Quidi Vidi Lake - A Potpourri of Photo Opportunities

 Any time of the day, any day of the week there are many species of birds milling about Quidi Vidi Lake. At this time of the year the best areas for viewing are the outflows from the Rennie's Mill and Virginia Rivers. These areas don't freeze and the birds regularly congregate there to bathe and preen.

Along side all of these different birds are almost as many spectators and photographers. Is it any wonder when you look at this great little male Tufted Duck?

 His tuft is so well defined that it almost looks like it has been braided. This one has adapted well to Newfoundland and has been seen "copying ice pans," a local children's game of copying each other as they jump from one free-floating ice pan to another.

It is not easy to stay focused on one bird as hundreds are flying by, landing, diving or just preening on shore. This Herring Gull caught my attention as it flew right in front of me. My camera now seems to just automatically turn to the action and begin firing off shots.

On this particular day, like most, the Rock Doves line off on the back of benches, on the bridge railing or even on my car door.

One sure way to stir up all the sitting birds on the shoreline is to get out of the car with a bag of some sort. They are conditioned by the sight of a bag to think food is coming. They swarm the bag holder and fight for their share of the delivery.

It is a never-ending show at Quidi Vidi and it is no surprise that many people make this spot a daily destination to  keep city life in balance with the human need to experience the wonder of nature. For many there really is no greater distraction.

Eye to Eye with an Eagle Eye

Yesterday's birding trip was a great success! Some would questions: "Oh, you got all of your target birds?"  My answer would have to be "No, none of them." So how can a birding trip be a great success if you didn't find anything that you are looking for? That is easy: For me a successful birding trip means good company, good weather and lots of birds. We had all that!

 All of the expected birds were seen and a few different ones. We saw the largest flock of American Goldfinch that I have ever seen. We found the European Starling to be much lighter in color than usual (must be a Spring thing.) We saw a Song Sparrow, American Robins, Guillimot, Great Cormorants, Common Mergansers, Common Goldeneye, a Kingfisher, Bufflehead, Evening Grosbeak, Bald Eagles, a Ringed-neck Duck, American and Eurasian Wigeons, and of course plenty of American Black Duck, Mallards and seagulls.

 It was going on to about 4:30 in Spaniard's Bay when two beautiful adult Bald Eagles quite unexpectedly showed up for the evening meal. The shear size and look of them is enough to stop time. With a little maneuvering and some quick shooting, I was able to get a few pictures before they flew off, one-by-one.

It is a pretty awesome experience to look a Bald Eagle in the eye and then....have it look right back at ya! I'm glad that I don't come in meal size.

Gone Birding!

I am about to venture out for a day of birding in an unfamiliar territory.  Birds I hope to see: Red Crossbill, close-up to Male Bufflehead, Canada Goose and Graylag Goose. Birds I will probably see: Common Mergansers, Red-breasted Mergansers, Common Goldeneye, and a Wood Duck.

I wonder if the day will hold any surprises. I will take my scope to give it a go. It takes practice to "scope" out birds. I'll let you know how it works out.

Common Snipe

 I'm sure with time that I am going to be able to better appreciate the magnitude of "raries" that show up in Newfoundland. I am quite astounded but I don't have the knowledge base to really dig into describing and explaining the visits of rare birds to this province. According to Dave Brown in his blog (that can be accessed from my page )the last documented visit from a Common Snipe was in 1927. That means that all of the birders here who have twenty to forty years of birding experience in this province have never seen one here. That is big!

 For me, it is a different experience. I am more of a sponge soaking up a ton of information about birds and taking small bits of knowledge to be my own on a daily basis. I am privileged to have seen this bird.

 I watched it as it actively fed all across the field. Its long bill was amazing. While balancing on the marshy mess, this Common Snipe continually dipped its bill deep into the marsh to find sustenance. It was healthy and busy feeding. I was really surprised that it was not greatly disturbed by the passing cars.

I stayed in my car with the window down the whole time. It was impossible to be totally quiet but neither snipe (the Wilson's nor the Common) were distracted by my movement.

 At times the snipe dipped its bill in so deep into the marsh that only its eyes were visible. A one point the Common Snipe did get a little uneasy and froze in place as the last picture shows. It stayed there for sometime until the distraction passed and then it got up and moved to a safer, more sheltered distance.

While watching these two birds, I couldn't help but remember a snippet from my youth. As young girls a group of us would often have bunking parties (sleep-overs as they are called here.) Each time we welcomed a new person into our bunking-party circuit, we would initiate them by taking them into the dark woods at night for a "snipe hunt." We all had flashlights, except for the newcomer, and we would venture a few hundred yards into the woods where we were supposed to scan and count snipe. One by one we would call out a number. At the pre-determined number we would all run out of the woods and leave the newcomer behind. Once she would find her way out of the woods, not having seen a single snipe, we would spend the night laughing and recounting the story. That was as close to having a successful snipe hunt in my experiences....until yesterday.

Please do check out Dave's blog for the real info on this bird.