NEWFOUNDLAND
Seabirds, Scenery, and Natural History
June 21 to July 1, 2005

A complete listing of all sightings from this trip, in PDF format, can be downloaded by clicking here.

ACTUAL ITINERARY

Tuesday, June 21 - Pick up at airport and transport to our hotel in St. John’s. Overnight St. John's.

Wednesday, June 22 – We met early for breakfast at the hotel and worked our way south to Bay Bulls and our first boat tour.  A pond along the way yielded several female Northern Pintails.

Our boat trip into the Witless Bay Ecological Reserve was extraordinary – even the captain remarked afterwards that, although he was not a smoker, he felt he needed a cigarette.  We enjoyed the best possible looks at thousands of nesting Atlantic Puffins, Common Murres and Black-legged Kittewakes.  Three Northern Fulmars nested atop one of the cliffs, and some careful boat work by the captain allowed us good views of a few Thick-billed Murres.  Although icebergs were absent this year and the capelin late, whales were not left out of the action.  We enjoyed a thrilling three-mile chase offshore after the captain spotted humpback whales breaching and blowing, and eventually got close looks at a female humpback with a calf.  All this, plus traditional Newfoundland music performed live, and traditional Newfoundland food at the restaurant at O’Brien’s.

We worked our way back north to St. John’s, where we visited Cape Spear, the easternmost point in North America.  Another stop was made at Signal Hill, where Marconi received the first trans-Atlantic signal.  At day’s end, we shared delicious muffins and sightings of Pine Siskins, Purple Finches, juvenile Dark-eyed Juncoes,  an unexpected Hooded Merganser, and Jorge the crow at Ken and Cathy Knowle’s house.

Overnight in St. John’s.

Thursday, June 23 -  The day began with typical Newfoundland weather – rain, drizzle and fog, or “R,D&F.” Thanks to Ken’s pre-scouting, we started by checking Lake Quidi Vidi in St. John’s, where we found 3 Lesser Black-backed Gulls and a Glaucous Gull!  From there, we worked our way south to Cape Race, stopping to study Arctic Terns side-by-side with Commons at Renews.  At Cape Race (the site that received the first signal from the sinking Titanic), we scoped for shearwaters and other seabirds offshore, spotting many Manx, 2 Greater, and one Sooty Shearwater, as well as a Harbor Seal.

Lunch at the Trespassey Motel and Restaurant featured a shared plate of  cod tongues.  Throughout the trip we wondered where all the cod was coming from, since despite a ban on most cod fishing it was featured on every menu. 

We worked hard to find Woodland Caribou in the fog.  As we drove down the road to Cape Pine, it seemed hopeless. . .but then we spotted a Willow Ptarmigan!  Remarkably, a little while later we saw both male and female Willow Ptarmigan together.  At Cape Pine we observed our first American Pipit.  On the way back to the main road, the fog lifted and Lloyd spotted caribou.  We wound up seeing over 50 caribou this day, including a young bull and cows with calves close to the road.

Continuing on to St. Mary’s, we stopped outside St. Stephens to study a flock of scoters, mostly White-winged with a few Blacks mixed in.  We were quickly distracted from the scoters when a Fin Whale blew in the bay.  We could hardly draw ourselves away, when Fin, Hump-backed, and Minke Whales all appeared.  The capelin were coming close to shore!

Overnight St. Brides.

Friday, June 24 -  On the drive to St. Mary’s, again in the fog, Lloyd spotted an adult Bald Eagle perched on a rock in the barrens.  At St. Mary’s, the fog lifted and we found ourselves perched on the edge of cliff overlooking Bird Rock and thousands of Northern Gannets, engaged in courtship as well as feeding flights.  We scoped Black-legged Kittewakes with chicks, and found a few Thick-billed Murres mixed in with the Commons.  Near the visitor center we found Horned Larks, a Brown-headed Cowbird (a good bird for the site), and interesting wildflowers, including Moss Campion in bloom.

After lunch at the Atlantica (we had memorized the menu by the time we left St. Brides), a group of us took a short walk through some “woods” and barrens, finding breeding Blackpoll Warblers, Fox Sparrow, Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, bog plants, and silence.

Overnight at St. Brides.

Saturday, June 25 – The Capelin came in!  At dawn, the skies had cleared and gannets and kittewakes swarmed in the cove off our hotel.  We enjoyed this most important of Newfoundland’s natural spectacles (for the capelin drive the offshore ecosystem), as thousands of Capelin were stranded on the beach and patches of sand were white with their eggs.  We met a Newfoundlander collecting Capelin for his pet murre.

