South to Trepassey, Newfoundland

The plan today was to head down the southeast coast of the Avalon Peninsula south of St. John's, with an overnight stay in the small town of Trepassey. Our first stop was at the fire road adjacent to La Manche Provincial Park. Jared told us that most of the Provincial Parks in Newfoundland are primarily campgrounds so we did not go into the park proper. It was a nice short stop where we had good views of a few species including Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, Black-and-white Warbler, and Wilson's Warbler, all of which were breeding.

Yellow-bellied Flycatcher

Black-and-white Warbler

Wilson's Warbler

Wilson's Warbler

Wilson's Warbler

At one point I heard a very different bird call (not a song) that I recognized, and suggested to Jared that it sounded like either a Northern Cardinal (does not occur in Newfoundland) or an Indigo Bunting (a rarity). I saw a bird low in the brush from the same area where the call was coming from and it was a White-throated Sparrow. But the sparrow was not the one vocalizing. Very soon, Jared called out that a male Indigo Bunting had landed in a tree next to a Black-throated Green Warbler we had been watching. I managed a couple of documentary photos. They are not known to breed on the island, but the call this one was giving, in addition to another distinctive buzzy call, is the one that I've heard around nests in Michigan. Hmmm.

Indigo Bunting

Indigo Bunting

From there we stopped briefly at Cape Broyle where there were some gulls and terns in the bay. There was one part of the road where the terns were hovering and I managed to get some photos of them hovering.

Common Tern

Our next stop was more of a historical one, at an archaeological site in Ferryland, Lord Baltimore's first colony that was settled in 1621.

 
The site was actively being excavated.

Offshore was scenic, and on one of the rocks was a distant, huge Harbor Seal.

And in case anyone was wondering what ever happened to the S.S.Minnow from the TV show Gilligan's Island, here it was...

The town of Renews was next up, where we stopped at a private residence to view the feeders, including her hummingbird feeders. The status of Ruby-throated Hummingbird in Newfoundland is still being discovered, but most records in summer are from the southwestern corner of the island, with only a few turning up on the Avalon Peninsula. She had seen both a female and a male, but today only the male was found.

Ruby-throated Hummingbird

Other species were seen here too, with the most interesting perhaps the Red Crossbills, which are an endemic subspecies in Newfoundland. The ecological conditions here seem to be similar to those in southern Idaho where recently that subspecies was raised to full species status. Perhaps the Newfoundland ones will be too? To my ear, they sounded different from those we get in Michigan. They were very tame, feeding unconcerned as we stood only a few feet away.

Red Crossbill

Red Crossbill

Other common species that cooperated for photos included a nice Fox Sparrow (common breeder on the island), and a Savannah Sparrow (also a common breeder) which I thought was a weird species to be visiting a feeder.

Fox Sparrow

Savannah Sparrow

At one point, Jared and I both heard a very different song, and almost simultaneously we identified it as a Northern Mockingbird, a rarity on the island but one had been reported here recently. It sounded like it was about a block away, so we headed out into the neighborhood to find it. The loud but intermittent singing made it easy to locate and I managed some documentary photos.

Northern Mockingbird

As we continued south of Renews, the road gained a bit of elevation onto a plateau with few trees, and the trees that were there were stunted, or even very low at ground level in a habitat called "tuckamore". The areas of subarctic tundra along this road was a good area to look for Woodland Caribou, and we did see several although they were quite distant. Before we got to the turnoff for Cape Race, our intended final destination for the day, we got a flat tire at one of the many patches of active road construction that is a constant process in early spring here. We dug the spare tire out of the trunk and got it changed, and continued on our way. But we would have to go into Trepassey to get the tire repaired before we continued our birding. On the way, we passed a pond with a few ducks on it which Jared identified as Ring-necked, as we had seen them several places already. But I was sure I had seen a male Greater Scaup among them as we whizzed by. I turned around, and sure enough there was a pair of them among the Ring-necks. Greater Scaup is the only scaup breeding on the island, but Jared said they were hard to see in June.

Greater Scaup

In Trepassey, the tire repair shop was open, but the owner was out of town! His wife said that she could talk us through the process of putting a plug in the hole, which I'd seen done many times before but hadn't done myself. We managed to get it done fairly quickly, and then went to our hotel just to let them know we were there. Then, after discussing options, we decided to switch Cape Race with our intended destination for tomorrow, St. Schotts and Cape Pine, based on road conditions and the predicted rain for tomorrow. Both areas had better tundra habitat for finding Willow Ptarmigan than along the paved highway so we had two chances for them. We did not find them today, but did see a nice male Northern Harrier hunting over the tundra.

Northern Harrier

And near Cape Pine there was a Short-eared Owl hunting over the tundra and tuckamore there.

Short-eared Owl

We also got really good looks at a male Woodland Caribou with his antlers still in velvet. As Jared pointed out when we were looking for them earlier in the day, they are much whiter than people realize.

Woodland Caribou

Woodland Caribou

A tradition that Nancy and I have on trips that occur during our wedding anniversary is to take a photo of ourselves wherever we are. Cape Race would have been more scenic, perhaps, and we had had some discussions with Jared about whether St. Schott was really a saint, but here we are on the subarctic tundra and tuckamore near St. Schotts and Cape Pine on our 43rd anniversary.

Our apparel is indicative of the temperatures so far on the trip...mornings in the 30s and afternoons in the 40s and 50s.