Tuesday 15 November 2011

Waiting in Anticipation

Ive been birding a few times over the past few weeks but haven't turned up anything different.I actually went one day with out seeing anything ! That day was last weekend when me and a friend birded most of the southern shore checking the "hot spots" but found hardly any common birds.I still did enjoy myself, just being out is a always fun!
Now with report cards going out Thursday and mid terms not far away i would imagine I'm not going to get out till winter.
But; with winter comes some of the best birding ! Quidy vidy will soon become gull and tuffed duck heaven and we should start seeing some cedar waxwings and maybe if we are lucky we will get a rarity or two !
On a more interesting note, i was at Burton's pond in the MUN campus looking for the coots and any other birds that might be hanging around.
I didn't find many birds but what i did find was a little less then appetizing !



Yes that's right RATS the place was crawling with rats.I thought rats were not very active during the day but as you can see i was wrong.They were feeding on food left over by people feeding the ducks.
Before i left i had seen a total of about 20-30 rats.Also the campus its self had a lot of sign that rats were in the buildings, i seen where rats had holes dud going into the buildings and, there were holes chewed in exposed insulation around the campus.

I'm sorry if the blog is dead for awhile.I will try a post when or if i see something worth talking about.
OH ! i forgot to mention i seen my first snow buntings at cape spear 2 weekends ago !

Wednesday 2 November 2011

Gull watching in St.Johns Habour

Today i set out I'm hopes of finding an uncommon or rare gull,
I headed down to one of the best places around to watch gulls....where else then the st.johns sewer outlet !
When i arrived the sun was shining in my eyes so that took away any good photo opps, i did stay a while and just scan with my binos but couldn't find anything among the kayotic feeding frenzy !
There was about 20 black headed gulls there of note and then the usual gulls.



After looking at the sewer gulls i headed behind the Harvey building where i was tipped off that there was cormorants hanging out.There wasn't any cormorants but there was an odd looking gull with a leg band that was surprisingly tame ! I got some pretty good shots of him and i am now waiting for an ID confirmation !
Also, i noticed about 30 small birds hanging out around a memorial that's near the Harvey building.I wasn't able to get a shot before they flew away
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Tuesday 1 November 2011

November First

     Today after school i was able to pop up to Nevile's pond and get some new pictures and some dog berry's for the birds in winter.
So far the pond is home to about 80 American black ducks and mallards, 1 green wing teal, 1 blue wing teal (not there as of today), 7 ring bills,and now numbers of gulls are starting to gather on the wharfs around the pond !
After gathering my winter supply of dog Berry's for the waxwings i went and got a few pictures of the ducks !

After getting some photos of the ducks i headed up the side of the pond to karwood cabins where i seen a number of gulls hanging out !
I cant see any "rare" species in these photos but maybe you can so please comment if you see anything !
I'm trying my best to find someone to go birding with asap to try and find some of the cooler birds that have been popping up all over the place !
Also this year I'm going to go big with bird feeders ! i have decided if i cant get to the birds then whats a better way then to bring the birds to me ! I will then update the blog almost daily with photos and updates of what I'm seeing at my feeders.