Newfoundland: Day 1

When I entered the hotel dining room to meet the birding group and enjoy a hot breakfast together, I discovered that my ordeal from the day before was overshadowed by the even worse experiences of several other trip participants.  Dave G.'s first flight to Newfoundland had been canceled, and by the time he finally arrived in St. John's, it was after 2 a.m.  To add insult to injury, the airline had lost his luggage.  Which airline?  Ah, there's the rub.  Dave had flown two different legs on two different airlines, and now neither claimed responsibility for the bag.  So Dave would be without a tripod and scope for the first day of birding, and could only hope that his bag would somehow make its way to the St. John's airport.

Poor Jean didn't get to the hotel until 3:30 a.m.!  I had been ready to regale the group with my saga of frustration and woe, but instead, I found myself thankful I had been as lucky as I was!  At least I had my bags, and with a good six hours of sleep, I felt, if not refreshed, at least able to stand on two feet.

Bill welcomed all of us to Newfoundland, and we introduced ourselves as we ate breakfast.  Our local guide for the trip, Dave Brown, arrived and greeted us.  A fantastic guy and an amazing birder, Dave told us all about the recent conditions, what birds we could hope to find, and the lowdown on our biggest target, the Yellow-legged Gull.

The Yellow-legged Gull was the primary reason why many people on the trip had come in the first place.  It had been a regular winter visitor to Newfoundland for the last decade, but recently, it had gone missing.  Our goal was clear: find the gull.

The weather had cleared, and although it was a chilly 30 degrees, it was warmer than I had expected.  With no snow or rain to worry about, we were all anxious and excited to begin our birding adventures in Newfoundland.  We would be spending the whole day looking for one bird, the Yellow-legged Gull.  I know that sounds funny.  When you go to the beach and you see seagulls flying all around, it wouldn't occur to most people that they would be interesting to study.  But gulls are amazing!  They congregate in groups, so there's usually lots to observe.  They're animated, feisty, and full of personality.  And, as I would soon learn, they'll come in close to a guy throwing hot dogs around!  Over the course of the trip, I became more and more addicted to the thrill of gulls, what gullers call "larophilia."  And Dave Brown was the perfect enabler.

But we wouldn't just be looking for the Yellow-legged Gull.  It would indeed be the Holy Grail, but there would be lots of other species of gulls around, many difficult to find in New England.  Our plan was to stop at all the locales where the gulls tended to gather, and enjoy the show.  But Bill added that anyone who found the Yellow-legged Gull would be treated to "dinner and a cocktail."  He wanted that bird more than anyone.

Our first stop, and the spot to which we would return over and over in our quest for Mr. Yellowlegs, was Quidi Vidi Lake.  There on the ice, maybe fifty yards away, stood several thousand gulls.  The adventure was about to begin.  But as we walked onto the sidewalk to set up our scopes, hordes of tame ducks and geese began to quack and honk, strutting spiritedly around and among us, hoping for a handout.  Most were Mallards and American Black Ducks, but mixed in were the tamest Northern Pintails I had ever met:

Northern Pintail

Maybe he arrived late last night, too.

Mrs. Pintail

Admiring her reflection...

The happy couple

Once we looked past the beautiful pintails, the gull show began.  At first, working our way through thousands of gulls seemed daunting, but as our familiarity and fluency grew, it became much easier.  And Dave Brown is an excellent teacher.  Under his tutelage, I felt my confidence with the gulls building.  There were the usuals from back home:  Herring Gulls, Great Black-backed Gulls, even a few Ring-billed Gulls.  But there was more.  A look through the scope at the periphery of the flock might show a small collection, like this:

For the non-larophiles out there, four different species of gull are in the small collection above.  The big guy in the front, left of center, is one species I hoped to spend time with in St. John's...It's a Glaucous Gull in its first year.  Also scattered throughout the iPhone pic above are some Iceland Gulls, another bird uncommon back home but common in St. John's.  Iceland Gulls were everywhere, and for me personally, they are adorable.  I had endless fun shooting photos of them at every stop.  Their round head and gentle expression give them this innocent, friendly look that's totally endearing.  See for yourself...Here are some Iceland Gulls enjoying their first winter:

"Those pigeons behind me look strangely ominous."

You're allowed to play around when you're less than a year old.

Angelic

Here's a couple of second-winter Iceland Gulls:

Kinda like a rubber duckie

They look gentle even in flight.

Here are some shots of a third-winter Iceland Gull:

Tough guy...more than two years old now!

Focused

Posturing a bit

That's a first-winter Iceland Gull in back, behind the old guy.

As we continued our scans of the flock, Dave would often pick out unusual gulls that didn't seem to fit into any neat category.  These hybrid gulls could pose a challenge, but it helped hone my ID skills, too.  Look at this character, iPhone-scoped through Dave's Swarovski:

That big guy in the front looks like a darkish first-winter Glaucous Gull, except his wingtips appear much darker than usual.  For comparison, there's a pure Glaucous Gull in the upper-left, the really white guy.  The strange gull in front could be a hybrid between a Glaucous Gull and a Herring Gull.  Look again here:

Both Glaucous Gulls are showing off their wingtips.  The one in front's wingtips look much too dark for a pure Glaucous Gull, so it's probably a hybrid.

