Weeks 28 and 29 Paul's Update (Nova Scotia)

As Damon mentioned, now that birding has slowed down in the heat of the summer, we are posting every other week updates. I could have posted one last week but it would have been fairly short, and besides that I was on vacation looking for new birds.

And I did find new birds because we went to Nova Scotia and kicked around the Southern Shore for a few days. As it is on the coast and has different habitats, this made it fairly easy to track down a new bird or two. Nova Scotia is also fairly "boreal" giving it some more northerly birds as well. It also helped that we went on a whale-watching boat ride, which was actually a bird-watching trip for me (more on this later).

So the first two new birds I saw on our rip were near/at the cottage that we rented on the Medway River estuary. On the trip in I saw a Spruce Grouse and then soon after arrival, I spotted a Northern Waterthrush; a great way to start our Nova Scotia trip! I also saw 6 new birds on the whale watching trip and two more during a beach walk.

214 Spruce Grouse 7/13/2013 Port Medway, NS
215 Northern Waterthrush 7/13/2013 Port Medway, NS
216 Black Guillemot 7/14/2013 Kejimkujik Seaside National Park, Port Mouton, NS
217 Common Eider 7/15/2013 East Ferry, NS
218 Atlantic Puffin 7/15/2013 Bay of Fundy, Brier Island, NS
219 Greater Shearwater 7/15/2013 Bay of Fundy, Brier Island, NS
220 Wilson's Storm-Petrel 7/15/2013 Bay of Fundy, Brier Island, NS
221 Northern Gannet 7/15/2013 Bay of Fundy, Brier Island, NS
222 Sooty Shearwater 7/15/2013 Bay of Fundy, Brier Island, NS
223 Piping Plover 7/19/2013 Cherry Hill Beach, NS
224 Nelson's Sparrow 7/19/2013 Cherry Hill Beach, NS