Hurricane Larry birding

[brucema...@gmail.com]

Two teams of birders (Ian Jones & Alvan Buckley) and (Jared Clarke & B Mactavish) in search of Larry waifs covered the shoreline from Arnolds Cove to St .Vincents Beach. Not a sniff of a vagrant. seabird action was surprisingly sparse - only a handful of shearwaters, a few dozen Leach's Storm-Petrel but more surprisingly two skuas not identified to species.

still a lot to learn about hurricanes...

Argentia had 4 Buff-breasted Sandpipers and 8 American Golden Plovers plus the other usuals. There was a Wilson's Phalarope at Arnolds Cove (Arnolds Pond) where one was seen a week ago.

B Mactavish
Jared Clarke
Alvan Buckley
Ian Jones

[ILJones]

Alvan and I spent Friday night at the Bridgeway Hotel in Placentia. Contrary to some dire predictions the town was not subject to storm surge flooding but we were glad our room was on the second floor nonetheless. We were kept awake by howling wind and pelting rain from the southeast until about 0115h on Saturday when it suddenly dropped to less than a gale with intermittent gusts... the east edge of eye (visible on Holyrood radar) had arrived (officially it bellied in at Long Harbour just to the north of our location). The wind picked up again after about 15 minutes and the blew hard for another couple of hours from the SW. Not to be left out of the excitement Placentia town celebrated with extra brightly lit pickups parading up and down the main drag at top speed all night long. No stranded longliners having blocked exit of our truck from the parking area, we departed the hotel at 0545h (wind had dropped to about 30 knots from the west) and proceeded to the Argentia airstrip, ocean view off west end of the northwest-southeast runway. Seawatch results, 0605h - 0745h (approximate numbers, in 25 knot wind from the WSW, visibility mostly excellent):
Red-breasted Merganser 1
American Black Duck 1
Northern Gannet 100+
cormorants 20+
Common Loon 12 flying west
Sooty Shearwater 3
Great Shearwater 1
Leach's Storm-petrel 25
Wilson's Storm-petrel at least 2
storm-petrel species c.20 (most storm-petrels were not at ideal viewing distance and were mostly hidden behind waves)
Black-legged Kittiwake 1 juv.
HERG and GBBG 40
skua sp. 1 flying west
Razorbill 1
a few Black Guillemots

Just before 8 AM the B-team arrived from brushy St. John's and took over the sea watch (immediately having another skua sp. fly by right along the beach). We departed Argentia at about 8AM after a brief stop to examine 3 Buff-breasted Sandpipers on the runway along with various Semipalmated Plovers, Black-bellied Plovers, American Golden Plovers, Whimbrels and a White-rumped Sandpiper.

We checked ponds and coves around Placentia town (another c.30 Leach's Storm-petrels detected included on NW and SW Arms Placentia) and headed to Point Verde just SW of Placentia (great looking spot with two balachois ponds) - a few more Leach's Storm-petrels were visible in the bay offshore but nothing in the ponds. We then headed south to St. Brides along the coast road, stopping to look at various estuaries, ponds and coves along the way (strong onshore winds and large breaking waves) - a few more storm-petrels.

At St. Brides we did a short sea watch from the cemetery (0930-0945h): hundreds of Northern Gannets, including dozens of 1, 2 an 3-year old imms mixed in, streaming south. One small black-and-white shearwater (Alvan claims Manx, Ian says could have been any among the two dozenish new spp. listed in Harrison's new guidebook). A few Black Guillemots. We also checked the wharf area in St. Brides - impressive wave action on the go, breakwater intact, not much in the way of birds.

Next we checked the beach area at the community of Point Lance. Multiple sets of enormous breakers still coming in at 1100h. On the beach: flock of 20 Sanderlings, one weak Black Guillemot juv. sitting, one weak Atlantic puffin ad. sitting, eight weak adult Northern Gannets sitting likely moribund, 25 fresh Atlantic Saury picked up. A quick pish in the alders back by the road bridge inland produced Red-eyed Vireo 1, Wilson's Warbler 1, Yellow warbler 2, Hermit Thrush 1.

Next: Branch - 6 Greater Yellowlegs in the harbour area, North Harbour no birds, road badly damaged by waves and storm surge but passable, Riverhead no birds, St. Mary's no birds, Point La Haye three Leach's Storm-petrels lingering off the sea watching spot, St. Vincents no birds but lots of interesting marine life washed up on the beach being collected by locals on ATVs. Road closed at St. Vincents (waves had broken the wooden sea wall and eroded out a section of blacktop just to the east of the west beach parking area) so we concluded and headed back via the Salmonier line.

This one was a dud but interesting nonetheless, getting ready for the next one.

ilj and ab