Our intense search of Quidi Vidi Lake wasn't turning up the Yellow-legged Gull, so we continued to content ourselves with the diversity of gulls present.  We're used to seeing lots of Great Black-backed Gulls back home, but Lesser Black-backed Gulls are always a treat.  This adult was a great find:

The large dark-backed gull in front is a Great Black-backed Gull, with whom we're well

acquainted back home.  The smaller dark-backed gull behind and to the left with the yellow legs is a Lesser Black-backed Gull.  Doesn't it look like he's ice skating?

Another Lesser Black-backed Gull, this one in his second winter, came in closer to us.  He looks a bit messy, but he has years to pull himself together:

He's not quite the looker...yet.

But he can still show his stuff.

Now you're just showing off.

That's a second-winter Iceland Gull behind.

Elegant?

Almost done...

At peace.

After finishing our thorough scan, and having found no Yellow-legged Gulls to speak of, we decided to try out a new spot.  This time, we would check out the harbor.  I fell in love with the town of St. John's, and the gorgeous harbor, lined with colorful houses built right into the rocks, was one of reasons.  As always, click on the picture for a sharper image.

Around the boats flew flocks of gulls, but we quickly determined that the Yellow-legged Gull would not be found here, either.  Still, it was a fantastic stop, because among all the Iceland Gulls present were great numbers of Black-headed Gulls, a bird I had seen only once before.  These little guys were agile fliers, picking their food from the surface of the water.  Here are some first-winter Black-headed Gulls:

Surveying the scene...

Doesn't that look yummy?

And there's so much of it!  Where to begin?!

Very dapper

There were plenty of adult Black-headed Gulls, too:

There's four in a row.

More elegant by himself...

Get a load of the red bill and legs!

The Black Duck below didn't seem quite as satisfied with the menu options.

Nice look at the black underside of the primaries

Agile fliers...

There's an adult below with a first-year above.

We spied a lone Bonaparte's Gull, too, but with no sign of a Yellow-legged, we stopped for a quick lunch, and then it was back to Quidi Vidi Lake.  Dave Brown felt that our greatest chance of finding our target would surely be there.

After resuming our scan at Quidi Vidi, Peter, one of the trip participants, happened upon a pair of gulls that looked like typical Ring-billed Gulls, but weren't.  Thanks to Peter, I got my life look at a pair of Mew Gulls!  These Mew Gulls were European, also known as Common Gulls.  At first, they were just walking around, far away, at the back of the flock:

He's the bashful guy in the back...

Looking relaxed...

But they soon started flying around, and were a treat to watch.  Here's a series of photos:

There was one more surprise in store before the day was done.  Dave said to us, so casually, "Look at that gull over there."

Not the first-year Iceland Gull in front...the one behind.

The one who's stetching...

"That's a Thayer's Gull."  Maybe he didn't understand how elated I would be!  A life bird for me, the Thayer's Gull was a bird I had been searching for for several years.  Now, sitting on the water in front of me, was a second-winter Thayer's Gull.  Dave Brown had stashed some chicken hot dogs in his pockets, and before he had even opened the wrapper, the gulls came rushing in.  They obviously knew the drill.  Dave started breaking off small pieces and hurling them around, and all the gulls went crazy.  It was complete pandemonium!  Dave mentioned he preferred hot dogs to bread because he can aim the hot dog pieces at specific gulls.  As if on cue, the Thayer's Gull came in, and Dave tried his best to hit him with a piece of hot dog.  It's no easy feat getting a small chunk of hot dog to the gull you want, though...The other gulls might have something to say about it.  Here are some photos of the Thayer's Gull at Quidi Vidi Lake.  You might even see a small chunk of hot dog soaring through a couple of the images below...

"I see...I see...a hot dog!"

"Oh god, where did all these stupid Iceland Gulls come from?  Move aside, people...Thayer's Gull coming through!"

"You got it?  That was mine!"

"Hey!  Get back here with my hot dog!  Don't you leave with that thing!"

"Whatever.  I'm too good for this crowd, anyway."

"Could there be one under here somewhere?"

"Why must I always be surrounded by Iceland Gulls?"

"I am a Thayer's Gull!"

"Stop following me."

"There's another one!"

"I see it!  I see it!"

"The hot dog will be all mine!"

"Oh, no!  I dropped it!  Where is it?!"

"Aaaargh, get off me, you stupid Iceland Gull!  You're standing on my wing!"

"I hate Iceland Gulls."

"One more chance...That guy behind me doesn't see it..."

"You stay away.  Don't even think about it!"

"Here it comes!"

"There it goes."

"I'm not even going to try."

"I hope you choke on it."

"Uh oh, it looks like he is choking on it."

"Hmmm, this can't be good."

"I think I'll just...make my exit."

"Oh man, this one's coming right at me!"

"Not again!"

"You guys are so uncivilized."

"Sigh."

Thankfully, the Thayer's Gull did eventually catch a hot dog...and the crowd went wild.  The Thayer's Gull was so happy, he started flying around, and I took these flights shots:

By the end of the day, we were all ecstatic about the great variety of gulls we had seen...but cognizant that our biggest target still eluded us.  We returned to the hotel for a nice dinner and some shut-eye.  The next day, we would curtail our hunt for the Yellow-legged Gull temporarily, and instead travel down the coastline looking for new birds.  But that Yellow-legged Gull was still on everyone's mind.  Still, what other birds would the next day hold?