Out of the Blue

 A rare winter trip turned into a special event! Catherine B. and I ventured down the shore to see what might be hanging around. Like any birding trip, anticipation hangs in the air. Sometimes that feeling surpasses expectations.

 Such was the moment when this Short-eared Owl blew in as we crossed the barrens. First look told me it was an owl. Wow! Catherine hit the brakes, and I jumped out of the car. I had no idea what the settings on my camera were. I just began shooting and adjusting the settings randomly as I fired, in the hope I would hit a good spot.

 This great Short-eared Owl was not bothered by us and continued to hunt for at least two minutes. I never thought it would stay that long and was afraid to take my camera off of it. What a sight!

 Time stood still as we gawked! Sure enough, when I took my camera down to check the settings, the bird disappeared.

 Fully charged by this experience, we continued to search the roadsides and sky as we continued along the barrens.

 Then, another shock! There sitting in a distant tree was a stocky, small bird. Not a familiar frame by any means. Catherine backed up as I raised my binoculars. There lifting off a branch was a Northern Saw-whit Owl! I could hardly believe my eyes.

 I quickly got out to try to follow its flight path. With no luck and reluctance after a good scouring of the area, we slowly moved on. How could this be? We only saw two birds on the barrens, and they were two "10's."  Our day was made in just 15 minutes!

 While the day could not be considered "birdy" by any means, we did see a number of good birds. Sea birds were hard to come by. It was Cappahayden and Trepassey fish plant area that yielded the most. There we saw a Red-throated Loon, several Common Loons, a Red-necked Grebe, 1 probable murre and the grebe pictured here.

 I am leaning toward a Horned Grebe for an ID. This has not been confirmed yet. Getting pictures was difficult due to the distance, wind and light. Sadly, these are the best I could do.

In St. Vincent's I was surprised to see this immature Black-legged Kittiwake. I was really challenged by the elements to get this shot. Point La Haye hosted about 20 Snow Buntings.  These are not all the birds we saw during the day, but they do constitute some of the more memorable ones.

What a great day birding, and I will never travel the barrens again without thinking of our owl strike there.

Perilous

 As icy as it was, I couldn't help but crawl around Cape Spear yesterday. I should have known when my car didn't stop when I applied the brakes in the parking lot. By inches I just missed taking out a post. After 10 minutes of navigating, I was able to get my car off the sheet of ice and park in the middle of the lot.

 Now that should have been lesson enough, but I forgot to change into my boots with the ice grips. What was I thinking? I slipped and slid all the way up to the lighthouse and back. Why? Well, there is just something quite amazing and remarkable about watching thousands of Eider move around the area. Below the cannon I was able to capture a couple of King Eider. The blustery conditions and churning waters made it difficult to identify them on the water, but the blurry images reveal they were there.

Then, there was this odd looking bird amidst them. I suppose it is an Eider, but it looks like it has a tuft. There is always something to try to figure out when observing sea birds.

 When I say thousands, I mean thousands! There were several huge flocks and smaller groups steadily flying both ways.

 This group gave a close fly-by and revealed one male King Eider. It can be seen in the lower left quarter of this image.

 Several Dovekie were in the area, popping in and out of the water. They tended to stay close to the Eider, perhaps for safety.

 This poor little Dovekie was not so smart or lucky. This Herring Gull lingered in the protected cove and waited until just the right moment to snag a little bird when it popped it.

 Eighteen Purple Sandpipers in the area must have gotten a fright from the snatch and zoomed out of the area. They did not return during the hour and a half I watched.

 The little Dovekie put up as good a fight as it could. It took the Herring Gull quite a while to lift off the water.

 As you can imagine the other gulls took note and wanted in on the action.

 All the time the Dovekie was struggling, and the gulls were swooping in hoping to snatch the catch.

 Finally, the Herring got airborne, but the competing forces were too much.

 Another gull, coloring looks like an Iceland, but it is too big. Could it be a Glaucous Gull? It tormented the Herring until the Dovekie fell back to the water.

 Quick on the draw, the attacking gull captured the prize. It appeared the Dovekie was still fighting.

 This large gull tried to get away with the little bird, too.

 However, it, too, struggled to get off the water. Must have been the fighting Dovekie making it so difficult.

