The walk was led by an older ranger, Suzanne, who, despite her deference, was a good birder and all-around naturalist. There were only six of us on her walk, but, unlike most other ranger-guided bird walks we have been on, all of us were interested birders.
It wasn’t a very long walk, just a trail from the campground to the water at Broad Cove. We didn’t see many species but had good sightings of Hairy Woodpeckers and Pine Grosbeaks, along with a really brightly colored Magnolia Warbler...and a good look a a life bird for Ellen and I, a Yellow-bellied Flycatcher. At the bay, we also saw a pair of loons and pair of juvenile mink popping in an out their den in the rocks by the water. The mother mink came swimming in while we were there but it didn’t enter the den in our view.
After the Malady Head walk, one of the local birders suggested the Southwest Brook trail that was only a couple of miles back up the highway, so we all joined him, except for Suzanne. This was a trail through the woods running along the southern side of the brook. We walked about a mile and a half of the trail until we got to beaver pond and wetland. The trail went about a mile further all the way to a cove and another trailhead but we passed up on that.
We barely set foot on the trail before spotting a Cedar Waxing and Northern Waterthrush. Along the way we added four more warblers, American Redstart, Wilson’s, Yellow-rumped, and YellowWarblers as well as another Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, a Boreal Chickadee and three Belted Kingfishers. There were also the ubiquitous Robins and White-throated Sparrows. It was a good walk.
It was well after time for lunch so we stopped at the visitor center and lunched in Speedy. After lunch we went into the cafe there for an ice cream and ran into Kay and Fred, a couple from Texas who were on the walks with us. They are also touring Newfoundland, but have been traveling in the opposite direction from us, so they had a lot of good advice as to spots to see and the birds being seen. They had also been to St. Pierre and told us about the need to make advance reservations for both ferry and parking.
By the time we left the visitor center it was after 5 pm, so it was back to site 79 to plug in (the temperature was almost 90) and have dinner.
Tomorrow, I think we will be off to Cape Bonavista and then Elliston for the seabirds. When we were talking to Fred and Kay they mentioned the nf.birds mailing list, which is like massbird. I was perusing it before dinner and it seems that we should have come this was during the hurricane. That was when there great movements of seabirds at the capes on the Avalon Peninsula. We hope some are still around.
I loved this account of a day spent birding and talking to other birders. Glad you are having fun. We have some weird weather expected tonight with winds and heavy rains. Looking out the window I can see our poplars blowing quite roughly. Temps in the 80s!
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