Tag Archives: Sooty Shearwater

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I didn’t go to The Gull Frolic this year. I decided not to when the invitations went out to Illinois Ornithological Society members last November. I was then looking forward to my trip to San Blas and the thought of coming back to stand on the lakefront in freezing temperatures after spending the early part of January in warm and sunny Mexico did not appeal to me. And anyway, my head was still full of images of Great Black-backed Gulls I had seen in New Brunswick and Grand Manan.

So this post features some of the Great Black-backeds and other species seen as we made our way from St. John to Grand Manan by ferry.

  • Great Black-backed Gull

The photo below is actually a small section of a larger image. I was trying to focus on the White-Winged Scoters we were seeing from quite a distance. Or as Ann has now corrected me, they were Black Guillemots! We had some Scoters too. But this is sometimes the problem with processing photos half a year or more later.

Black Guillemots

More of the White-Winged Scoters. Oh they’re not, let’s fix this right now. They are Black Guillemots. I don’t know what happened to the Scoter. Maybe it’s in the third photograph on top — how far away we were at one point…

White-Winged Scoters

More Great Black-backed Gulls – and there’s likely a few Herring Gulls in the group shot, but it’s more like a warmer version of a Gull Frolic.

These Red-Necked Grebes were distant but delightful nonetheless.

Sooty Shearwaters don’t photograph particularly well at a distance.

  • Sooty Shearwater

A glimpse of a rugged landscape.

Great Shearwaters were abundant and easier to photograph than the Harbor Seals in the first two photographs below.

I thought this post needed a little color.

A few more Great Black-Backed Gulls.

  • 2nd Cycle
  • 1st Cycle
Some of that lovely rugged stuff that grows on rock.

And an adult Herring Gull.

I will be back with the other half of this day’s photos. The focus will be on land birds. It took me a week to process the 740-or-so images on my recalcitrant pokey travel laptop. But I guess these days I can’t complain about how long it takes me to do anything.

On the Water

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Well, I took way too many photographs on the pelagic tour in the Bay of Fundy… it was primarily a whale-watching boat tour, but we got to see plenty of birds too. It was a beautiful day. And I am convinced the Humpback Whales know exactly what’s going on and they willingly provide entertainment. I believe we saw 9 of them – with the captain of the boat calling each one by name, depending on the pattern of white coloring underneath its tail.

Great Shearwater and Herring Gull
Humpback Whale
  • Cell phone scenes from the boat…
A pod of three Humpbacks…

Here’s another Storm-Petrel to add to my life list.

  • Wilson’s Storm-Petrel

As we got closer to the whales…they seemed to become more active.

One or two of a Sooty Shearwater…

  • Sooty Shearwater

We had a lot of Great Black-backed Gulls throughout the tour, but I seem to have captured a only Herring Gulls in these photos. It is remarkable to take a photograph of a bird flying alongside the boat – it occurred to me going through these shots that you rarely get this perspective.

Great Shearwaters outnumbered every other species but I adore them and think they’re very photogenic. You can see how they got their name, looking in one or two photos like they’re walking on water…

Of course we were eager to see Atlantic Puffins. There weren’t many close to the boat but I did my best to capture this one…or two?

A Common Tern, not too close to the boat…

I invite you to click on the series of pictures below – I know they look a lot alike but whales don’t move as fast as birds and between the boat motion and the whales themselves maybe you get some of the idea of what it was like to see them…

I might add that the water was clean, free of debris and wonderful to see.

I will be back with more pictures from the trip to New Brunswick and Grand Manan. I have been home today trying to get my heat fixed, so that has given me a little more time to attend to this post. So far the repairman doesn’t know what’s wrong, but the sun is shining and we should be warm enough in the house for the next few days. I hope to get it fixed soon and not have to take any more time off of work.

Briefly from the Olympic Peninsula

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Pacific Loon

Pacific Loon

Getting home late one week ago from the American Birding Association Olympic Peninsula Birding Rally, I went straight back to work the next morning after making a quick run to the grocery store for a few perishables to tide us over. I am still reviewing all the pictures to clarify gull and shorebird species identification, and I hope to post more seaside pictures later in the week, but I wanted to at least gasp quickly while coming up for air.

I got 13 life birds on this trip, I think, at least that’s the number that’s sticking in my mind at the moment. George Armistead from the ABA promised to send us all complete lists which will be helpful, as I kept somewhat of a list from memory only each day, which is never entirely reliable.

There were life birds that I did not get pictures of, but here are a few ones I did. Light conditions were generally miserable (overcast, drizzly, backlit) but I did the best I could. I’d like to go back someday, spend a little more time and have more lenses ready for different situations. The plant species…trees, shrubs, mosses and fungi to generalize a few…were amazing.

Townsend's Warbler

Townsend’s Warbler

I was very happy to get a good look at the Townsend’s Warbler, especially because it still looks similar to a few other species I don’t know well!

Hutton's Vireo

Hutton’s Vireo

I have seen Hutton’s Vireo before, but never got a picture of one, so this was a lifer for the lens.

Red=Bellied Sapsucker

Red=Bellied Sapsucker

The Red-Bellied Sapsucker kept darting around the tree trunk to the other side but I did manage somehow to capture him and lighten him up enough…

Harlequin Duck

Harlequin Duck

I wasn’t sure if I’d ever seen a Harlequin Duck. I thought perhaps I might have, but now I am 100% certain that I can add to my list as there were several. Not in breeding plumage, but still a remarkable bird.

Thousands of Sooty Shearwaters

Thousands of Sooty Shearwaters

Standing on the beach watching gulls and shorebirds, when suddenly a seemingly endless stream of Sooty Shearwaters flew by over the space of several minutes. The trip leaders estimated 50,000. So I guess I can never say I barely saw this bird if I saw thousands of them!

Juvenile White-Crowned Sparrow

Juvenile White-Crowned Sparrow

The White-Crowned Sparrow is not new on my life list but I heard murmurings that this could be a subspecies to eventually be split. Whatever, I don’t care, it was nice to get a picture of a lovely young cooperative bird.

Heermann's Gulls

Heermann’s Gulls

I know I said gulls will come later, but the Heermann’s Gull is definitely a life bird for me, and what a beautiful bird with the distinctive orange-red bill. Here’s what Cornell has to say about it on their All About Birds website:

“This gray-bodied, white-headed gull breeds in Mexico and then moves north along the Pacific Coast to southern British Columbia.”

White-headed must refer to the adult breeding plumage of this species. I did find the gray bodies to be distinctive too. It’s always a pleasure to get to know an easily identifiable gulls species. I should never have to worry about confusing this bird with any other gull!

Generally the trip was brief but enjoyable, and I will be back with more pictures and thoughts as soon as possible. I also have some catching up to do with a little midwest passerine migration.