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**Ten Great NB Birds in the Year 2021
Once
again, the NB Bird Records Committee of the New Brunswick Museum has
compiled a list of 10 of the most unexpected birds that appeared in the
province during the past 12 months. We never run out of surprising avian
vagrants.
The
members of the NB Bird Records Committee are Roger LeBlanc (Chairman), Gilles
Belliveau, Richard Blacquiere, Roger Guitard, Paul Mansz (Secretary), and Jim
Wilson (past chairperson) who compiled the Ten
Great NB Birds in the Year 2021 as
he viewed it.
Photos
of the birds are attached below the write-up as named.
Redwing – The Redwing is a Eurasian thrush that breeds
as close to North America as southern Greenland and occasionally strays to
Eastern North America during winter. On January 2 a Redwing made a brief stop
at the property of Pauline and Paul McKinley in the Village of Alma and Pauline
was able to get several photos before it flew off. It was subsequently
identified as a Redwing. Strict Covid restrictions were in place at the time
and the bird was not seen again until it or another Redwing was photographed by
John Inman in his yard at Harvey Bank, 25 kilometers away, on January 21st.
This was only the second documented record of this Eurasian rarity for New
Brunswick. The first was at Paquetville in the early spring of 2003.
Garganey – Hay Island near Neguac on New Brunswick’s
east coast is a great spot to find interesting birds. On May 3rd
Peter and Deana Gadd spotted an unfamiliar duck swimming with Green-winged Teal
in the estuary there. They soon identified it as a male Garganey, another
Eurasian stray that appears very rarely in both eastern and western North
America. The bird remained in the area, often associating with the teal, until
at least June 3rd. This Garganey was the third to be documented here. The
others were also males, one at Red Head Marsh in Saint John during the first
half of May, 1979 and the other at Val-Comeau during the latter half of May,
1990.
Eurasian Tree Sparrow – The Eurasian Tree Sparrow has a huge range
across its native Europe and Asia. In 1870 a few birds were transported from
Germany and introduced to North America at St. Louis, Missouri. That handful of
sparrows eventually spread from Missouri to parts of Illinois and Iowa where a
limited wild population still remains. On May 15th Roger Burrows
spotted what he felt was a Eurasian Tree Sparrow at a bird feeder on White Head
Island in the Bay of Fundy and alerted other birders. The following day Rhonda
and Paul Langelaan found and photographed what was likely the same Eurasian
Tree Sparrow in the Village of North Head on neighbouring Grand Manan. Whether
this Eurasian Tree Sparrow reached New Brunswick from western Europe or came
eastward from the Missouri region will be debated by the NB Bird Records
Committee. Either way, it appears this is New Brunswick’s first record of yet
another unexpected foreign species.
Black-bellied Whistling-Duck – On the morning of June 11th Steve
Ouellette and Rachel Chiasson photographed a group of six Black-bellied
Whistling-Ducks in the Restigouche River at Atholville. Before long, the birds
moved to the nearby wastewater lagoon where they remained for the rest of the
day, associating with the many local waterfowl. Their appearance caused great
excitement among birders as it was the first documented occurrence of this
southern duck in the province. Many naturalists and photographers gathered at
the site later in the day but unfortunately for those who were unable to go
immediately, the ducks were gone the next morning and were not seen again.
Coincidently, a flock of six Black-bellied Whistling Ducks appeared briefly in
New Hampshire two days earlier and a similar group had been reported in
Connecticut shortly before that.
Sedge Wren – Botanist Sean Blaney of the Atlantic Canada
Conservation Data Center explores a lot of New Brunswick each year, visiting
New Brunswick’s sensitive natural areas and surveying the plant and animal life
within them. On June 11th he discovered a singing male Sedge Wren
along the Eel River at the border of York and Carleton counties. He was able to
document the encounter with detailed observations and photographs. The Sedge
Wren is rare east of Ontario and has never been proven to breed in New
Brunswick despite small colonies of the birds observed at different locations
in 1949, 1965 and 1973-74. The last known NB sighting prior to this year was a
singing male at Dieppe during the spring and summer of 1996.
Steller’s Sea-Eagle – The huge Steller’s Sea-Eagle is one of the
three largest raptors in the world. It enjoys almost mythical status among
world birders because of its striking physical features, its distant Siberian
range and its limited population size. Steller’s Sea-Eagles inhabit the remote
coastline of northeastern Russia during most of the year with a few migrating
to northern Japan during the dead of winter. Stray birds have wandered to
Alaska only 15 times and once to British Columbia and Texas in the past 100
years. It’s a bird no one would ever expect in New Brunswick!
Nonetheless,
on June 28th, Mi’kmaq fish warden Gerry Isaac photographed an adult
Steller’s Sea-Eagle near the mouth of the Restigouche River which forms the
boundary between New Brunswick and Quebec. Astounded birders quickly converged
on the area from both provinces and many diagnostic photographs were taken to
document what is surely the most unexpected bird appearance in our history. By
mid-July the eagle had moved to the eastern tip of the Gaspe Peninsula but late
that month it returned for a brief visit to the Restigouche estuary. In early
November the bird was spotted in the Annapolis Valley in Nova Scotia where it
remained for two days before vanishing once again. Birders were left wondering
where this magnificent raptor might next appear until the bird resurfaced in
southern Massachusetts in mid-December.
