Brown Thrasher

 This morning started out with mixed blessings. Around 9 a.m., I headed to Cape Spear. There was a very large flock of eider on the water. Checking them over I saw two male King Eider, from my shaking car with my binoculars. The downside was the wind was blowing so hard I couldn't bring myself to walk down to the water's edge.

 Another opportunity missed was the juvenile Peregrine Falcon that flew near the edge of the rocks below.  The best pictures I could get was when it lifted upward and flew off into the distance.

 Then, out of nowhere, I got a text from Alison Mews. She and Alvan Buckley were looking at a Brown Thrasher at Pippy Park, not 1 km from my house (as the crow flies.)

 I skedaddled out of Cape Spear and wished I had a police escort to get me to Pippy Park quickly.

When I arrived, the Brown Thrasher was nowhere in sight. I waited for two hours with no luck, along with many others. Aside: It is amazing how so many people can drop everything and go hunting when a rare bird is reported.

 I took about an hour break and returned to the park. Voila! There it was all lined up by several very excited birders.

I have to admit I was pretty excited, too. I have seen numerous Brown Thrashers in Arkansas and have been wondering if I would EVER see one here. Well, I did. Word has it the bird has been around awhile so I may get yet another look at it.

Cappahayden: A Birding Hotspot

 For three years, I zoomed right through Cappahayden on my way down the Southern Shore. Little did I know it cradled a wonderful array of warblers, particularly in September.

 With a little help from my friends, I learned where to go in this small community to maximize my time and birding experience.

 On September 19, I spent one hour in a very accessible birding spot and came up with all of these pictures.

Pictured here are six species of really great warblers. While the Blackpoll warbler is a frequent sight across the province, the other warblers shown here take a little more time to locate. Dave Brown told me that more uncommon birds will more likely to be found with Blackpoll Warblers than other species. A good tip.

 If you want an hour to dissolve into absolute oblivion to the rest of the world, drop into the patch of woods at the fork in the road in Cappahayen and just be patient.

 If you are there at the right time, you may be rewarded with the bright glow of a Prairie Warbler.  It was so curious, staying on the same branch and striking one amazing pose after another. An interesting observation from Fall birding 2014: On three separate occasions when I saw Prairie Warblers, they were in the company of Black-throated Green Warblers.

 How could I have missed this place before? There are so many known and uncharted places to bird on the Avalon. I plan to explore some new areas this year.

 Honestly, there aren't enough hours in a day to bird the whole southern shore. It is so easy to while away the hours while intensely scrutinizing every little movement through the trees and in the alders.  With great anticipation, too, I should add.

 Shown here in order are: Blackpoll Warbler; Black-throated Green; Common Yellowthroat; Palm Warbler; Prairie Warbler and American Redstart.

 Note: I have added a link to Beverley Schneider's blog. She is a birder who resides in New Brunswick and has visited Newfoundland to enjoy some of our sea birds.  Her latest post on her two-month old blog contains some great shots of a Fieldfare seen in Nova Scotia. Enjoy.

Birding on a Snow Day...

How exactly does one bird on a snow day? Through reviewing lots and lots of pictures. Actually, I deleted nearly 4 gigabytes of images from my computer. That seems so outrageous. I can remember my old computer of the '80's that had 4 megabytes. Over time, you could upgrade to 124 mb. Obviously, that was not much room to do anything but word processing and playing a few low-graphic games.

Now, with tons RAM on my system, I have amassed way too many pictures just sitting there. Think I will aim to take less pictures this year.

I don't know how easy that will be. This Peregrine Falcon is an example. I had no intentions of taking lots of pictures on Tuesday, but I did. When I looked up at QV Lake and saw this beauty sitting in the tree, I was drawn like a magnet to it.

It was well-fed and just lolling around on its usual branch. It has obviously become accustomed to photographers hanging around, staring at it and aiming a huge lens in its direction. It was not bothered at all.

When preparing these photos for today's post, I remembered some shots of three Peregrine Falcons I took during the summer at Pouch Cove.

The quality of the shots is poor as the light kept changing second by second as I was shooting.

Despite that, the images do show the antics of these two juvenile Peregrines. An adult falcon sat atop a tree and watched them as they learned by play to master their aerial skills.

It was quite a show. I watched for at least ten minutes. It's sights like this that wear out my camera.

Elusive Grackles

 Like ghosts on the wing, a flock of about 30 Common Grackles flit around St. John's. Now you see them; now you don't!

 On Wednesday morning when driving up Long Pond Road, I saw the large flock in a treetop. I quickly pulled over, grabbed my camera and was all set to take photos. It was at that same moment a city garbage truck roared up the road unseating everyone. They flew in a circle and then vanished.

 Hoping they would return to the area, I stopped by Exeter Avenue just before noon. There in a backyard were grackles, like maggots, crawling over all of the feeders.

I parked and worked my way to the backyard in the hopes of photographing these handsome, vociferous birds.

 Naturally, they all flushed to the top of an evergreen tree where they stayed a long time. Several times, they tried to work their way back to the feeders, but the pigeons in the area spooked and flew off. This set off a chain reaction where all the birds headed for cover.

 It was cold and the flurries were picking up. Honestly, I was getting tired of waiting, but I know how hard it is to corner these birds for a picture.

 I probably needed a camo suit to try to blend into the scenery, but in lieu of that, I mashed myself as close to the house and and stayed as still as I could.

About 45 minutes into the quest, several grackles returned to the snack bar. Not all mind you, but enough to satisfy me. Have to say I was somewhat poisoned as I returned to the car and took one last look at the backyard. All of the flock had once again moved in to get a good feed. Oh well, that's the way it goes.