Quoddy Link Birds: Sept. 23rd

Welcome!

Welcome to Quoddy Link's Bird Blog! A place to report the many bird species sighted while aboard the Quoddy Link. Sightings are recorded by the skilled interpreters aboard the Quoddy link's whale watching catamaran that frequents the areas around Campobello Island, Deer Island and Grand Manan. For more information about our company, or to make a reservation on one of our trips please visit our main site at www.quoddylinkmarine.com. If you have any comments our questions, or would like to add your own sighting please respond by adding a comment in the comments section below each post or email nickjameshawkins@gmail.com. Thanks and enjoy!

Monday, September 29, 2014

Sept. 23rd - 28th

The morning of the 27th was the date for our annual birding outing through the West Isles. I would like to thank everyone who came out! We had beautiful weather and were able to circumnavigate Deer Island in search of many different bird species. We started by crossing the Passamaquoddy Bay and had some good looks at SURF and WHITE-WINGED SCOTERS that have started to show up in the area. On the way through Letete passage we caught a glimpse of a NORTHERN GOSHAWK being harassed by a group of ravens. We started to get into some large groups of feeding gulls at Green's Point and had some good looks at three different PARASITIC JAEGERS. We also had the chance to look at some very large rafts of moulting COMMON EIDER.

Our bird of the day came in the form of a 1st year LITTLE GULL that was feeding with BONAPARTES GULLS off of White Island, see photos of this bird below. We also had very good looks at GREAT CORMORANT and many other more common bird species. Thanks again to everyone who came out!

Here is a full list of the species we saw on the trip...

Common eider
Double-crested cormorant
Great cormorant
White-winged scoter
Surf scoter
Black guillemot
Great blue heron
Northern goshawk
Merlin
Parasitic Jaeger
Black-legged kittiwake
Bonaparte's gull
Little gull
Ring-billed gull
Herring gull
Great black-backed gull
Common tern
Common loon
Bald eagle
Osprey

Recent sightings of interest by day...

Sept. 23rd - LAUGHING GULL off Eastport. First of fall RED-NECKED GREBE. Single RED-NECKED PHALAROPE

Sept. 27th - Pelagic birding trip! NORTHERN GOSHAWK over Pendleton Island. 3 PARASITIC JAEGERS off Green's Point. LITTLE GULL, immature bird off White Island. MERLIN over Cherry Island. On the afternoon trip...BROAD-WINGED HAWK and OSPREY crossing Letete at 5:20pm.

Sept. 28th - A big day for raptor movement over the West Isles...On the way through Letete in the AM; 2 unidentified raptors over Pendleton, adult PEREGRINE on Macs tower, immature NORTHERN HARRIER and 3 OSPREY. Immature RED-TAILED HAWK over Sandy Island. Adult PEREGRINE crossing Letete on the way back through.