a day for the birds

Sue Abbott of Bird Studies Canada and Jane Alexander came to the island to make a count of varieties for the Maritimes Breeding Bird Atlas. They were also scouting possible breeding sites for the endangered Roseate Tern and Piping Plover. Warren Nickerson brought Sue and Jane by outboard skiff from Lockeport. They motored around the southern tip of McNutt's and stopped at Gray's Island, then came into the cove. From there we all went off down the main road toward the Government Wharf to look and listen. After our walk across the island, Jane and Sue and Warren went up the cove in Warren's boat to the Horseshoe, then around the eastern side of the island and back to Lockeport.
Greg and I learned so much we never knew. From Jane and Sue, we learned to identify a Winter Wren, a bird whose remarkably operetta-like song we have often heard but never identified. We learned that the tiny birds with flashes of yellow I had thought were some kind of warbler over near the McNutt House (the area called back of Louie's, in local lingo) are Kinglets. We learned the song of the Yellowthroat Warbler: wichity wichity wichity. We learned that the island has Cedar Waxwing and Swainson's Thrush.

From Warren, we learned that he's related to the Goulden family who used to own the old hotel next door, that his grandfather Nelson Goulden was one of the lightkeepers, how to look for Irish Moss, and a better way to plant bush beans.

All in all it was a most exciting day.