Cape St. Mary's CBC

The Cape St. Mary's Christmas Bird Count was held today (Dec 20). After not being held for 3 years I was looking forward to what the results would be. Highlights centred around the waterfowl: the two new species for the overall count were Northern Shoveler & Northern Pintail. And perhaps more impressive was the high count of 374 Harlequin Ducks! A quick eBird search showed no other province/state with such a high concentration of Harlequin's.

A mere 7 Harlequin Ducks:

 Riding the waves!

They were all in the Golden Bay area on the southern shore of the avalon peninsula. This area is under-rated for its scenery - the cliffs and geological patterns were stunning: 

Lancy and I did a 13km hike to access some of the harder to reach areas to maximize the Harlequin count. The hike ended at the famous Cape St. Mary's:

Not a bit of snow anywhere we looked! But a few SNOWs were seen on the count.