 At last, the gull, now looking more like a Glaucous Gull, got off the water. I think it was too preoccupied with that process to notice what looks like an immature Black-backed Gull coming in fast.

 In a moment, the immature bird now had the Dovekie, but the larger white gull was not going to give up.

 An aerial battle for the Dovekie began.

 The large white gull would not give up. It stayed close and aggressive.

 The white gull came in from underneath and knocked the Dovekie out of the mouth of the immature gull.

The Dovekie dropped to the water as both gulls tried to catch it. The injured bird disappeared under the water. Neither gull had a meal, and I don't know if the Dovekie survived the full-on five minute battle.
It is moments like this of pure nature in motion that remove all reason regarding the dangerous icy conditions. Had I not risked the walk, I would have missed this amazing sight.

Quick Visit to QV Lake

A number of good birds have appeared at or around Quidi Vidi Lake, and these pictured here are only a few. High winds and cold temps have deterred me from spending much time there. However, during the rare moments the wind drops, I often scurry down to see what I can see.

 It was a good thing it wasn't too cold this day because this little Lincoln's Sparrow took its sweet time putting in an appearance.

 When it did finally show up, it stayed in the shadows and close to the brush for a fast retreat. The area is very active with walkers.

 The American Coots have returned. The highest count at QV so far is three. When the other ponds freeze over, most water birds make there way to the lake which always has some open water at the two river outflows.

 This time of the year will always yield Bald Eagles, often many of them.

 These two have been sitting around the pond on a regular basis, but there are some mornings when six or more eagles are around or on the ice.

 While scanning the area of rarities, there is always something to entertain at this location. These two bold and aggressive Black-backed Gulls pranced all around the ice edge growling and intimidating the other gulls in the area.

Frequently, one of them would pounce on a Herring Gull and fight to hold on. The Herring Gulls fought like crazy to get away and several other gulls came to the rescue. Pity the poor Dovkie if it mistakenly lands in this pool of water.

Southern Shore Highlights

 The one that got away happened even before daybreak. In the dark a pale brown, medium-size bird flew across the road in front of me. My camera was in my bag from the day before, so I scrambled with my binoculars to try to get a look. Just as I was settling on the bird on the branch, some helpful moose hunters pulled up in between me and the bird to ask if I was alright. With mixed feelings of knowing there is someone looking out for me and a bird that got away, I told them I was fine. After they left, I pulled out my camera and shot in the direction I last saw the bird. Much to my surprise, I found a bird sitting on the branch in my one and only shot. Still don't know what it is!

 I made several stops on my way to Cape Race to see the Grasshopper Sparrow. It was around 9:45 when I arrived. Wow! What a difference a paved/semi-paved road made. Such an easy trip! When I arrived, Cliff knew right where the sparrow was. He flushed it out of the blind, and it flew into the field below. As I tramped through the dry, multi-coloured ground cover, I came to realize the bird was the same colour as the ground, and I was not going to find it. While looking, this grand Peregrine Falcon flew in so close over my head, I couldn't get a picture until it moved farther away. Well, I thought, that cinched it... the sparrow was not going to come out with that guy around. I moved on.

 I stopped again along the way. When leaving Trepassey after a quick look at the beach, I saw this bird sitting on a wire. Shooting back over my shoulder into the light and all of a sudden surrounded by cars, these were the best shots I got.

 Looking them over, I guess it is a House Sparrow. I didn't see any others around, but this one stuck pretty close to the starling moving about the area.

 On to St. Shott's... With Harlequin Duck on my mind, I was surprised to see the many Common Eider sitting in the glare just below the point. The light made it very difficult to pick out detail on the mass of birds, so I began shooting all across the flock in the hopes of catching a Harlequin Duck.

 After checking out the cabbage patch, I returned to the point to look again. It was at that time I caught sight of five Harlequin. I thought that was all there were. However, when I scanned my pictures I have one shot where there are six males. Best guess now is there were a total of eight Harlequin Ducks.

 On the drive out of St. Shott's, the light was perfect to reflect a bright white object sitting atop a mound. Had to pull over to have a look. Sure enough, it was a Snowy Owl. Nice.

Just to show how obscure this bird can be or not be, this is the shot of white gleaming in the distance. Always worth checking out.