Our family event was postponed due to the weekend storm so I ended up with a little extra time this weekend to get 2^nd looks at the very handsome winter ducks in Westmount and Glace Bay.

Yesterday I went back for another look at the Barrow’s Goldeneye ducks near the Dobson Yacht Club.  They were mixed in with a group of Common Goldeneye ducks and altogether there were over 50 Goldeneyes.  Without a scope I really couldn’t count the Barrow’s but I’d say about 1 in 3 was a Barrow’s at a rough guess.  A fair bit of hanky panky was going on and boys of both species were in hot pursuit of girls of both species.   It looks to me like some hybrids are in the group which would make a lot of sense since the Barrow’s have been coming here every year for many years from what I witnessed I think those boys will grab whomever they can  😉

Today I took another run out to Glace Bay to see if I could get a closer look at the male Tufted Duck who is mixed in with a large group of Greater Scaup (and a few Lessers).  As luck would have it he was right in with the fishing boats and I also bumped into local birders extraordinaire, Tuma and Nick, while I was stopped which was a nice surprise.  I’m quite happy with my photos, but I know Tuma and Nick will have photos which are in a completely different league then mine.  Nice to see you guys and can’t wait to see your pics!

I wasn’t certain I would get time to stop in on the Bullock’s Oriole at a time with Sue and Gordie Gosse would be home but it did work out after all.  I picked up a bottle of Smuckers Grape Jelly and dropped by for a quick show.  Thank you for being a great host of this little visitor and being kind to many birders.  Not everyone would welcome people to their yard to photograph a bird.  As promised, he did make an appearance.  Gordie pointed out the dark spot on under his chin which distinguishes him from a Baltimore which was great as I always like to learn something new on each birding adventure.

Will be a little sad to leave Cape Breton but also will be happy to get back to my birding friends in Halifax and familiar birds of Eastern Passage.

Winter really reminds you that you need to make the most of good weather and get outside whenever the opportunity exists.

My birding friend Alicia Penney had arranged for us to meet up with David McCorquodale and a few other Cape Breton birders on Saturday morning.  But as stormageddon approached, we knew it would have to be cancelled for that time.

Lucky for me, David was able to spare some time for me this morning for a little zip out to Louisbourg and although it was very foggy we had great luck.  It certainly was a great opportunity to bird with the co-host of the CBC Cape Breton Bird Hour and most appreciated, thank you David!

The first bird we spotted was new to me (a Northern Shrike) and put on a good little show for us as they tend to do.

The rest of the fortress area was a bit of a bust as the seabirds were not visible in the fog, the Boreal Chickadees were too nervous to show themselves, and we apparently got there too early in the day for the group of Gray Jays who visit the commissionaire.  Nonetheless a Shrike is a great bird and made it all worthwhile.

We made a quick visit with Bill and Diane Bussey while in town whom I’d not met and it was great to meet some very fine local birding folk.  Perhaps someday I’ll be in Cape Breton for their Christmas Bird Counts and join in on some of the local fun.  I was very pleased to also find out today that the Cape Breton birders are still very much connected to one another and communicate with each other about the local finds, and organize field trips when they are able.

We checked a few spots along the harbour and amidst the usual suspects we were lucky enough to find a Thick-billed Murre.  Another new to me bird, and not a bird anyone sees regularly close to the shore.  It was clearly much larger than the Guillemots that were around and dove deep and showed a clean white belly on the way down.  David had a scope with him so we able to get a nice view of it a few times in between dives.

Off to the lighthouse we went where at first we weren’t certain we’d even be able to find the Harlequins in the fog but eventually we found a group of 7, a Black Scoter mixed in the Eiders, and a small group of Purple Sandpipers put on a lovely show high up on the rocks.

Although the weather seemed disagreeable when we set out it all turned out great.

The storm is in full force now and I have work and family stuff for the rest of the weekend but I am hopeful that I might get a chance to see the local celebrity, the Bullock’s Oriole, before I leave the island and perhaps get a better photo opp with the Tufted Duck and Barrow’s Goldeneyes.

If not, I can certainly say that the birding time I did have so far was more than enough and I am thrilled at how it’s all turned out so far.

Time to hunker down with the birds now the wind is going up to 100KM tonight and the lights are already flickering!

Stay warm and happy birding.

