It’s easier than you think I promise…you have to remember there are common birds like Crows, Black Ducks, Herring Gulls, and Starlings in this list  🙂

So, apparently the winter bird season runs from December 1^st – February end.  I had not really thought of keeping a list but a local birder, Richard Stern, challenged me to find 100 birds for my winter list.  I do think that is an achievable goal, although that does not mean I will succeed.

I haven’t been trying very hard and I’m already up to 34 different species as of today.  I’m unlikely to try very hard during the whole two months, but will keep track just for curiosity’s sake.

People certainly do need a reason to get out in and into nature in the dead of winter.  It’s unseasonably warm this December and the migrants were late coming in the Spring and seem to be late leaving this Fall/Winter so there are a fair number of migrants still hanging around.  In fact, the Pubnico birders just got a brand new bird added to the Nova Scotia Winter Bird List, the American Pelican.  I’m not going to see that one but I am planning a trip to CSI (Cape Sable Island) next week with a few other birders so hopefully we can all add a few good birds to our life lists and winter lists.  Most of my birding is happenstance, but we’ll see about the little Mountain Bluebird.

Typically I’m not a list person but I do eBird and it keeps all that info for me with no effort.  It does not keep a winter bird list per se so I copied the info from the NSBS website into a little spreadsheet. Please feel free to download one for yourself.  I challenge you to keep your own list for fun as well.

I started birding in February of last year so I am not that surprised now by how many different birds we have in Nova Scotia during the winter but if you have never given it much thought you will probably be taken back by it.

The Bufflehead Ducks for example, are just showing up.  They are the sweetest little diving ducks you ever did see.  Well probably rivaled only by the Harlequins.  (you might have to click on links to see photos btw WordPress and Flickr seem to be having a little pissing match)

Bufflehead Ducks at Bissett Lake there were probably about 50 there today – Dec. 10, 2015

Personally I am more interested in seeing birds that are known to be here and not too hard to spot but these ones have all eluded me so far.  They may be around in the next few weeks.  Some will be easier to find then others but they are all possibilities I feel.

• Evening Grosbeak
• Redknot
• Canvasback
• Redhead
• Sapsucker
• Red-headed Woodpecker
• Red-throated Loon
• Pelagics of any sort
• Longspur
• Pine Warbler
• Razorbill
• Dovekie

If I could just be walking through the woods this winter and a noisy flock of Evening Grosbeaks could fly by me I think it would make it a good birding winter.  Simple goals, it’s all about simple goals.

It’s tough to have a bad time outside even if it’s cold if you are bundled up I find, a thermos full of hot chocolate ain’t  a bad idea either…I’m just sayin.

December 1^st was a standout day of sunshine and good birding all over the province.  I saw many reports of great birds today (naturally many for the Mountain Bluebird in Mavilette) on the NSBS Facebook page and on eBird.

It is also the first day of the Winter Birding Season and I was fortunate enough to grab 3 lifers which is interesting way to start, and hopefully a good forerunner.

I have been watching FB posts from one of our NSBS members, Liz Voellinger, who has been doing a wonderful job finding different geese mixed into the Canada Geese flocks throughout Colchester County for the past month or so.  Her enthusiasm about them is inspiring to me, although I have not had any luck up until today.  Typically I can only work a bit of out of town birding into a sales trip and only if I can find enough daylight hours to make it all work.  And that doesn’t work out nearly as often as you would think.   And so it goes, my first stab at the Geese flocks about a month ago was pretty disappointing.   Then on Friday past I had occasion to be near Shubenacadie so gave it another try and failed at the geese, but did meet a nice farmer who let me walk through his poopy fields, and also found 8 Sandhill Cranes on the way without much effort.  You just never know they say.

