Monday 12 May 2014

The Boys are Back in Town

The Bread and Butter bird of the Boreal forest has made it back to the avalon:

Saw my first one on Saturday and have since seen/heard well over 30! It's amazing what a difference 24 hours can make. Yellow-rumped Warblers are in my mind the true vanguard of spring. Seeing that first warbler of the year is ecstasy not necessarily because Yellow-rumpeds instil much excitement themselves but because after a long drawn out winter you can finally allow yourself to be excited for spring knowing that migration is on the cusp of exploding.


An Eastern Phoebe was found last week by the Lisa de Leon + Margie MacMillian team. A great find for the avalon peninsula and not a species I was expecting to see this year:

Last Saturday I did the Southern shore loop with Bruce Mactavish & John Wells. We wracked up 66 species for the day, including 3 Northern Wheatears:

4 Snowy Owls:

 And four European Golden-Plovers:

The dead Sperm Whale at Biscay Bay has now moved to the main beach and is now very bleached and toothless!

Upper jaw bone:

I'm not sure why, but Ruffed Grouse seem to emerge from the woods in Spring time and spend a lot of their time chowing down grass. They did a good job of hiding themselves all winter! 




Despite Yellow-rumped Warblers heralding the return of spring this past weekend, St. John's woke up this morning to ice-covered trees!

Won't be long till summer comes around
now that the boys are back in town

Never stop birdin'!