The grand prize of loons

There are five species of loon in the world. Newfoundland and Labrador has two of them living within our provincial borders. They are the common loon and red-throated loon. The common loon is the species known by most people of this province and across all of Canada. It is the loon you hear in the night at your cabin in the summer. It is the loon people see in our saltwater coves in the winter. The red-throated loon slips under the radar of most people. It nests in northern tundra ponds including northern Labrador. It is encountered mainly by birdwatchers who look for them during migration in coastal areas. Its red throat is a treat when visible during the summer.

Then there is the Pacific loon. While this bird is a common nesting bird in most of the Arctic regions of Canada, they typically fly to the Pacific Coast of North America to spend the winter. The occasional individual does end up in Atlantic Canada during migration. We have been lucky to have one wellworshipped Pacific loon that has spent each of the last four winters with the common loon flock feeding off St. Vincent’s Beach. The Eurasian version of the Pacific loon is the closely related and similar looking Arctic loon. You can see these during the winter in Europe.

Then there is the “Holy Grail” of loons. The yellowbilled loon is a bird of mystery and elegance. Yellow-billed loon extends its summer nesting range into the central Arctic region of Canada. But this is essentially an extension from its Russian core range. They all spend the winter in ice free zones off eastern Russia and northern Japan. It is within reach of mortal humans if you can get to a certain Arctic lodges and northern communities in the summer. The yellow-billed loon is but a fantasy species for most birders.

The plumage of the yellowbilled loon is patterned after the familiar common loon but the bill is a clean ivory white or yellow. It is an impressive 20% heavier than the common loon. It was not realistically expected to occur in Newfoundland and Labrador. There were however, two records of yellowbilled loon for the north eastern coast of the United States so extremist thought it was potentially possible in our waters.

Peter Shelton was at Trepassey looking through the exceptional concentration of 300 common loons that had been contained in the harbour for a week by pack ice across the mouth of the bay. Peter noted one of the loons had a big pale bill that seemed up-turned. He took a half-dozen photos of the bird. Two days later while looking over his photo from that day he came across the images of this particular loon again. His curiosity was again peaked by the big yellowish up turned beak. He forwarded a picture to Alvan Buckley, his go to person for bird identification challenges. Alarm bells sounded quietly in the back of Alvan’s head as he forwarded the picture to me. The bill of this loon was indeed cause for excitement. Ten minutes later Alvan and I were preparing for quick trip to Trepassey. With less than four hours of daylight remaining in the day we took a chance. We had to see why this bird was ticking off all the boxes for a genuine yellow-billed loon. With cautionary optimism we announced to the birding group that Peter had photographed a highly probable yellow-billed loon at Trepassey. Paul Linegar took the bait and ran for Trepassey as well.

With just 30 minutes of daylight remaining we finally located the bird among the ice pans and throngs of common loons. Through our telescopes we confirmed beyond belief that it was indeed a yellow-billed loon. We got some distant photos in the failing light, but looked forward to returning in the morning for better views and better photos.

The next day was Good Friday so everyone was there. A dozen birders drove down from St. John’s to see the yellowbilled loon. Overnight the pack ice had loosened up and begun to drift back out to sea opening the channel to Trepassey Bay. Only half the loons present the day before were still there at dawn. The prize loon was not one of those that remained. There were some long faces as we admitted defeat by noon. Where was this loon all winter? Will it come back next winter? We will never look at loons the same way after the unexpected visit of this magnificent creature to Trepassey Bay.

Spring arrivals

There is just space for listing the new spring arrivals. There are now lots of robins and fox sparrows. A rare great egret showed up on Stan Tobin’s property at Ship Cove, Placentia Bay. Greater yellowlegs, Wilson’s snipe, ring-necked ducks, osprey, northern harrier and merlin have all begun to arrive back in the province.

Peter Shelton was at Trepassey looking through the exceptional concentration of 300 common loons that had been contained in the harbour for a week by pack ice across the mouth of the bay. Peter noted one of the loons had a big pale bill that seemed up-turned.