James Bay 2014

Part 2 - The Birds

Its quite difficult for me to even begin to describe how many birds i seen while i was living along the James Bay coast. It was amazing watching tens of thousands of shorebirds move through our surveying area (Little Piskwamish) Most days we seen the usual mix of 4000+ Semipalmated Sandpipers, thousands of White-rumped Sandpipers, a thousand or so Red Knots and hundreds of birds like Ruddy turnstones, Yellowlegs and Pectoral Sandpipers.

Red Knots

Here is list of shorebird species i seen:

Semipalmated Sandpiper
White-rumped Sandpiper
Semipalmated plover
Short-billed Dowitcher
Greater & Lesser Yellowlegs
Hudsonian Godwit
Marbled Godwit
Dunlin
Red Knot
Pectoral Sandpiper
Least Sandpiper

These are just the shorebirds i got to see, this doess not include other birds like Sandhill Cranes, White Pelicans or Blue-headed Vireos that i also got great looks at.

Lesser Yellowlegs

Short Billed Dowitcher

Greater Yellowlegs

Wilson's Phalarope 

Do to how much surveying we were doing and the amount of walking we had to do plus gear we had to bring with us like spotting scopes, lunch, water, tripod and binoculars i decided most days to leave my camera back at camp. Meaning i did not take half as many photos as i can originally imagined i would. None the less i did get a few images i love and i also got to really observe and improve my shorebird identification skills!

Semipalmated Sandpiper

Me looking for flagged Knots

Another important task that we did each day was scanning for flagged Red Knots. This meant walking slowly and quietly up on a group of knots and looking closely at each birds legs for flags that have a 3 letter code. By reading these codes we can use the information to age the birds, determine sex ratios and see where birds were going each winter. My group alone was able to record over 1600 flags. With over 300 individuals, an amazing total by any standards if i do say so myself!

Shorebird Banding

Each night around 9pm a few of us would head back out to the mudflats and open the mist nets we had already set up. From 9-12 we would do net checks every 10-15 minutes and usually had birds !

Near the end of my month at Little Piskwamish the juvenile birds began to arrive and so we started doing some daytime banding as the juvi birds are less experienced as the adults and are far more likely to fly into the net in the daytime. It worked on the juvi Semipalmated Sandpipers !

Janice Chard from Bird Studies Canada observes the net set

We used our head lamps for light and large plastic containers for our little mobile banding lab. It worked really well and we were successful in catching, banding, flagging, bleeding, and outfitting birds with sat tags. These minuscule devices send out a signal that can be recorded by MOTIS towers which are strategically placed all along southern Ontario and the eastern seaboard. It was really fun knowing that i was really participating in Shorebird research!

A few photos showing you the banding process !

Juvenile Semipalmated Sandpiper getting banded 

Semipalmated Sandpiper getting bill measurements 

Mark Peck measuring a Semi Sandpiper wing

Taking a blood sample

Dunlin outfitted with sat tag ! Can you believe
 the battery life on that little thing is literally months ! 

Bands & Flags 

     

James Bay 2014

Part 1

Ive just returned from the James Bay Lowlands in northern Ontario. From July 15- August 15 i stayed in remote Moose Cree first nations goose hunting camps. The expedition was organised by The Royal Ontario Museum, Bird Studies Canada, Environment Canada  & Ministry of Natural Resources.  The main goal of the trip was to survey all the shorebirds we seen each day and also to try and record Red Knot leg flags using spotting scopes. Each day we usually left camp between 8-9 and would not return until supper (6:30). Once supper was finished we got ready and headed out to do night time banding from 9pm-12am. Along with surveying and other things we did some invert & water sampling. 

From Newfoundland i flew to Toronto and stayed with relatives for a few days before driving 750km to Cochrane with Christian Friis and other team members.  We stayed the night and then caught the Polar Bear express heading north to Moosonee (Approx 5 hours). After staying a night at the MNR waterfowl house we got the helicopter into the camps.

Crew:

For the first two weeks the crew at Piskwamish were as follows:

Peter & James Kennerley (Brittan)
Janice Chard (Bird Studies Canada, LPBO)
Emily Rondel (Bird Studies Canada)
Mark Peck (Royal Ontario Museum)

Second Crew:

Jean Iron
Eleanor Zurbrigg
Mark Peck
Dough McRae
Lisa Pollock
Hellen Fu
James Kennerley
Darrell Isaac (Moose Cree)
Jeff Isaac  (Moose Cree)

Everyone on the trip was fantastic and so informative on all the things i got to take part in. The trip was long and at times cold & wet. Other days were dry & hot but everyday the birds were amazing. We got to see 10,000's of shorebirds while we were there. My team alone got over 1600 flag re-sightings! with over 300 individuals. This information will give us an idea of how long the birds are staying and where they are returning each year on migration. It was really neat to witness birds like the Red Knot fatten up and continue on their southward migration.

Hudsonian Godwits 

This is Part 1 of my 3 part series i will be doing about my amazing trip to the James Bay Coast.
Over the next few days ill discuss some of the things i did like banding Semipalmated Sandpipers or even cooking homemade buns.

Songbirds Take Two

Friday morning i headed out to get some photos of the newly arrived warblers such as the American Redstart. I have been trying to capture images of redstarts for over three years without much success. I have found these brightly coloured little birds never sit still and seem to always be busy catching flies or quickly zipping by. After running into local birder Lisa de Leon, she pointed me in the right direction down the little dirt road in the Goulds. Sure enough as soon as i turned down the small road i could here the redstarts calling. Click Here to check out her blog!

Male American Redstart
 

The flies were not too bad in the early morning due to the small breeze of wind, later in the morning the flies began to get to me. I was wearing fly repellent but it didn't do much good as the black flies were relentless in trying to bite me, and bite me they did. One good thing about the large number of flies is that the birds seem more active fluttering out from a tree to grab a fly and land back on the same perch. This is usually how i notice American Redstarts other than listening for their call.

While in the area of Bidgoood's Park I finally got to see the Eastern Phobe that has been seen in the park for some time. This was a new species for me. Unfortunately i didn't get any photos. Also on Powers Road i spotted Wilson's Warbler, Yellow Warbler, Mourning Warbler, B&W Warbler, Blackpoll Warbler, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Northern Waterthrush and 3 Finch species. Not to mention Fox, Song, Swamp, and Savannah Sparrows! You get the point...The place was hoppin'.

My last stop of the morning before i had to go to school was Second Pond. While sitting on the edge of the pond watching a family of ducks swim by; a Spotted Sandpiper landed on a nearby rock seemingly unaware of me. I snapped a few frames before he or she flew away, Im happy with the photos, possibly some of my best images of this species.

More Tree Swallow Photos

This afternoon when i got out of school i headed over to Neville's Pond to check in with the swallows and see if any more boxes had been occupied. Unfortunately no more boxes had swallows in them. I did get a chance with one pair of swallows that is nesting in one of my boxes in the water. Brad & I placed a few interesting looking sticks and stumps around the pond and now the swallows readily use them. This offers great photo opportunities. On a day like today with overcast skies i use settings such as these

-1/640
-f7.1
-iso 400
-Manual mode, Tripod mounted


Here are a few images from today:

European birds continue to invade Newfoundland

Over the last few weeks a very rare event has taken place. N and NE winds have been blowing migrating shorebirds like European Golden Plover and Black-Tailed Godwits WAY of course and now they have some how found their way to the island of Newfoundland. These birds are strong fliers that can fly non stop for days on end. Unlike other birds they tend to migrate over the ocean rathern than land. Possibly making them more venerable to offsetting winds.

                                              Common Redshank!

The numbers of birds that have been found are staggering by any means. Almost 200 European Golden Plovers and multiple reports of Black Tailed Godwits really gets the blood pumping after a very LONG and dull winter here on the island. Yesterday I helped a birder from California find a group of 6 plovers that have been hanging out in a small field for about a week now. This small group of plovers are a lot more tame then any others that I know of. If you stay inside of your car and wait......and wait they will eventually work their way over to you. It worked out for us that the birds were drove towards us by a black dog that lives in the aera. It was amazing to see the birds crouch down and use their camouflage to stay hidden rather then fly away like most other shorebirds.

