Pomarine & Parasitic Jaeger - Witless Bay

Sunday April 26 i decided to head to Renews in search of the possibility of european birds showing up like they did around this date last year. Despite horrible weather i was able to capture some very memorable images. When i arrived at renews at  11am i could not see across the bay because of fog but i did notice 2 Greater Yellowlegs and one Arctic Tern that Alvan Buckley had reported earlier. The tern was surprisingly tame. I assume it must be exhausted from its long migration. This little tern my very well have flown all the way from Antarctica!!

Arctic Tern 

Arctic Tern 

On the way to Ferryland from Renews i seen a Merlin in a tree for a few minutes. This is one of my first photos of this species.

Alvan Buckley alerted me to a Pomarine Jaeger in Portugal Cove South which quickly switched my search from european birds to seabirds! Unfortunately i turned up nothing in Ferryland, Admirals Cove and Cape Broyal. Shortly after Avlan sees not only a Jaeger in Ferryland but also TWO in Cape Broyal.... Long story short thanks to Alvan for finding a total of 9! Jaegers along the shore. I got to see 6 up close in Witless Bay all of which were Pomarine Jaegers.... except 

Pomarine Jaeger 

Pomarine Jaeger 

Just minutes after Alvan left Witless Bay a much darker Jaeger flew in around the wharf. Only later that evening when i sent Alvan one of the images did i find out this darker bird was a Parasitic Jaeger!!

Parasitic Jaeger 

Jaegers are birds that spend almost all their time at sea. These birds are notorious for being similar to pirates. Its common to see them in the ocean chasing gulls and robbing their catch instead of fishing themselves. They usually only come to land when they nest in the Arctic. However during days like to day where its foggy and persistent eastern wind they can get disorientated and probably exhausted.  Thus they end up along more sheltered areas. This is certainly not a common occurrence. Most people will go though life not even knowing that a Jaeger is let alone see one up close.

Considering it was extremely foggy and almost always raining, i am certainly glad i decided to head down the southern shore. More to come later this week.

One more shot.

Pomarine Jaeger 

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:

The Real Beauty of Tree Swallows

This morning Brad & I headed to our favourite location to photograph Tree Swallows, Neville's Pond located just inside Paradise offers a little haven for these beautiful little birds. Each spring dozens of these swallows come to Neville's Pond to nest in the boxes we have scattered both around & in the pond.  These fast flying little birds spent almost all of their time in flight and even when perched they don't seem to sit long. That is until they begin to nest.

Once the males arrive they begin to check out all the available nest boxes and quickly claim territory. Once a mate is found the pair quickly gets the process of nest building underway. During this time period the pair spend most of their time hanging out around the box guarding it from other swallows who are relentless in trying to take over the box in the early season.

It is then that we place interesting looking perches such as the ones in these photos for the birds to land on. Then its just a waiting game until you get one or both of them on the stick!

So far 6 nest boxes have swallows guarding them, plus one more pair right in my back yard. Over the next few weeks almost all of the boxes all have swallows occupying them. These photo opportunities will not last long because once the nest has been constructed the female will spend most of her time in the box incubating eggs while the male busily feeds her. Expect more posts to come of how the Tree Swallows are doing and of course more photos!

Below are a few more of my favourite images from our morning session

Notice the wings back on look like a butterfly, this is the first time I've noticed this

A short clip of one of the nesting pairs

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

Winter Time In Newfoundland

 Winter time in Newfoundland is a long cold season filled with storms and constant bitter winds.
December more specifically is a hard month for photography, as I look back through my photos I have very few during this month. Friday I get out of school for Christmas break and I can not wait to have some time to go photographing local birds and try some winter landscape photos.

The cold temperatures this past moth have most bodies of water frozen solid, concentrating any birds to the remaining patches of water. This gives great opportunities for diving duck photography.
In past years Brad and I have photographed mostly tufted ducks in the month of December. This will be my first season using my new Canon 300mm F2.8 is usm ii so I am excited to see what the difference in quality my images will be on this species. All shots in this post were taken with my old 300mm F4 during December.

A few species me and brad are hoping to get the chance to photograph this winter include:

Ivory Gull
Bald Eagles
Common & Red breasted Mergansers
Common Golden Eye
Peregrine Falcon
Dovekie
Northern Shrike (Seen one in my yard in 2012!)

All species listed were seen more then once last year giving us a false hope we will see them this winter. But each season is a new one and for all we know we may never photograph all of these species but that doesn't mean we wont try! Another thing we are planning on having a few outings to photograph are the seals that congregate in Holyrood and the Caribou on the southern shore.

In just a few days the annual St. Johns Christmas bird count will be happening which is always exciting because almost every year there are good birds found. Winter is here and the Holidays are apon us. Keep your feeders filled and enjoy the birds of the winter!