warblers, warblers, and more!

Things have quieted down since that first week… which brings it back to a more normal level for this time of year. This is good and bad – we did want to break every record ever made (and we were close on most of them!), but now we have more time to spend with each new bird. And since almost all the birds we get here are new to me (I started as very new to birding here, although I’ve had experience banding in England), it is very exciting.

The colourful warblers are now coming through in waves –Golden-winged (only one male caught in our nets!), Nashville, Orange-crowned, Northern Parula, Yellow, Chestnut-sided, Magnolia, Cape May, Black-throated Blue, Yellow-rumped (Myrtle), Black-throated Green, Blackburnian, Pine, Palm, Black-and-white, American Redstart, Ovenbird, Northern Waterthrush, Common Yellowthroat, Wilson’s and Canada. All are spectacular!

Hazel, from New Zealand, has now joined us, and has been here for about a week and a half, and is thoroughly enjoying herself as well. The weather has been spectacular, today in fact was only our second day of not being able to open nets at all due to rain. We had to comfort ourselves with crepes and maple syrup. Each day is a special day!

The goslings were born on the edge of the shipwreck, and carefully (with much prodding from their parents), took the leap of faith into the lake below. They swam ashore and now are filling themselves with grass around the cabin. One was weak and died, but the other four are still going strong. There’s actually another Canada Goose family that has joined the observatory property, with six goslings which look smaller than “our” family of four.

We’ve also had some exciting mammal sightings – coyote, fox, skunk, mouse, beaver, otter, and deer. And on the way to the cabin with Hazel we saw a bear and a cub grazing in a field on the side of Dyers Bay Rd. The full Canadian experience indeed!

And we’re still keeping our eyes out for the elusive Mississippi Kite…

Kat (the salamander expert)


And coming from Aotearoa (New Zealand), a land that is home to one introduced sparrow, it’s been a bewildering and exciting experience to be catching so many amazing and beautiful little birds. Will I ever remember their names, learn how to tell them apart and remember their own little songs? Each bird is on a mind boggling long distance journey; a journey that has been programmed into their tiny, determined little bodies.

The forest of stark white birches bursting into fresh green foliage is so far from the dense lush vegetation of the forest I work in. The smell of the pines, the open understory, the tiny brilliant spring flowers carpeting the forest floor (like little gems scattered about) are a world apart from the trees of Aotearoa laden with ferns, covered in mosses and home to perching plants escaping the problems of the forest floor.

And here I am seeing animals that we all associate with Canada…a beaver having breakfast on the shore, otter swimming by, a raccoon sitting on our porch at night. Truly a biologists dream holiday!

Hazel (from NZ DOC – Department of Conservation – fondly nicknamed here as DOCK – Department of Conservation and Killing, as lots of conservation programs in NZ involve eradicated introduced mammals as rats and stoats which otherwise would eradicate the native fauna…)


Not much else to say, besides that spring is always an exciting time, with the hope and joy of new birds every day: Most of the warbler species we get at Cabot Head have arrived in a span of about 10 days! The only missing for now are Tennessee, Blackpoll, Bay-breasted and Mourning. And maybe some unexpected ones, who knows?

Other birds to arrive in May are Flycatchers, with the first Least Flycatcher being detected on May 5 and the Great Crested Flycatcher on May 13. On May 6, we got our first Ruby-throated Hummingbird, which seemed greatly interested in its reflection in my sunglasses, by flying only a few inches from my face! Or it just wanted to make sure it wasn’t left undetected…

Stephane