars. But now that I've looked at the photos it's obvious that these are adult Red-necked Phalaropes that still have much of their breeding plumage retained.

It was interesting to note that the Red Phalaropes appear much further advanced in their moult having replaced the majority of their coverts, scapulars, and mantle feathers. Whereas, the RNPHs had replaced fewer of those feathers.

The water was very choppy and the phalaropes were very adept at managing the constant wave action:

juvenile Sanderlings were along most beaches we checked:

The most unexpected species of the day was a Horned Grebe in winter plumage!

It was at Biscay Bay which happens to be the only location in NL known to have regularly occurring Horned Grebes in the winter. Perhaps this one was a failed breeder and knew exactly where it wanted to be for the next 8 or 9 months. Or it could have been there all summer?

On our way home we came across a freshly tilled field that attracted hundreds of gulls. Among them were 3 adult Lesser Black-backed Gulls. This one still has its outer 2 primary feathers (P9 & P10) from its summer plumage: