The Codroy Valley – A waterfowl sanctuary
The Grand Codroy River valley at the southwest corner of Newfoundland is a bright spot on the birdwatchers map of Newfoundland. The rich forests hold a wide variety of birds with a little touch of Nova Scotia flavour that you do not get elsewhere on the island.
Every spring birders from across the island make a short holiday trip to the Codroy Valley to see some nice birds in full song. In the fall, after most of the colourful songbirds have migrated south, the Grand Codroy River becomes a haven for another group of birds. Waterfowl move in and make the valley their own. The extensive marshlands, shallow coves, strong intertidal movements and farm fields provide excellent feeding grounds for a wide variety of ducks and geese. And thanks to the work of the Nature Conservancy of Canada most of the land bordering the lower Grand Codroy River estuary is now protected from hunting.
Waterfowl have a refuge where they can spend a few weeks or just a couple days feeding safely building up strength and fat reserves before migrating on to wintering grounds farther south, mainly to coastal United States.
The waterfowl spectacle in the Codroy Valley is underrated by the Newfoundland birding community I think. This past weekend circumstances came together allowing me to spend two days birding in the Codroy Valley. I stayed in one of the cozy cabins available for rent on banks of the river. I was particularly interested in the geese. I was hoping to find one of the rare species of geese from Greenland that pass through eastern Canada in tiny numbers each fall.
The Canada geese feed in the river at low tide and move into the farm fields when the tide is high. Eel grass is well known to be a nutritious food for waterfowl and is especially sought after by geese. This aquatic vegetation grows in shallow protected saltwater areas with a muddy bottom. There are not too many places in the province where the conditions are this good for eel grass to grow.
Groups of a couple of hundred geese fed on the eel grass. In tight flocks they were tipping over reaching their long necks down into the water to nip off the eel grass. From a distance the underside of their rumps pointed skyward gleamed white as if they were snow geese.
Sometimes wigeon were swimming among the geese looking to steal scraps of eelgrass brought to the surface by the geese. At one location a flock of 350 greater scaup dove for their share of the eelgrass. The scaup were sleeping most of the time since reaching the food source was easy for them.
Wigeon, black duck, mallards and northern pintail fed voraciously at low tide in the large shallow marshy inlet behind the Wetlands Visitors Centre. Like the geese they tipped over reaching down to the bottom probably also for eel grass but maybe other aquatic vegetation.
Common mergansers were living up to their basic name and were very common throughout the estuary. But these are fish eaters. And it was plain to see they were catching numerous small fish in the shallows. Goldeneye eat aquatic invertebrate and were likewise present in good size flocks often mixed in with the mergansers. Five hooded merganser were also present. These fish eaters are on the rare side in the province with five being one of the largest flocks I have seen.
The geese were the principal waterfowl in the valley. Overall I counted 1,600 Canada geese. They were spread out at several key locations. I enjoyed them most when they were in the fields. Here you could get a good look at the birds as they grazed for vegetation left behind after the harvest. The geese were always on alert. These were wild birds from the breeding grounds in the interior of Newfoundland and the wilds of Labrador. There were always one or two geese on high alert as the majority had their heads down grubbing for green grass and roots.
One time an adult bald eagle flew over too close causing panic among 700 geese feeding in two adjacent fields. It was a spectacular sight and sound as the geese exploded into the air. Then when the danger passed they floated down from the air into the middle of the estuary to regroup. The eagle was probably testing out the geese looking for a lame or injured bird that it could catch. An alert healthy goose can out manoeuvre an eagle attack. Several eagles patrolled the estuary shorelines.
There were no rare species of geese among the Canada geese this time but it was a good experience to see all the geese and have a look through the flocks. It was a very enjoyable weekend of waterfowl watching. I hope to make it an annual November event.