Last Sunday morning started out with shovelling the 20 or 25 cm of snow that fell overnight. Maybe it was 30 cm, it does not really matter anymore. Almost no one wanted to see this new snow. Unfortunately March has a reputation of being a month of big snow falls.
We are all tired of the shovelling.
As I slogged through the process of clearing the snow off the car deck and driveway I was being watched by my robin.
I have been feeding a robin a handful of blueberries by the front door every morning for two weeks. The bird hides in the depth of hedge at the front of the house for most of the day. It makes forays out into the open to retrieve a few berries from the bowl before scurrying back into the safety of the hedge.
It sat there plump in the shadows watching me each time I walked past pushing a scoop load of snow to dump off the end of the glacier growing out from the back of the car deck. Sometimes I catch it in the open by the berry dish.
It would freeze and look at me not knowing if it should act on its natural instinct and flee or if it was safe enough to stay put.
I tried to calm it down with a soft voice saying it is OK. I am alright. Soon I was talking to it as we made eye contact with each passing. I tell it about a common robin-like bird that I met on my recent trip to South America, it seemed to listen. We have a thing going on. Or do we? Am I just imagining this? Here I am talking to a robin.
Do I have March madness?
After the shovelling was complete it was time to unwind. I went to Quidi Vidi Lake with some food leftovers to feed to the gulls. The handouts were gobbled up in seconds. I scanned over the gulls and the duck flock. It was the same mix of species that is there every day.
There was nothing new at the lake today. There was nothing new anywhere around town. The endless winter has brought birding to a standstill. The birds as well as the birders of St. John’s are in endurance mode. Just holding on until spring breaks. Taking it one day at a time.
I was about to leave when a small blue car stopped and an unfamiliar man in his 20s with a spotting scope jumped out of the back door. The car sped off and he climbed over the snow bank and walked toward me.
We greeted each other warmly as birdwatchers do no matter where on earth they meet. It was Dave Baird from Nanaimo, B.C. He was a musician visiting Newfoundland on a work project. He had only this afternoon free for some birdwatching. It was his first time to famous Quidi Vidi Lake.
Yes, Quidi Vidi Lake was famous in his eyes as it is among birdwatching circles across Canada.
Dave said he had only been birdwatching five years and was a little rusty on the gulls. I pointed out a few lesser black-backed gulls to him. This is a European gull that visits eastern North America regularly in the winter.
An even rarer European gull named, of all things, the common gull was also present.
Quidi Vidi Lake is the best place in North America to see this gull. There are three of them around town this winter. There were two black-headed gulls on the shore running around among the tame ducks.
This was another bird west coasters do not get a chance to see. We take tufted ducks for granted, but the spunky little duck is rare anywhere else in North America. For reasons unclear several dozen of these Icelandic ducks pick the city as their place to spend the winter.
Dave was in his glee taking pictures left and right. It was uplifting to see someone excited by the birds we take for granted.
Quidi Vidi Lake turns into a hangout for St. John’s birders during the depth of the winter. They are bored silly with winter but there is nowhere else to go. Mostly they are chatting while waiting for some miracle like a gyrfalcon to appear.
But we are spoiled, too. We take for granted the concentration of birds at Quidi Vidi Lake that includes a number of species that are rare and exciting to birders from anywhere else in Newfoundland and the rest of Canada.
For the rest of March it will be see you down at the lake. However, there is good news on the horizon.
The arrival of the first spring ring-billed gulls is less than two weeks away. Hooray!
Bruce Mactavish is an environmental consultant and avid birdwatcher. He can be reached at [email protected]
