You can bet your bottom dollar that I take my camera along on out of town sales calls in case something turns up.

Yesterday I braved the snowstorm to see clients in the Valley and met up with some birders for lunch (the Noodle Guy gets 2 thumbs up btw) and a quick sparrow hunt on a backroad.  You just have to imagine 3 ladies on the side of the road in the blustery cold trying to figure out which of the 30+ sparrows just might be a Vesper.  Well you know…birding as a lifestyle.  As much as the drive down was horrible the drive home was great and I was able to see a few more shops on the way home.  And smile about my lunchtime diversion.  Thank you for the great company Carolyn Johnston and Jocelyne Marchand and a snowy bird adventure to remember.

Today I had sales calls all down the South Shore and made quick stops at several points throughout the day.  Sure I could stop at a restaurant for lunch, but for me brown bagging it so I can take little breaks in the fresh air with my camera soothes the soul.  No road rage in the country.

Typically by now much of the water around Mahone Bay is frozen solid so I didn’t hold much hope for finding good seabirds but luck was on my side and there was lots of open water and a great variety of seaducks all over.

It may be that my obsession with obtaining a decent photo of the Long-tailed Ducks has been satisfied.  These little ones from the Lunenburg waterfront will do the trick for now.  I’m sure someday I’ll look back and wonder what I was thinking at this stage of the game I am very satisfied.

On the backroads there were 3 crows harassing a small hawk of sorts.  It’s beyond my ID skills to solve the mystery of what type of bird they were upset with.  My first thought was a Goshawk (partially wishful thinking I’m sure) as it was very white but size makes me think it must be a Peregrine unless the 3 black defenders were Ravens?   I say this because the little white hawk was smaller than the crows.  Here are my dreadful photos.  Consider that I was on the way to an appointment so could only spare a few minutes to take the photographs from my car window or I may have solved this puzzle on my own.

• American Crow 17”
• Raven 23-24”
• Peregrine Falcon 16-20”
• Northern Goshawk 21-26”

Click for full size of these distant photos…any ideas?

Don’t even talk to me about shape it’s way beyond what I can see in these photos I’m just going on the sheer whiteness and size of the little raptor.

When I finished up in the pet shops I caught some of the golden hour for Bufflehead photos, and also this lovely pair of Hooded Mergansers I found on the Silver Point Road.

Still finishing up paperwork from the day at 10pm, but all in all I’d say it was a good day’s work with a nice mix of play thrown in.

Squeeze some nature in whenever you can.  It’s what it’s all about you know…

I couldn’t resist saying this.  But I will also say that walking the Pennant Point trail to the 3^rd beach at Crystal Crescent in the winter is a very different experience than in the summer.

Diane LeBlanc and Sean Dempsey took me birding on their side of the harbour yesterday.  It was pretty icy on the Pennant walk so we turned around after 3km, but not before spotting a great variety of birds.

There were many Long-tailed Ducks, Common Goldeneyes, and Red-Breasted Mergansers with a few Common Loons and Black Guillemots (and a lone Greater Scaup) thrown in for good measure, but the best sea ducks were first spotted by Diane.  Harlequins…always a treat.  And so nice that the water at Crystal Crescent is so clear you can even see their feet through the water.

My desire to spot a Common Murre demonstrated my lack of expertise as my potential Murre photo was later IDed as a Merganser by Jim Edsall.  But you know this really does not embarrass or surprise me as I’ve only been birding just under a year, and never seen a Common Murre.  And the cameras these days have the same zoom as a scope so unless a bird is close it’s easy for a beginner to misidentify things especially the way the lighting fools the eye sometimes.

The new cameras do come in handy for things like ID shots of rare birds though such as this late season Palm Warbler.  It was behaving much like a Pine Warbler and that would be a better bet at this time of the year but upon close inspection of our photos it turned out to be a Palm.

Much of the time when out birding with friends we laugh because it seems half the time like you’re shouting out it’s a bird, it’s a plane, no wait what is that?  At all levels of expertise people can’t always be certain of all sightings.  And that is half the fun.

On this sunny winter day on a coastal hike we were also treated to a nice show of Snow Buntings and Pipits.  Field birding can reap many rewards and even when you see nothing, isn’t it wonderful to be outdoors?

As of lately, I bird in my neighbourhood most days if only for 5 minutes in the area between MacCormack’s Beach to Redoubt Way and thought I had seen pretty much all there was to see.  But I learned a lot of new information yesterday on the NSBS Sewer Stroll.  We spent a great deal of the trip along the Shore Road and Hartlen Point, which is my “patch” as Mark Dennis says.

Even though I look for sea ducks every day, I’ve been missing the Black Scoters.  I see Surf Scoters (pictured below) pretty much every day with the odd White-winged mixed in but didn’t know how to spot the Black ones.  Many of the other ducks I was very familiar with, but I didn’t know to look for them in with the fishing boats down at the end of Fisherman’s Cove.  Perhaps I’ll get a better photo of a Long-tailed Duck someday knowing this.

But the most important thing I was reminded of is to always expect the unexpected just in case, and to take a second look instead of discounting things as common birds.  A flock of about 40 Purple Sandpipers flew in and I thought they were Starlings and completely ignored them and then heard someone call out “shorebirds!” which I didn’t even think to look for as most of the shorebirds are gone.  Ah but the Purple Sandpipers are our winter shorebirds here in Nova Scotia.  Although I had seen them last year in Point Pleasant Park I didn’t even register them as a possibility.  Had I not been with the group I would have missed them altogether.  So thank you to whoever noticed them and taking a closer look.  I think we were all pretty thrilled to see them in good numbers.  Fulton Lavender thought there were about 40-50 and I wouldn’t argue with him about the birds.  I was far away so my photos are really grainy but it was way more fun to see them in person then to photograph them although I do hope to get an opportunity to do them better justice this winter without having to leave my neighbourhood.

Down at Hartlen Point I learned another lesson.  The Snowy Owls are there indeed but out on Devil’s Island as their current home base.  They are pretty tough to see without a scope, but I will try to be more observant as I had not thought about them being in flight over the water like that.  On Dec. 12^th I photographed one on a tower at Hartlen Point and he wasn’t there the next day so it’s nice to know where he went.  I had thought McNabs but I guess Devil’s Island is the place for the raptors.  People who have birding for a long time know these things, and are kind enough to share their knowledge.

We were really lucky yesterday as both of the Clarence Stevens (father and son), who are crazy amazing Halifax birders, were leading the tour.  These guys are well known in the local birding community for sharing what they know with any who want to learn, and they know a lot!

We went to a few other spots but our car load mixed up directions and lost the main group mid-afternoon.

And so I put my thank you out here for a great day of birding to both Clarence Jr. and Sr. and for teaching me quite a few new things.  And to all the group participants as we all learned from one another and it was wonderful to meet some new birding people.

I do learn a great deal from reading books, but unless you get out in the field to observe for yourself it really is not much use.  Birding alone has it’s benefits as it’s quiet and you see a lot of things as a result and are often the first to find a bird, but like any hobby you have to challenge yourself and surround yourself with experts if you want to accelerate your learning.  The community here is very welcoming for knowledge sharing and you will meet other birders when you are out much of the time.  You might was well introduce yourself because you never know what you will learn, or what you may be able to teach  🙂