2007 Tour Narrative
In Brief: Every year our trip to Grand Manan Island brings different delights. The island and surrounding water is rich with life providing diverse avian riches, butterflies, mammals, weather, and people. Our home for this week is the Shorecrest Lodge, located in the village of North Head. This rambling country inn overlooks the sea and provides comfortable accommodations and family-style meals for our week on Grand Manan Island. Among our highlights this year: excellent warbler shows, impressive seabird spectacles, and some outstanding quality time with one of the rarest cetaceans in the world!
In Detail: After assembling in Saint John on Saturday afternoon, we set out for the one-hour drive to Black’s Harbour and the ferry to Grand Manan Island, our destination for the next seven days. We had our first introduction to pelagic birding on the 90-minute crossing to the island, with repeated close views of Northern Gannets and hundreds of Greater and Sooty Shearwaters, as well as our first Great Cormorants. We arrived in North Head in time for a short break to enjoy the Purple Finches, American Goldfinches, Black-capped Chickadees, and Red-breasted Nuthatches at the Shorecrest Lodge’s feeders before dinner.
Most of Sunday morning was spent birding along the Whistle Road as far as the lighthouse. Warblers were numerous, and we had a great time tracking down many small mixed flocks of a dozen species including Canada and Blackburnian. The great warbler show continued in the trees around the lighthouse, and we were torn between watching them and scoping the hundreds of Greater and Sooty Shearwaters feeding offshore. We took a break for our picnic lunch at Castalia Marsh, where there was a vagrant Snowy Egret and hundreds of Common Eiders and both Harbour and Gray Seals were offshore. On our way down the island we made a quick stop for dessert at the ice cream shop; “Moose on the Loose” was voted the favorite flavor. A walk along the top of the spectacular columnar basalt cliffs at Southern Head produced a few more warblers and dueling Merlins and American Kestrels. Butterflies included many Monarchs and Painted Ladies, and the dragonfly highlight was a Band-winged Meadowhawk. On our way back north up the island we stopped at Grand Harbour, where we had a great opportunity to study Least and Semipalmated Sandpipers side by side.
On Monday morning we headed to Seal Cove for the first of our pelagic trips. A brief stop en route to Red Point provided close views of several Red-necked Grebes in breeding plumage. Aboard the Day’s Catch, we were barely 5 minutes offshore from the wharf when we encountered our first feeding frenzy of pelagic birds, which included over 40 Razorbills and ten Manx Shearwaters. This was just a taste of the avian riches awaiting us farther offshore as we eventually saw several flocks and species of shearwaters (Greater, Sooty, and Manx), thousands of Red-necked and Red Phalaropes, many Wilson’s and one Leach’s Storm-Petrels, over 150 Atlantic Puffins, several Pomarine Jaegers, and two Lesser Black-backed Gulls among many other birds. The cetaceans didn’t disappoint either—we saw more than 30 North Atlantic Right Whales (10% of the world population!), several Fin-backed and Minke Whales, and many Harbour Porpoise. Returning to Seal Cove in mid-afternoon we had just enough time to check the road into Anchorage Provincial Park, where we encountered a large mixed flock of warblers including many Blackpolls.
Tuesday dawned cool, damp, and foggy, and we spent most of the day searching for passerines on the northern half of the island. A brief stop at Pettes’ Cove yielded an adult Lesser Black-backed Gull and a close Gray Seal. At Dark Harbour we walked along the track leading to the harbor outlet and encountered several large flocks of warblers and other passerines including Philadelphia and Blue-headed Vireo, Least Flycatcher, and Lincoln’s Sparrow. A lighthouse-like structure at the entrance to the outlet had us perplexed, but later research revealed that the structure was used to lure herring at night into the narrow harbor opening where they could be captured in the weirs. On our way back to the lodge for lunch we stopped at Stanley Beach, where we had a close encounter with a beaver and a great selection of warblers. After lunch we visited Castalia again, where a roosting flock of shorebirds provided point-blank comparisons of Least and Semipalmated Sandpipers. The roadway leading into Castalia Marsh was alive with warblers, Gray Catbirds, a good selection of sparrows including our first Swamps, and a fly-over American Golden Plover. After visiting the Grand Manan Museum, we walked down to the harbor and had great views of several species of shorebirds including Ruddy Turnstone, Black-bellied Plover, Short-billed Dowitcher, and both Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs.
Wednesday dawned sunny but rather windy. We decided to go to White Head Island and drove to Ingall’s Head, where we boarded the tiny ferry for the 25-minute crossing to the island. A Thick-billed Murre at the entrance to the harbor on White Head was a real surprise at this season. The tide levels were perfect for studying shorebirds off the north end of the island, and we had nice views of several species including White-rumped Sandpiper, Red Knot, and Whimbrel, while an adult male Peregrine Falcon surveyed them from a nearby rock. Continuing on to Gull Cove and Langmaid Cove, we enjoyed an abundance of fall warblers, four species of vireos, Eastern Wood Pewee, Alder Flycatcher, and Yellow-billed Cuckoo among many other landbirds. After a picnic lunch at Pebble Beach we then endured a rather rough sail to Grand Manan, managed a brief stop at the ice cream store, then drove down to Southern Head and Southern Head Beach, where the great warbler show continued. After dinner we walked out to the Swallowtail lighthouse and then drove to Castalia Marsh, where we saw about 20 Black-crowned Night-Herons in the fading light. What a great day!
On Thursday morning we had our second pelagic trip aboard the Day’s Catch to the deep waters in the middle of the Bay of Fundy. Although weather conditions were favorable, the numbers of pelagic birds were greatly reduced from our outing earlier in the week; still it was wonderful to spend more quality time among one of the rarest marine mammals in the world, the North Atlantic Right Whale. Upon returning to shore at mid-day we walked along the Red Point Nature Trail and had great looks at an Olive-sided Flycatcher plus small numbers of warblers. Arriving at Southern Head we lucked out, as local naturalists Jim and Jean Wilson were there trying to net Monarch butterflies, and they graciously gave us a marvelous demonstration of Monarch tagging, an eye-opening experience for many of us. The stunted alders near the lighthouse held several migrant warblers, including our first Orange-crowned, rare in the province.
On our last full day on the island, Friday, we revisited all of our favorite spots from the past week. At Southern Head Beach we enjoyed lots of migrant warblers, including Cape May and Yellow-breasted Chat, and found another Yellow-billed Cuckoo. After a delicious lobster picnic at Anchorage Provincial Park, we scanned the shoreline and ponds and found several Horned Grebes, our first Northern Pintail, and several species of shorebirds. Later in the afternoon we drove to Castalia Marsh and walked along the edge of the salt marsh, where we all eventually had nice views of Nelson’s Sharp-tailed Sparrows.
Saturday morning we had our final walk around North Head before boarding the 9:30am ferry to the mainland. The ferry crossing was once again productive with wonderful close views of shearwaters, Common Murres, clouds of Bonaparte’s Gulls, and fly-by Solitary Sandpipers and Whimbrels. Saying our good-byes in Saint John, the trip concluded around mid-day.
Stu Tingley
Updated: February 2008