Rolling with the capelin
Coastal Newfoundland would be a quiet place in the summer without capelin. The small fish comes to our shores by the millions to spawn. Such a great concentration of life brings in predators of all shapes and sizes.
From the lumbering humpback whale to the aerialist black-legged kittiwake to men with cast nets they come to feast on the little silversided fish.
In recent decades July has been the month for spawning capelin.
Some say the peak happens around a full moon when the tides are greatest but capelin do not always read the books.
Every year is a little different.
One year they may spawn in masses on a particular beach.
But in the following year they might put in a very light showing on the same beach but be going gangbusters on a beach three coves over where they have not rolled for years.
EARLY SPAWN
This season the capelin started spawning in late June — a little on the early side — but only at scattered locations around the coast.
We are hoping this was just the warm up for a bigger spawning session around the full moon on July 23.
During the first half of July at some locations on the Avalon Peninsula at least, congregations of capelin were hanging just off shore without coming in to spawn. Whale watchers were getting some half-decent shows at St. Vincent’s but it was not up to the standards that we have come to expect. There is still time for the really big show.
Birdwatchers are also a little disappointed with the seabird action so far.
The large numbers of shearwaters that come in from the open sea looking for the capelin have not really materialized to any degree.
Yes there were a few thousand off St. Shotts and The Drook on the Cape Race road for a while but they dispersed after a week or so.
There have been some capelin concentrations near the shoreline at places like Ferryland and Witless Bay where local seabirds like puffins and kittiwakes have been having a field day.
QUITE THE SHOW
Getting yourself to one of these concentrations can provide some entertaining hours.
Recently I was watching the birds going after capelin in shallow waters off Gallows Cove Road in Witless Bay.
The movement and sounds of the bird activity gave a sense of urgency. It was a feeding frenzy.
Squealing gulls were sitting in tight flocks on the water reaching for the capelin caught between the rocks and stuck in the kelp.
Swirling kittiwakes were flying face into the wind in a continuous stream over the capelin just off the beach.
One out of every five or 10 birds dropped into the water head first.
Maybe every third kittiwake actually came up with a capelin which it swallowed as soon as possible to avoid piracy from its neighbours.
Just beyond the kittiwakes were puffins brave enough to swim near shore.
They dove fast and frequently. Sometimes they surfaced, still swallowing down a large capelin.
Others came to the surface with a capelin clamped down in their bill and then flew off in the direction of the nesting colony on Gull Island presumably to feed recently hatched puffins in their burrows.
SHY MURRES
The murres were shier than the puffins. They were diving farther out.
Flocks of hundreds of murres rafted a couple hundred metres offshore.
Sometimes murres and puffins travel up to 100 kilometres from the colony looking for food.
These were the lucky birds finding a great source of food so close to the nesting colony.
It is not just seabirds that go for the capelin.
Our familiar loon of the inland ponds also ventures out to the coast to take advantage of the abundant food source.
It’s easy pickings for the loons used to chasing around elusive trout in the freshwater ponds.
You may notice a shortage of gulls begging for food around the fast food places in the St. John’s area and urban parts of Conception Bay.
This is because the gulls have also gone to the coast.
They actually prefer capelin to cheeseburgers and fries.
OTHER NEWS
Shorebirds are starting to migrate south.
No reason for alarm, summer is far from over! It is part of their annual routine. Some shorebirds like to get to their wintering grounds early so those finished with nesting duties in the far north leave early.
Flocks of Arctic nesting whimbrels have been showing up at traditional stopover locations.
A flock of 70 has built up on the wide open expanses of the old Argentia airstrip. Lesser yellowlegs, a couple of stilt sandpipers, short-billed dowitchers and semipalmated sandpipers have just started to migrate.
Some of them will be feasting on the capelin spawn that gets tossed too high up on the beach by the surf action.
Lots to look forward to in the rest of July.