After a stop at Point Verde, where we found Greater Yellowlegs, blooming Oysterleaf, a dead yearling moose and a variety of shells and beach artifacts, we visited Placencia, the former French capital of Canada that was never captured.  There we toured Castle Rock, learning about the culture and cod fishing of the French and the Basques.  Interesting birds were in evidence, including Boreal Chickadee, Blackpoll, and Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, and we studied blooming Dragon’s Mouth Orchids.

Our next stop was a feeder in Harbourton for the endangered Newfoundland race (species?) of Red Crossbill.  After a wait punctuated by many siskins, Purple Finches, and a flyover Merlin, an immature Red Crossbill came in and gave us all close looks.

Our full day got even fuller after dinner, when we went for a “moose hunt.”  No moose appeared, in fact we never did find one at Terra Nova, but the yearling Black Bear feeding on dandelions by the side of the road was certainly an acceptable consolation!

Overnight at Charlottetown, within Terra Nova National Park.

Sunday, June 26 – After a fruitless search of an old burn for Black-backed Woodpecker (this, excepting icebergs and White-winged Crossbill, was the only significant “miss” of this trip!), we enjoyed a chilly hike around Sandy Pond, where we found both kinglets, Palm Warbler, many Black-and-white Warblers, and Lincoln’s Sparrow.  The forest floor was a carpet of dogwood-like Bunchberry blooms, punctuated by the lacy white flowers of Labrador Tea.

We enjoyed lunch at the Starfish Eatery at Terra Nova’s Marine Interpretive Center while watching Gray Jays outside.  Another short hike gave us Pine Grosbeak, Boreal Chickadee, kinglets, and tantalizing sounds that may have been our Black-backed Woodpecker.  We toured the visitor center, touched starfish and crabs in the touch tank, and ventured forth for another mooseless hunt before

Overnight Charlottetown, Terra Nova National Park area.

Monday, June 27 – Our pre-breakfast “sashay” around the hotel yielded Mourning, Tennessee and Magnolia Warblers, as well as a Northern Waterthrush “behind some moss.”  The Magnolia was particularly cooperative, on a song perch in a dead larch for all to see.

After breakfast we headed to Newman Sound for our eagle-watching boat trip, which all agreed was a “10.”  We observed four pairs of Bald Eagles, including two individuals we shared a fish with!  Ian, the boat interpreter, taught us about eagle ecology, and also about some of the marine creatures of this deep sound, including moon jellyfish, Arctic Red Jellyfish, and a variety of plankton.  We also heard a Common Loon calling, and saw the first Red-breasted Mergansers of the trip.

We made our way west towards Grand Falls, with a stop at Gambo to look for Blak-headed Gulls.  No gulls, but we did see a flock of Green-winged Teal and another Bald eagle.  Further on, we birded excellent habitat behind the Gander airport, where we saw many American Redstarts, Purple Finches, and had a tantalizing glimpse of a Philadelphia Vireo.

Nite in Grand Falls

Tuesday, June 28 -  We used the area around Grand Falls to help break up the long drive west to Gros Morne.  We first visited the world's largest Atlantic salmon river (the Exploits) and toured the Salmonid Interpretive Center, where a few Atlantic Salmon were present in the fish ladder that helps the salmon past the falls.  We later stopped at an Insectarium which contained specimens and live examples of insects from all over the world, and featured a butterfly house full of tropical species.  In the late afternoon we began our exploration of Gros Morne with a light hike along the Stuckless Wigwam Trail, which passed through a magnificent display of Showy Lady’s Slippers, as well as a lone Yellow Lady’s Slipper.   The trail also held an interesting array of northern birds, including Gray Jay, Black-throated Green Warbler, and Pine Grosbeaks.

Overnight Gros Morne in the town of Cow Head.

Wednesday, June 29 – We finally spotted our first moose (we wound up seeing 4 in Gros Morne, which has the highest concentration of moose in the world).  We took a morning hike along the Berry Head Trail, where habitats included lovey Balsam Fir Forest and bog.  We located our first Common Yellowthroats, as well as Lincoln’s Sparrows and Wilson’s and Magnolia Warblers.  Later, we walked the trail in to Western Brook Pond. The trail to the boat held more Dragon’s Mouth Orchids, as well as several species of sundew, Lincoln’s Sparrows, and singing Swainson’s Thrushes.  Though chilly, wet and sometimes foggy, the boat journey through the land-locked fiord was spectacular, with canyons, waterfalls, and tall cliffs.

Overnight Gros Morne in the town of Cow Head.

Thursday, June 30 – Our last stop was the Serpentine Tablelands, which we explored for rare plants and some truly ancient, though small, trees.  All the while a Wilson’s Snipe winnowed across the valley.  Later in the day we flew from Deer Lake back to St. John’s, where we shared an excellent farewell dinner.

Overnight St. John’s.

Friday, July 1 – A taxi ride to the airport for our flights home.

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