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.

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  🙂