July 12, 2009 Birds of Grand Manan Island

Diana and I just returned from a trip to New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Part of the trip was an Elderhostel program held on Grand Manan Island in the Bay of Fundy, just 6 miles off the coast of northern Maine. Included in the program was a boat trip along the shore of the island. On the boat trip I was practicing taking flight shots of the gulls. When I downloaded my photos to my computer, I was totally surprised to find this shot. As you can see, the body and the wings of this Herring Gull are oriented as you would expect them to be, but the head is turned 180 degrees and is looking up into the sky! I didn’t realize that a bird could even do this. It brings to mind an old joke that I’m sure my grandkids would enjoy. Why don’t ducks fly upside down? Because they might quack up.

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This is a male Northern Parula, one of the smallest members of the warbler family. It is one of those birds that are more easily heard than seen because they tend to forage in the treetops. Their main call is a rising trill. They also have a second call that is a jumble of notes and might remind you of Porky Pig. They nest in the eastern United States and in southeastern Canada and they spend winters in the tropics.

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Ring-necked Pheasants are an introduced species but I was still a little surprised to find them on Grand Manan Island. They are certainly one of our most colorful species.

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Nelson’s Sharp-tailed Sparrows had just returned to the island for the summer. They were busy perching in the bushes and singing to establish their territories so I was able to get some good shots of them. They have a very distinctive buzzy call. I have heard it described as either cold water tossed on hot metal, or like a match being extinguished in water. They winter along the Atlantic Coast and the Gulf of Mexico. They have three distinct breeding areas. One is in the Great Plains area of the U.S. and Canada, another is along the southern edge of Hudson Bay and James Bay, and the third is along the Atlantic coast from Quebec south to Maine.

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The black throat of this Black-throated Green Warbler is very obvious in this photo but the “green” part (the bird’s back) isn’t as visible. At least the name is descriptive of the bird. Birders listen for the “zee zee zee zoo zee” call to help find these birds. We do hear them in the summer at our northern Minnesota home but we are at the far southern edge of their nesting range.

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The Common Yellowthroat is really common. It is found over most of the U.S. and Canada in the summer. This is a male. The female, as in many other species, is much plainer looking. They are in the warbler family but they nest in marshy areas. Most warblers nest in wooded areas.

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