Michigan Hummingbird Guy: Southwestern Newfoundland

Friday, June 24, 2022

Southwestern Newfoundland

This morning, we left the motel early and drove two hours south almost to Channel-Port Aux Basques, to a road where a lot of warblers had been reported the previous week, including several we had not seen yet. The road was to Red Rocks, and we drove in maybe 2 kilometers before the road became too difficult for our rental SUV. It was clear that there was a lot of good habitat farther up the road, and I walked around a bit but was not able to find as many warblers as had been reported. There are not very many "easy" roads in Newfoundland! There were a couple of nice Bald Eagles sitting on the headlands here, and one flew by fairly close.

Bald Eagle with prey at Red Rocks

On the way back out, I took a photo of an American Robin because there is an endemic subspecies in Newfoundland, Labrador, and northeastern Quebec that is blacker on the head which extends onto the back of males. We were also noticing that their songs seemed a bit different from ours in Michigan.

American Robin (Turdus migratorius nigrideus)

Almost all the way back to the highway, a song stopped us in our tracks. It was the second one we'd heard on the trip, but this one was CLOSE. It was a Northern Parula, which is somewhat of a rarity in Newfoundland. The previous one never showed, but this one was a bit of a showoff; all these photos were taken just by rolling down the car window and aiming the camera. He seemed to be feeding on nectar, or looking for small insects, in the flowers of a small tree that I could only identify to genus (Prunus sp.).

Northern Parula at Red Rocks, Newfoundland

A brief stop at the nearby Cape Ray did not produce the hoped-for close views of Great Cormorants, so we headed back north through the scenic Codroy Valley.

Codroy Valley, Newfoundland

Our next stops were in the Stephensville area, about half way back to Corner Brook. Here we were looking for some rare breeding species on sand bars and mudflats, including Piping Plover, Willet, and Black-headed Gull. We succeeded with all of these, although all of them were rather distant. Our search for Rusty Blackbird, which is a rare breeder here (but more common in Newfoundland than Red-winged Blackbird!), came up empty. So, we headed to another good warbler road, the Brooms Brook Road. But when we got there, we found that there were two really huge wash-outs blocking access to the better parts of the road farther on. It might have been a mile or two to get to habitat where Cape May and Blackburnian Warblers might be found, as what we could see from across the chasm in front of us was deciduous scrub. And since it was noon, we decided that the birds would probably not be singing and it would be a hot hike. A last stop before returning to Corner Brook was Barachois Pond Provincial Park, which was mostly a campground, but it had a short trail and literature about it said there were "rare orchids" that could be found. It was yet another scenic place.

Barachois Pond Provincial Park, Newfoundland

And there were some orchids, although they were Pink Ladyslippers which are quite widespread, and arguably not "rare" even in Newfoundland. Still it was nice to see them.

Pink Ladyslipper (Cypripedium acaule)

Along the short trail, along with a fresh crop of Black Flies and mosquitoes, another boreal flower was blooming in abundance, the Northern Starflower.