It was bound to happen really as I’ve been living by the ocean for a few years now.  Although up until last year I thought they were all “seagulls” as most people do.  Then I started paying attention and realized that gulls come in a great variety of sizes and plumages.

Step one was to realize that the “brown ones” were juveniles.  Step two was learning how to identify our quintessential Nova Scotia shore gull, the Herring Gull.  Then I learned about “parking lot gulls” aka Ring-billed Gulls.  Then I noticed the Great Black-backed Gulls and then I saw the Bonaparte’s and Black-headed Gulls and was starting to think this was pretty cool.

Then spring came and I ditched the gulls for the songbirds, as is often the case for birders here.

Well it’s winter again and aside from the odd Purple Sandpiper the only shorebirds you are going to find for some time are the gulls.  So you might as well study them I figure.

Ken Kaufman says that learning to ID gulls makes you a better all-round birder and that after about 5 years of gull study you might know something.  Gulp.  Yeah well that wasn’t really enough to convince me.

But then I heard about these “white-winged gulls” and got a little obsessed about finding some.  Turns out Eastern Passage is riddled with Iceland Gulls and when a good gale is blowing you can watch these pretty white gulls braving the wind and waves.  Once I saw them I was almost hooked.  Then I saw a Glaucous.  And now it’s official.  I want to learn about gulls.

And it’s not going to be easy.  As you can imagine they are really into this “hybridization” thing…yup.  The local gullers spend much time trying to find a Thayer’s for example.  They are some kind of an ID puzzle that lives between Herring and Iceland gulls in the midst of back-crosses…uh huh.

It’s taken a while to even be able to think about understanding any of the stuff that Alix or Mark write on their blogs about gulls but very slowly it’s starting to sink in bit by bit.  Teeny bits I’d say.

I’ll have to start the way I did with Sparrows (which is still a work in progress but I digress) and learn the Herring Gull first as I did with the Song Sparrows, for these are our most widely distributed of those species here in Nova Scotia.

One thing I learned yesterday about the Herring Gulls is they can be very aggressive.  A Scaup was lagging behind his raft and a Herring Gull nailed him and then tried to grab him.  The Scaup was weak from the hit but flew off Herring Gull in hot pursuit.  I didn’t think he would escape but after a few turns in the air to confuse the Gull he managed to get back to the raft and get surrounded by the troops.  Then more Herring Gulls showed up and tried to separate out some Scaup for a bit so the Scaup took turns diving to avoid them until the Herring Gulls gave up.  They did not appear at all to be trying to steal food from the Scaup on this occasion they really seemed to have it in their mind to kill one of the Scaup.  My guess is one of the Scaup is weak in the big raft that has been hanging around in Eastern Passage and they are waiting for their chance.  After a while of watching in horror I gave up and went down to watch some of the better behaved Gulls at MacCormack’s Beach.

A few months ago a friend and I witnessed a Greater Black-backed Gull kill a Harlequin Duck so I know the Gulls are not a bird to mess with.  If you google “gulls eating birds” you will be pretty shocked I’d say.

Anyway, they are worthy of study…smart, long-lived, fierce, and hardy.

So far the Gulls I’ve seen and photographed in Nova Scotia are:

• Herring Gull
• Great Black-backed Gull
• Ring-billed Gull
• Glaucous Gull
• Iceland Gull
• Bonaparte’s Gull
• Black-headed Gull
• Black-legged Kittiwake  (which some say is not a Gull at all)

Here are a few of my favorite photos from that list:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/angelagranchelli/collections/72157663035296060/

So the next two on my list are the Mew Gull which I will try to find today, and the Lesser Black-backed Gull which I’ll get in the next few weeks I’m sure.

Update from Jan 25, 2016 with the help of Keith Lowe and his scope I found the Mew Gull today here he is:

And, pictured next to a Ring-billed Gull note the eye color differences:

Every guller in Nova Scotia is dying to see an Ivory Gull so I won’t even say it.  But it would be nice someday to see a different small gull like a Laughing Gull or one of the other rarities than sometimes show up after storms.

In the meantime I’m going to start studying wingtips and subterminal spots and the like to see if I can start spotting some hybrids as I guess hunting for Thayers is a good puzzle to start with.

Here are a few photos from yesterday that I like of different gulls in different plumages that I thought might serve as a good starter for me.