Day 3 started birding on the deck off the bedroom of my room at the B&B in Glovertown, which was delightful and affordable btw if you ever want to do some birding in Terra Nova National Park but you aren’t a backwoodsy camping type.

And I sure did want to do a morning of birding in Terra Nova National Park before making my way to St. John’s but I had to backtrack to Gander due to long commute bad planning syndrome.  Well doing to work in several new towns each day is challenging to plan what can I say.  But I digress…

I’m starting to think the House Sparrow is my spirit bird.  First bird I snapped in the bushes off the deck this morning were House Sparrows.  I also have them in my backyard all year round and saw them in Portland, Maine outside a pet shop I was visiting.  So I think their population is on the mend…I’m just sayin.  Anyway, I love the little guys.  I think this one is saying good morning!

I also love Juncos and one flew onto the roof to spy on me while I was drinking my coffee.

 Shower up and hit the road and hit Gander for the pet store visit and to make the most of the backtracking I made a quick stop in The Thomas Howe Demonstration Forest to see if I could find a few warblers.

Bad photo but there were lots of Pine Siskins which is nice because I’m always happy to see them in the woods as most often people see them at feeders it seems.  I don’t have feeders so don’t see them around my house ever.  They are plain but endearing.

Also nabbed a lifer.  The photos aren’t great but still happy to follow the pretty melodic song ( D# F C C D#) of the Black Throated Green Warbler.

So not so bad to backtrack after all and got to spend extra time with my client, which was also nice.  It’s always so rushed on the road hard to balance but worth trying for sure.

After all was said and done I managed to get a little over an hour in Terra Nova National Park.  Sandy Pond had been recommended as a good bird stop and an easy walk.  You could spend a week in that park and never see half of it.  Think Kejimkujik meets the CB Highlands.  Very highly under-accessed and underrated gem of a National Park.  Canoe, Kayak, back country camp so gorgeous!

Anyway, the Parks Canada dude gave me the rundown of birds I might encounter and Northern Waterthrush was on the list which sounded great to me so I went for a stroll.

First bird I saw was a Spotted Sandpiper on the beach, and then a Savannah Sparrow.

The Parks Canada interpretive signs say there are a lot of Palm Warblers in this area (although ebird says rarity) and I can’t identify this warbler so I’m thinking perhaps it is a Palm.  ID help appreciated.

It’s funny because this morning 2 of my sightings popped up as rarities on some NL birding blogs.  I can tell you right now I am no rare bird spotter.  There are just a kazillion birds here and people are only interested in Puffins and Whales and Moose…LOL

There is always a Yellow Rumped it’s a given.

And although this shot is awful it is my Northern Waterthrush.  (note turns out I did not photograph a Waterthrush after all but they were abundant and I did hear them for sure – I will find one in Nova Scotia I’m on a mission now!)

Had I more time I could have gotten a better shot as they were aplenty but I had a pet store to visit in Clarenville.

Mother Nature delivered one more gift as I headed to my car, my first Swamp Sparrow.

4 lifers in 2 hours today wasn’t too bad even though my day didn’t start the way I envisioned, it all worked out in the end.

By the time I got to my B&B in Holyrood at 830 I was zonked.

I have to also put a shout out to them the host brought me some tea and cake and a fuzzy robe.  So nice!

All work and no play tomorrow but that is just fine by me I love my Newfoundland clients.  The whole island is filled with wonderful friendly people, and the birds aren’t too bad either…