Chronic Listers Syndrome

While out birding with the Winter List in mind, I had to pause and take stock of what accounts for the new giddiness when I see a familiar bird.  There clearly seem to be some symptoms and repetitive behaviour associated with bird listing. What's old becomes new again, as the saying goes.

 I find myself looking forward to creating and adding to existing lists. There is the Backyard List, Life List, Newfoundland Life List, Annual List, Winter List and of course, the Christmas Bird Count. On top of this is all of the ticking that I do....ticking off birds seen on my Newfoundland Checklist and in all of my bird guides. That's a lot of ticking!  I'm not complaining, mind you.

When I start a new list, I find myself unable to contain the desire to get out and look for birds, raise my camera before my binoculars, spend way too much time cruising, check the Google Group much too often and eagerly post anything special that I might see.

 What do you take for the malady? Well, the only thing that seems to quiet the need it to go with it!

 I find myself stopping to look at common birds just like I had never seen them before. This is the case with these chickadees. They bring a joyful sound to the woods with their year-round calls and song.  The distinctive voice is a welcome sound and often means that there are other birds around, too.

 I often hear this bird before seeing it. At that point my senses awaken and I stop, look and listen much like a hunting dog that has a bead on a bird in the bush.

More like a pointer I try not to flush the bird so that I can enjoy the moment for as long as possible.  I don't think I will ever tire of watching the chickadees and like a fresh of breath air, every time I start a new list they are an important addition to the tally.

It is like creating a new list is a way of keeping birding fresh even when most of the birds added to the list are already familiar. In addition to that it becomes a great historical record of what has gone before.

2011-2012 Newfoundland Winter List

 I set out this morning in search of the sun. I looked and looked and finally around 3 p.m. I caught sight of it shining on the Pippy Park Golf Course, for a moment only and then it was gone.

While out there on my sun quest, I decided to try to amass as many species as possible for my Winter List. I know of several special birds around town and I thought it would be nice to count them in the winter before they up and leave.

There wasn't much time really.  A full day now consists of only eight hours of day light and eight minutes of sun light. The rush was on! I was "speed birding" all around St. John's and vicinity.

I missed many of my target birds and did not tarry. If I didn't see the bird right away, I moved on.

One of the target birds was the Great Egret that has been seen by many at Virginia Lake.  I scanned the water's edge and the trees but couldn't find it.  The picture provided here was taken about a month ago in Ferryland. I wonder if our city egret is still around.

I did start the day well with the Pied-billed Grebe that is still at Long Pond.  The rest of the day I checked out Cape Spear, Blackhead, Goulds: Second Pond, Fourth Pond, Forest Pond, Bidgood's Park, and Cochrane Pond Road. (The water is very high in all ponds.) At each stop I added at least one bird to the list.

The most fruitful location was on Blackhead Road near the house with the flag draped in the window.  There I got finches including American Goldfinch, Purple Finch and White-winged Crossbill. There were more than a dozen Blue Jays in this same area.

I also checked Rennie's Mill Road and got the House Sparrow and Song Sparrow. There were only three sparrows at the feeder. No sign of the Mourning Dove or the other two very desirable birds:  Blue-headed Vireo and Yellow-breasted Chat. A quick look at Quidi Vidi yielded very few birds on the water so I moved on. There were two Green-winged Teal at Kelly's Brook. Bidgood's Park offered up American Goldfinches, Boreal and Black-capped Chickadees.  I suspect that there are more birds there in the back of the park beyond the big rock by the stream but it was late in the day when I got there.

I checked out the Baltimore Orioles at the end of the day but they were not about.  I looked for the Northern Mockingbird but there was not one bird moving on Pinebud.  A quick look in Torbay didn't offer up anything near the beach but a few Herring Gulls, not even American Black Ducks in the mix. In Goulds I saw two huge, huge flocks of European Starlings.  I looked them over the best I could given the traffic and didn't see anything different.

All in all I had a very busy day that recorded 28 species.  Last year my Winter List tallied 85.  I wonder if I will be able to match that this year....  I will certainly try! Over the next day or so I will check the ponds in town including Mundy, Long, Kent, Kenny's and the Virginia River.

Please note that I have added a Winter List page developed from last year's Winter List compiled by Jared Clarke.  I will try to keep it updated over the next three months.  Who can contribute to the Winter Bird List?  Anyone who sees a bird in Newfoundland.  If it is an uncommon to rare bird, it is best to take a picture.  Found birds can be posted on the Google Group or submitted directly to Jared through e-mail.  An e-mail can be submitted to him through the Google Group, as well.

By the way... it is not possible to bird all of St. John's and area on a single winter's day!

White-winged Scoter - Torbay

 Every now and then it seems that a sea bird becomes "land locked."  This appears to be the case with this White-winged Scoter.  About a month a go, I found about seven White-winged Scoters at Torbay Beach.  They stayed around for a day or two and then were gone.

Gone, that is....all except this one straggler that has been at the beach all this time.  It is mixing with the sea gulls that are feeding around the sewer outlet.

I'm sure that it would be possible to get a better picture of this bird if I got out of the car and acted very quickly before it could swim away. To date I have stayed in the car and just watched the behaviour of this bird.

 The white wing on this species is very prominent and makes it easy to make a quick ID. I like that!

Occasionally, this little Red-necked Grebe is seen with the scoter. It has come and gone over the last several weeks.  I don't know where it goes but it has returned to the area several times. This is quite unusual and a real treat to see the grebe so close to shore.

I wonder if it is still there today.  Gotta check that out and maybe add this one to the Winter List.

The Last of the Shorebirds

Shorebirds are vanishing from the beaches of Newfoundland. For a brief period the beaches at low tide are home to many and numerous species as they migrate from their breeding grounds.  A funny thing about shorebirds is that you can scan a beach and at first glance see nothing.  Then, pull out the binoculars and voila, there are scores of little birds milling about everywhere.

Among the most endearing, sort of like the teddy bear of shorebirds, is the Semipalmated Plover. They are so small and have such big eyes that despite their frequent sightings, they can steal the attention away from other rare species that may be sharing the insects and crustaceans in the mounds of kelp.

On November 4, 2011 there were only two of these little birds remaining at Renews Beach and one of them had an injured leg. The injury limited its ground mobility but it did seem to fly just fine.  I hope it survived and was able to move on with its pal before the weather got too bad.

On the beach the same day were a couple of Greater Yellowlegs, two American Pipit and a Black-bellied Plover.  This was a scant representation compared to only 30 days before.

There have been reports of a few lingering shorebirds near Portugal Cove South, mostly White-rumped Sandpipers.

While these shorebirds have likely moved on, the Purple Sandpipers have moved in to the rocks at Cape Spear where they are clinging to the rocks and dodging the high waves that have been an every day occurrence there for over a month! There were also a couple of White-rumped Sandpipers and a Black-bellied Plover hanging on at Cape Spear as well.

The shorebird season in Newfoundland seems so short that it is hard to master identification of the many shorebirds that come our way. Nevertheless, I think next year I will be a bit quicker and more accurate at naming the species, given the amount of exposure that I had this year.