Quiet Cape Morning

Ronnie, Mike and I headed out to The Cape today (Apr-07, 2019) in pretty good weather, something of a change from recently. Not really expecting too much, and therefore not ending up at all disappointed. We had a good bash around, the highlight for me being a new Cape species, American Tree Sparrow. Really the highlight was the highest numbers of Harlequin any of us had seen there, 14.

We started off reasonably well with our first Ipswich Sparrow of the year on Steven’s Point. Although only a form of Savannah Sparrow, Ipswich is so distinctive as to throw many first-time viewers. Despite extensive colour-banding of birds in their summer home of Sable Island off east of Nova Scotia, I have yet to come along one around here.

There were a few Brant around, not very many though and nothing like the thousands of yesteryear. Where they have all gone is anyone’s guess, they don’t seem to be showing up anywhere else so perhaps they are no longer extant. Worrying really as a similar decline will effectively wipe them out in the east, literally.

It is always interesting to see how well the planting in The Forest has taken. Some of the spruce seem to be OK and quite a few of the willows seem to be doing well but we do seem to have lost a lot of the willows, perhaps there is a Muskrat filling its cheeks daily. This year we’ll continue to plant and I’m hoping that the East Cape Sable Island Important Bird Area will fund a few bigger trees which we’ll carry out and plant. The old spruces are really looking worse than ever and a decent storm could do for them.

Speaking of change, we’d landed on Steven’s Point as I said and that means you have to cross a guzzle (at low tide). I have mentioned before that there was a channel developing, well its developed now! Actually crossing the guzzle on any tide will soon be very problematic as the channels are deep and extensive. When they have the Cape Day they’ll have to rethink the access.

The Harlequin flock was a treat, I think six or seven is the best I’ve seen before. Five were males, the rest might have had the odd immature male hidden in there, hard to tell when they are all bobbing around like corks.

On Apr-06 I dropped by Daniel’s Head on the rising tide. It was a brief visit but the highlight was a returning American Oystercatcher. Since they first appeared on Cape Island in 1994 they have come back in varying numbers and occasionally raising young. You have to think that the original birds bit the dust years ago, or perhaps they are the same ones and they just keep giving it a go. Incidentally, Cape Island remains the best, nay only place to see American Oystercatcher in Canada.