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CANADA - PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND
16-20 August 2001
Magill Weber
Several (non-birding) friends and I spent 5 enjoyable days on a camping trip
to Prince Edward Island. We camped at Robinson’s Island Campground (formerly
Rustico Island Campground) in Prince Edward Island National Park, and used
this as our base of operations, with day trips to the central part of the
island near Glasgow, Summerside, Charlottetown, and the Eastern end of the
island near Bay Fortune and Souris. I concentrated on birding within PEI
National Park, primarily at Brackley Beach, Covehead Bay and Rustico Harbour.
Temperatures were much warmer than usual, with highs near 85F each day, and
nighttime lows in the 50-60F range. Two mornings brought light rain, clearing
to sunny skies in the afternoon. Beware of numerous SKUNKS in the campground
and nearby beaches. The island seems to be overrun with them.
I would also highly recommend purchasing the small book of day hikes, available
on the island at several stores, for people planning on staying several days
or more (I am not sure of the author because I gave mine away as we were
leaving to another group of campers, but this book should be readily available).
Late August yielded huge numbers of shorebirds off Covehead Bay and nearby
saltmarshes, however over the 5 days, I only ran into one other birder, visiting
from the UK. Covehead Bay can be easily accessed from a turn-off just before
the bay bridge. There is also a parking area, marina/fish house, and small
restaurant hosting large flocks of gulls just before the bridge, which provides
another vantage point for scoping the Bay. Across the road from the parking
area lie several small back-dune ponds full of BLACK DUCKS, and some SAVANNAH
and NELSON’S SHARPTAIL SPARROWS.
High counts at Covehead Bay on 18 August 2001 were: c. 500 peeps, primarily
SEMIPALMATED and a few LEAST SANDPIPERS, 54 RUDDY TURNSTONES, 100+ GREATER
and LESSER YELLOWLEGS, 35 BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER, 6 HUDSONIAN GODWIT (all Juv.
Plumage), 40-50 DOWITCHER (SP. *most likely SB), at least 15 SB DOWITCHER,
several RED KNOT and WILLET, as well as 28 GREAT BLUE HERON. In the nearby
marshes adjacent to the highway: 9 PECTORAL SANDPIPER, 1 WHITE RUMPED SANDPIPER,
4+ NELSON’S SHARPTAILED SPARROW. Gulls included GBBG, HERRING, few RINGBILLED
and hundreds of BONAPARTE’S GULLS, as well as multiple COMMON and CASPIAN
terns. Also at least one MERLIN working the flocks periodically. Additionally,
on 18 August, I studied and managed to photograph one possible winter plumaged
COMMON BLACK-HEADED GULL, which swam nearby several Bonis. Unfortunately
the afternoon light was poor, and the bird never came close enough for solid
comparison, and never took flight. I’m about 90% certain of the ID, but the
photographs were inconclusive as well, though the bill appeared to be heavier,
and the bird sturdier overall. I visited Covehead Bay each day (very near
to Robinson’s Island Campground) and numbers of birds were roughly similar,
if slightly lower over the rest of the days.
Robinson’s Island campground and environs: BLACK-CAPPED and BOREAL (heard
only) CHICKADEE, AMERICAN CROW, MORNING DOVE, BALD EAGLE, OSPREY, CANADA
GOOSE, PIED BILLED GREBE, MERLIN, RUBY THROATED HUMMER, NORTHERN PARULA,
SONG SPARROW, CHIPPING SPARROW, LINCOLN’S SPARROW, SAVANNAH SPARROW, WINTER
WREN, RED EYED VIREO, BLACK-THROATED GREEN WARBLER, YELLOW WARBLER, CHESTNUT
SIDED, BLACKPOLL WARBLER (Singing!), several BAYPOLL WARBLERS, RB NUTHATCH,
JUNCO. We also witnessed a spectacular and inexplicable 10-minute chase amoung
a NOTHERN GOSHAWK and a SHARPIE, both after the same flock of ROBINS
right in the campground next to the bathrooms.
Warbler numbers were much lower than I expected, particularly BLACKPOLLS,
with only a few (1-7) of each listed species being seen. I was unable to
find departure dates for PEI for the wood warblers, and we most likely missed
migration for the early species, and were catching the start of the Blackpoll
migration. We missed MAGNOLIA, BLACK-THROATED BLUE (a later migrant?!) and
CAPE MAY, WILSON’S, CANADA, OVENBIRD, and NORTHERN WATERTHRUSH entirely.
I made special trips to both Tracadie Bay and Malpeque Bay and found them
to be overall devoid of shorebirds. Tracadie was near empty, and Malpeque
was also, less a few WILLET, GREAT BLUE HERONS, one BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER
and gulls. Though we didn’t see many birds, my non-birding companions enjoyed
close scope looks at GREAT BLUES, as well as the locally harvested all-you-can-eat
mussels at Malpeque (which were spectacular!). The nearby town of Summerside
was congested and run-down, and took an hour off our return trip due to traffic.
