Natural Selection

Greater Yellowlegs

When I found out the two days in Bermuda had become one day in Nova Scotia I reached out to the Nova Scotia Bird Club on Facebook. Tony (I never found out his surname) a British expat was very helpful and put me in contact with Dominic Cormier as a local guide who was able to meet me off the Anthem Of The Seas at the cruise terminal in Halifax early on Saturday morning.

Late October is not the best time to be birding Nova Scotia as many of the summer migrants have departed. Dominic was sceptical as to whether we would see any migrant wood warblers. Fortunately we got lucky at Hartlen Point Gold Club with a Cape May Warbler, which should have been long gone. It was moving through quickly with chickadees but I did get a record shot. We also saw a locally scarce House Wren at this site, my first Wren anywhere other than the European one.

Cape May Warbler

We had kicked off with some walking on a trail beside a lake. The lake held Buffleheads, a lesser Scaup, some Ring-necked Duck and Black Ducks. I was quite taken with the Black Ducks in the same way I have a soft spot for Gadwall as dull ducks.

Black Duck

The trees behind the lake hall many delights for a newcomer to North America like myself. These included cardinals, warblers, blue jays, waxwings, woodpeckers and American sparrows. I was a bit torn between trying to see the birds and get some kind of record shots.

Downy Woodpecker

American Robin

Blue Jay

White-throated Sparrow

We moved on to various marshy / estuarine habitats. I wish I had had the time to get more landscape shots of these areas, as they were impressive. The birds weren’t too bad either, including Bald Eagles, Two-barred Crossbills, Myrtle Warblers as well as both yellowlegs. Whilst we get them this side of the pond a close encounter with Lapland Longspurs was also welcome.

Myrtle Warbler

Genuine Canadian Geese

Lapland Bunting

Example estuarine habitat

A search for seaduck was successful with White-winged and Surf Scoter and Long-tailed Ducks. We had less luck with a supposedly guaranteed Wood Duck on a park lake near Dominic’s house, but that’s birding for you.

Dominic was very knowledgeable about the history of the area and its current challenges, giving a detailed commentary between birding discussionas we moved between sites. I’d like to thank him for helping me salvage the situation following the Bermuda developments, and sorry for the inconvenience to Lynn who has been due to guide me there.

American Crow