Today I did something I really never do, and took the day off to drive out to have another go at the geese as the ice is starting to form and they’ll head further south any day now. I made a round trip through Meagher’s Grant route for good measure and had a brisk walk in the sun on the Musquodoboit Trailways.  There were lots of Kinglets whistling about but not much else.  But stalking a Kinglet in the sunshine is a gift in December and car birding is not very good exercise  😉

When I got to the Gay’s River Road where I had seen the big flock of Canada Geese on Friday, I was really disappointed to see the flooded fields and pond has frozen over and feared I was too late in the year.  I drove around Shubenacadie for a while with no success.  I was contemplating driving up to Masstown but really had not wanted to go that far.  Just for kicks I pulled over and checked the Recent Rarities page on the NSBS website.  Good thing, because one of our NSBS members, Bruce Stevens had done an eBird report with an exact location so I drove up and couldn’t believe my eyes to see the flock.  I parked at the head of the MacInnis Trail (a good adventure for another day) which shares a parking lot with the new to me and most wonderful Village Bakery.

I was really excited to have found the flock and was actually worried they would fly away as I walked close but they surely knew they were safe and sound behind the fence and stuck around to put on a good show as they say.  The Greater White-fronted Goose was the first thing I saw as it was brown with an orange bill and close to the side of the flock I entered on.  No sooner did I see it and it disappeared into the mix.  There were 400+ Canada Geese of differing species and none staying still for too long and so I knew trying to find the Cackling Goose would be a lot more difficult.

Now, about these Cackling Geese – the whole idea that there are different species of Canada Geese was new to me about 5 weeks ago when all these big flocks started showing up.  I had been in Truro for the day when I saw the eBird report from Jake Walker that a Cackling Goose was spotted in a large flock in Truro so picked up a birding friend and we went to see what all the fuss was about.  Being new to this whole Cackling Goose thing we thought we saw about 40 of them.  We later learned that they were just small Canada Geese.  Oopsy!

A little web research made the whole thing seem entirely hopeless and I expect it will come as a great surprise to many of you as well.  11 species!  Well then my friend said “I hate geese now”.  LOL

Fast forward to today I was super fortunate that Eric Mills showed up with a scope.  I’d never met Eric in person and was happy just for that opportunity as he is a wonderful birder and VP of the NSBS as well.  But here is the thing, he can find that 1 Cackling Goose in his scope pretty quickly and was kind enough to let me see it and a few other birders arrived and he showed them as well.  When you get a good view of one it is true what they say that there is no mistaking them for the other races of Canada Geese.

It was an amazing learning opportunity and I’m glad I followed my instinct to take the day off and study the geese.  Meeting up with other birders only made it more amazing and fun.

I ended the day with a delicious chicken salad sandwich from the Village Bakery, and a plan to pre-order a Butterscotch Pie from Jennifer next time I’m passing through Shubenacadie.  Yummy!

PS – my list for day 1 of the Winter Bird List is:

• Bald Eagle
• Golden-crowned Kinglet
• American Crow
• Black-capped Chickadee
• Canada Goose
• Cackling Goose
• Iceland Gull
• Greater White-fronted Goose
• Common Raven
• Herring Gull
• Mallard
• Ring-necked Pheasant
• European Starling
• Dark-eyed Junco
• Rock Pigeon
• American Goldfinch

If the roads are travel worthy then take a drive to Sydney because the birding is great all year round.

Donkin is a migratory point that is only about a half hour from Sydney, with the Glace Bay Bird Sanctuary very close by.

An easy and low kilometer route to guarantee a variety of birds is to drive out the Louisbourg Highway and cross over at Birch Grove into Port Morien.  There is a sandbar and salt marsh in Port Morien and from there you can zip on to Schooner Pond in Donkin.  They are you can hit the Sanctuary on the way home and go back through Glace Bay, maybe even hit the airport on the way home where birds seem to come in for their own landings.

The surrounding areas have lots of other hot spots but this is an easy day trip if you spend the night in Sydney.  Most of the accommodations and eateries (check out Flavors, Governors Pub, and Doktor Lukes Coffee) are going to be in Sydney if it’s a non-touristy time of the year so for a winter trip in particular this is a good route to go.  October would be the peak for everything, hands down but you have to go with the seasons to see what nature has to offer.

Cape Breton has lots of other good birding areas or course.

If winter birding is not your cup of tea, you might want to consider the fact that a good sized group of Barrow’s Goldeneye ducks hang out by the Dobson Yacht Club and in towards the Coxheath Bridge in the colder weather.