The red cliffs along PEI’s North Shore provided spectacular views, as well
as 1 PIPING PLOVER, and hundreds GREAT and DOUBLE CRESTED CORMORANTS roosting
along the cliffs and flying past. We combined the north shore with a trip
to the eastern end of island, and took numerous short hikes in and off the
road looking for my target birds: MOURNING WARBLER, as well as GRAY-CHEECKED
and BICKNELL’S THRUSHES, and the supposedly abundant GRAY PARTRIDGE which
managed to evade us the entire trip. We didn’t find any of these birds. This
day trip ended up at Bay Fortune, which had similar birds to Malpeque Bay.
The scenery was beautiful, and we finished with a fantastic meal at Inn at
Bay Fortune (perhaps the highlight of the trip!).
OTHER LOCATIONS:
At Silver Lake in Anne’s Land: BLACK DUCK, BELTED KINGFISHER, BARN SWALLOW,
STARLING.
In the relatively empty spruce-dominated woods near Dalvay Pond, also in
PEI National Park: RUFFED GROUSE, SPRUCE GROUSE, WINTER WREN, HERMIT THRUSH,
GRAY JAY, LINCOLN’S SPARROW, ROBIN, WHITE THROATED SPARROW, BLACK DUCK (on
the pond), and COMMON YELLOWTHROAT (near pond).
SPECIES LIST (61 Total):
PIED BILLED GREBE (Podilymbus podiceps)
GREAT CORMORANT (Phalacrocrax carbo)
DOUBLE CRESTED CORMORANT (Phalacrocrax auritus)
GREAT BLUE HERON (Ardea herodias)
CANADA GOOSE (Branta Canadensis)
BLACK DUCK (Anas rubripes)
BALD EAGLE (Haliaeetus leucocephalus)
OSPREY (Pandion haliaetus)
MERLIN (Falco columbarius)
SHARP SHINNED HAWK (Accipiter striatus)
NOTHERN GOSHAWK (Accipiter gentiles)
RUFFED GROUSE (Bonasa umbellus)
SPRUCE GROUSE (Falcipennis Canadensis)
SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPER (Calidris pusilla)
LEAST SANDPIPER (Calidris minutilla)
RUDDY TURNSTONE (Arenaria interpres)
GREATER YELLOWLEGS (Tringa melanoleuca)
LESSER YELLOWLEGS (Tringa flavipes)
BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER (Pluvialis sqatarola)
HUDSONIAN GODWIT (Limosa haemastica)
DOWITCHER (SP. *most likely SB) (Limnodromus sp.)
SB DOWITCHER (Limnodromus griseus)
RED KNOT (Calidris canutus)
WILLET (Catoptrophorus semipalmatus)
PECTORAL SANDPIPER (Calidris melanotos)
WHITE RUMPED SANDPIPER (Calidris fusciollis)
PIPING PLOVER (Charadrius melodus)
GREAT BLACK BACKED GULL (Larus marinus)
HERRING GULL (Larus argentatus)
RINGBILLED GULL (Larus delawarensis)
BONAPARTE’S GULL (Larus philadelphia)
COMMON BLACK-HEADED GULL (possible*) (Larus ridibundus)
COMMON TERN (Sterna hirundo)
CASPIAN TERN (Sterna caspia)
MORNING DOVE (Zenaida macroura)
RUBY THROATED HUMMINGBIRD (Archilochus colubris)
BELTED KINGFISHER (Ceryle alcyon)
RED EYED VIREO (Vireo Olivaceus)
BLUE JAY (Cyanocitta cristata)
GRAY JAY (Perisoreus Canadensis)
AMERICAN CROW (Corvus brachyrhynchos)
BARN SWALLOW (Hirundo rustica)
BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEE (Poecile atricapilla)
BOREAL CHICKADEE (Poecile hudsonica)
RED BREASTED NUTHATCH (Sitta Canadensis)
WINTER WREN (Troglodytes troglodytes)
AMERICAN ROBIN (Turdus migratorius)
HERMIT THRUSH (Catharus guttatus)
EUROPEAN STARLING (Sturnus vulgaris)
NORTHERN PARULA (Parula Americana)
BLACK-THROATED GREEN WARBLER
YELLOW WARBLER (Dendroica petechia)
BLACKPOLL WARBLER (Dendroica striata)
BAYPOLL WARBLER (Sp.)
CHESTNUT SIDED (Dendroica pennsylvanica)
COMMON YELLOWTHROAT (Geothlypis trichas)
WHITE THROATED SPARROW (Zonotrichia albicollis)
CHIPPING SPARROW (Spizella passerine)
SONG SPARROW (Melospiza melodia)
NELSON’S SHARPTAILED SPARROW (Ammodramus nelsoni)
LINCOLN’S SPARROW (Melospiza lincolnii)
SAVANNAH SPARROW (Passerculus sandwichensis)
DARK EYED JUNCO (Junco hyemalis)
Magill Weber,
725 Eugenia Ave,
Madison, WI 53705
magill_weber@hotmail.com