Eurasian Collared-Dove – The Eurasian Collared-Dove ranges widely
across Europe and Asia. It is slightly larger than our familiar Mourning Dove
and has a broad squared tail that makes it easily separable. The North American
population spread quickly after a small number escaped from captivity in the
Bahamas in 1974. Individuals soon reached Florida and have since been recorded
in most US states and several Canadian provinces although it is still rare in
the northeast, north of New Jersey. On August 14th Charlotte
LaPointe spotted a Eurasian Collared-Dove in their St. Leonard yard and husband
Roy documented it with several photos. Unfortunately the bird was present for
only 24 hours but represents the third record for New Brunswick. The first
appeared at Harvey Bank between mid-November, 2008 and April 23, 2009 and the
second was at Lameque on June 23, 2010 and later Miscou Island until July 31st.
Curlew Sandpiper – The Red Head Marsh in East Saint John has
become a stopover location for migrating shorebirds in recent years. On
September 7th Therese and Jim Carroll were viewing and photographing
the many sandpipers feeding there when Therese spotted one that appeared very
different. It turned out to be a Curlew Sandpiper, a European vagrant that was
last seen in New Brunswick by a group of British birders on Grand Manan in
1999. Jim was able to get good photos of this striking shorebird before it was
put to flight by a falcon and not seen again.
LeConte’s Sparrow – Ontario birder Maureen Mark was
photographing the many birds around Castalia Marsh, Grand Manan, on September
13th when she spotted a small striped sparrow in the Marram grass
that was unfamiliar. Her photos later proved the bird was a LeConte’s Sparrow,
a shy and inconspicuous species that prefers damp sedge areas and is normally
found in Canada from western Quebec to eastern British Columbia. The bird was
relocated the following day and seen by many birders. It remained there until
at least September 20th. This was only the fourth LeConte’s record
for New Brunswick; the others were at North Head on Grand Manan, Norton and
Riverview between 1995 and 2017.
Black-throated Gray Warbler – On November 25th Helen and Don
Arseneau noticed a small grey bird inspecting some uncut sunflower plants in
their Bathurst backyard garden. Helen took a few photographs and Don submitted
one to the Sightings page of the Telegraph-Journal. Their unknown small grey
bird turned out to be a Black-throated Gray Warbler. The Black-throated Gray
Warbler’s summer range is southwestern British Columbia in Canada and it
winters in Mexico and northern Central America. Ten days later Jean and Jim
Wilson were able to relocate the warbler as it foraged with chickadees a few
blocks from the Arseneau property and at least two other birders saw it over
the following 24 hours. This bird was
only the fifth documented record of Black-throated Gray for the province.
American Oystercatchers (breeding) - Although we set out to highlight ten of the
most unexpected bird records, we need to mention the first known nesting, in
modern times at least, of a pair of American Oystercatchers in New Brunswick.
This is a large, unique and showy shorebird that is still very rare anywhere in
Atlantic Canada. On July 10th Mark Morse, Holly Fraser and Mitch Doucet spotted
a pair of American Oystercatchers on Bill’s Islet, between Grand Manan and
White Head Island. The birds were observed by boat and from a distance to avoid
disturbance and this eventually revealed that the oystercatchers were nesting.
One chick was hatched and nearly made it to fledging before it was captured and
eaten by an unknown raptor on August 28th. This species is expanding its range
northward and a few now nest as close as southern Nova Scotia and southern
Maine. It’s interesting that Audubon wrote that this species was breeding in
the Bay of Fundy when he visited White Head Island in 1833.
Birds
of New Brunswick: An Annotated List details
more than 400 bird species reliably identified to the end of 2003. Each account covers distribution, preferred habitats,
migration, and population fluctuations. It’s available online, to be
viewed at:
http://www.naturenb/nbbrc
(English) and at http://www.naturenb.ca/cmonb/
(French), including an Addendum that provides additional information about new
additions to the provincial bird list.
ACCOMPANYING PHOTOGRAPH CAPTIONS
Garganey – This male Garganey was only the third ever
recorded in New Brunswick. Photo – Peter Gadd
Black-bellied Whistling-Duck – These distinctive ducks from the southern US
or Mexico made it to New Brunswick for the first time this spring. Photo –
Andrew Olive
Steller’s Sea-Eagle – No one can overlook a bird like this
majestic Steller’s Sea-Eagle. It’s nothing short of spectacular. Photo – Andrew
Olive
Eurasian Collared-Dove – The Eurasian Collared-Dove is rapidly
expanding its range across North America with the northeast being the one
region with very few. Photo – Roy LaPointe
Curlew Sandpiper – The striking Curlew Sandpiper is a European
stray that really stands out in a crowd when in chestnut breeding plumage.
Photo – Jim Carroll
Black-throated Gray Warbler – This little Black-throated Gray Warbler
traveled a long way from its range west of the Rockies to reach a Bathurst
backyard this fall. Photo – Jim Wilson
Nelson Poirier
Nature Moncton