European Golden Plover

More euro birds like wheatear are still showing up, we all are waiting and searching for the next MEGA rarity like a Eurasian Curlew or Meadow pipit.

This weekend becides hunting for mega rarities Brad & I hope to get some nice stumps set up in a marsh close to my house in hopes of getting some snipe on them. Also it is crunch time for building Tree Swallow boxes. Spring is shaping up to be a VERY busy season!



UPDATE!

This was a prewritten post. This morning Bruce Mactavish discovered a COMMON REDSHANK at Renews Harbour !!!! Also Dave Brown found a Eurasian Whimbrel. As i write this local birders are trying to locate a possible Greenland subspecies of Dunlin!

How much longer will this continue!!!!
My e-mail is brendankelly00(at)hotmail.com if you need directions

Eurasian Invasion!!

Over the last few days there have been winds blowing directly from Iceland to the shores of Newfoundland and with those winds come Icelandic and European birds. This is a huge deal to birders and bird photographers here in the province because almost all species from Europe are MEGA rarities for not only Newfoundland but for North America!

                                                                          European Golden Plover

So far almost a dozen European Golden Plovers have been discovered along with not one but FOUR Black-Tailed Godwits! Its rare enough to find one here let alone four of them. A lot of the more experienced birders believe this may only be the beginning of this mini fallout of European birds. The next few days the winds continue to stretch from the shores of Iceland all the way to Newfoundland and as you would imagine I'm not missing a beat of it! Tomorrow as soon as 2:30pm strikes and i get out of school i will be heading out to cover as much ground as possible!

2 beautiful male Black-Tailed Godwits

More to come on this exciting topic!

Cape St.Mary's Ecological Reserve

Monday April 21st Brad & I made our annual trip to Cape St.Mary's Ecological Reserve to photograph the nesting Seabirds and also to try our hand at a few landscape photos while we were there. As usual we were amazed at the number of seabirds that nest on Bird rock and the surrounding cliffs. During the breeding season the cape is home to literally ten's of thousands of nesting Northern Gannets, Murres, Kittiwakes and the list goes on. Its Amazing. 

We had a very early morning, we left Brad's house 4:30am to embark and arrived at the cape just after sunrise. We had hoped for little or no wind so we could focus on the Horned Larks that nest on the barrens at the cape but of course mother nature had other plans. The wind was gusting somewhere around 80km/hr if i had to guess. It was very cold and it didn't feel much like spring. That doesn't stop the birds instinct to claim nesting territory and find a mate!

               Cape St.Mary's lighthouse in the distance. This is the view just to the right of Bird rock.

Bird Rock. 

A 100-metre-tall stack of sandstone that is separated from the viewing area by a gap only a few metres wide.This shot doesn't do it justice for size and sheer number of nesting Gannets. Next trip we will have some more presentable photos of the area when the grass is lush green and the birds are all back from their wintering grounds.

When we first arrived and began our walk out to bird rock we stopped to photograph Horned larks of which have recently arrived to nest for another season. They are usually just out of reach but every now and again you find one that is somewhat more approachable.

Once at Bird Rock we photographed the many hundreds if not thousands of Gannets that have already returned. It is so amazing to watch these large seabirds glide around the large cliffs and headlands with ease. The updrafts allow them to glide and help us get in-flight shots. Also the cliffs and rocks that the birds build their nests on provide interesting backdrops for photography.

 

In June we will return to photograph the Murres and Kittiwakes which also nest at the cape. When we were there on monday not all the Murres and Kittiwakes were on the cliffs but MANY thousands were on the water below as you can see from the photo below!

Things are now changing on the Island of Newfoundland. Birds like Osprey and Greater Yellowlegs are showing up and bird song once again is filling the woods. I myself have been busy building Tree Swallow boxes with my father and placing them around. Only a few more weeks and the flood gates of bird migration will be opened! 

Black-Legged Kittiwakes