Canadian Maritime Provinces, 6/26 - 7/5 2018

All photos are © Marshall Faintich

Alice and I had been to Canada multiple times, but neither of us had ever been to the Canadian Maritime Provinces. We considered various options for going there, and finally decided to take a Tauck tour. Although the tour emphasis was on history, culture, and scenery, and not birding, I thought that I might see a few avian species there. For the six months prior to the trip, I researched various electronic and hardbound birding guides, and determined that there was the potential for me to see about 10 life birds (avian species seen by me for the first time), and I hoped to see at least 3 or 4 of them. All of the rest of the avian species were birds that I see here in Virginia. By the end of the trip, I had seen 54 avian species, but only 2 of them were life birds. I saw numerous avian species that I could not identify or photograph as we traveled on the tour bus. The following report details highlights of the trip. Many of the avian species were seen at multiple locations, and I have posted at the end of this report, a complete list of avian species seen on the trip.

For the two weeks prior to the trip, the long range weather forecast was for high temperatures in the upper 60s, and rain almost every day. I was hoping that the weather forecasters were as inaccurate there as they are here in Virginia. We arrived on June 25, a day before the actual tour started. It was pouring with rain when we reached Halifax.

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Tauck trip map

Halifax, Nova Scotia 6/26/18

The start of the tour was as 5 p.m. today with a tour and dinner at the nearby military Citadel, so we had the day to explore on our own. We awoke to bright and sunny skies. Our plan was to visit the Citadel during good daylight hours, the public gardens, and then spend the afternoon on the waterfront.

As soon as we exited the hotel a couple of blocks away from the Citadel, we heard a loud bang. There was a 21 gun (howitzer) salute being fired from the Citadel. We joked that it was to welcome our arrival, but it was really a welcome for the Governor-General of Canada.

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21 gun salute

As we walked the path around the outside of the Citadel, I saw a Herring Gull and a Savannah Sparrow.

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Savannah Sparrow

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Alice in front of one of the Rhododendron bushes.

It was a short walk from there to the public gardens. Many of the flowers in bloom had been in flower and gone in Virginia two months earlier. The Rhododendrons were amazing to see, as this plant species likes the cooler and wetter weather. We saw Mallards with very young ducklings. I don't know if this was a second brood, or if the first brood occurs later in this northern latitude.

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Mallards

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Red-eyed Vireo

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Song Sparrow

We saw lots of gulls along the waterfront, but all of them that I could identify were either Herring or Great Black-Backed Gulls.

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Herring Gulls

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Herring Gull

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Great Black-Backed Gull

Click here to continue on the next day of the tour

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