Monday 3 September 2012

Bellevue Beach

The lack of blog posts is not indication that I haven't been birding.

Anyway, yesterday was one of the more noteworthy ones.

I started the day early with a seawatch at Cape Spear. North winds were forecasted overnight and during the day for the first time in over a week so I was hoping for a good movement of seabirds offshore. There wasn't a heck of a lot of birds out there - plenty of Gannets and the usual gulls and alcids. However, I did have 1 Parasitic Jaeger which was a new bird for me in NL. Plenty of shearwaters were riding the horizon.

After that I returned home to do a bit of studying for an exam coming up on Thursday and then joined up with 2 local birders to go to Bellevue beach. The shorebirding there was the best I've ever had in Newfoundland. 12 species of shorebird numbering about 200 individuals allowed for lengthy study of a variety of species and plumages. 1 Baird's Sandpiper, and 17 Red Knots were also both new birds for my NL list.

The Red Knots were all adults, which seems a bit late?

On top of that I had my first self-found Mew Gull (aka Common Gull) for Canada. It was an adult: notice the lack of black on the bill, head shape compared to a Ring-billed Gull, and large white mirror on p10 (the feather sticking out the furthest from the wing):

5 Bonaparte's Gull was a particularly high count for NL:

And 24 Black-headed Gulls was also notable for this time of year. They may breed in the area.

Black-bellied Plovers were common: