Nature sightings around Brier Island

Northern Fulmar
Great Blue Heron
Great Blue Heron
Buff-breasted Sandpiper
Sanderling
Seal
Semi-palmated Sandpiper
outlet broke out at pond cove


Hello everyone
Went for a hike to pond cove and sighted the Buff-breasted Sandpiper Eric Mills had sighted earlier. Other birds in the area were: tree swallows, bank swallows,Semi-palmated Sandpipers, Semi-palmated Plovers, and Sanderlings.Lots of seals at pond cove and one thought i looked pretty interesting so he followed along with me close to shore bobbing his head up to look and see where i was. Then i drove to Northern Light and on my way i noticed a Great Blue Heron walking in a yard so i stopped and got a couple of pictures before i continued along to Northern Light. I also sighted a Great Blue Heron on the rocks there also. As i drove back down to go to the boat a kingfisher was sitting on the hydro lines. We went out today and about 4 miles off Western Light we sighted Sockeye and an unknown whale. We also sighted a minke whale on our way in with some harbor porpoises. Lots os seabirds such as Northern Gannets, Phalaropes, 1 Northern Fulmar,2 Wilson storm petrels, Sooty and Greater Shearwaters.

Storm Arrival

Hi Everyone
Last night we got a good soaking from the rain. The wind was gusting also making it a crazy night.This morning lots of people had their driveways washed out and the outlet at pond cove bursted wide open from the store. Eric Mills was in pond cove this morning and sighted a Buff breasted Sandpiper in amongst the semi-palmated sandpipers at pond cove beach. Also some barn, bank, cliff and tree swallows in the area. Noticed tree swallows coming in our island yesterday,so alot has arrived on the island.

Rainy Day but good whale watching!

Teather
Hopper
Photon
Calf of Photon







Hello everyone
This morning i went out whale watching with my husband in the rain but despite the weather we did manage to see a mother and calf humpback whale. We got really good looks and the calf was a little playful rolling around flipper slapping, and actually brought its fluke up to get its photo taken! The mother of the calf was photon. I have put up their flukeprints so you can see them together. We sighted two more whales down below us and they travelled or we drifted down towards them and they joined our group and we were lucky enough to see their flukes to ID them as well. They were Teather another female and Hopper (not sure of the sex of this whale). I am glad we went out this morning because it is really pouring in Brier Island now and the wind is getting stronger. Guess some of the tropical storm is passing by us. Hopefully we won't get to much of the storm and it will clear by tomorrow. I guess we will just wait and see, one thing you cannot do is change the weather especially Nova Scotia weather!

Beautiful day on the Bay of Fundy

Hello everyone. What a gorgeous day on the water. The water was like glass and there was birds and whales all over the place. Harold decided to go around the St. Mary's Bay side so we had good looks at Greenhead, a 120 ft. high rock formation. As we steamed on you could see the ledges of green island and gull rock where seals like to lay to when it is low tide. Also on the top of gull rock cormorants sit and spread their wings to dry. This is also a nesting spot for them. We sighted some harbor porpoises and low and behold some humpback whales. They were scattered and busy feeding so we decided to move along and go to the rip. We also sighted a bunch of gannets diving after some feed. Sooty and Greater shearwaters were everywhere. A minke whale was also in amongst the birds along with some harbor porpoises. We steamed on and came to more humpbacks some of them we sighted were badge, calanus, bungee, and teather. There was more spout off in the distance.
We even got to see two puffins today and one stayed around long enough for me to take his picture. Here is some pics of the day...

Whale Watching

Hi Everyone
Today i went out whale watching and this morning we sighted crystal, hopper and an unknown whale below batsons buoy.As we steamed further we sighted a whale named sockeye who has a serious underbite hence the name because he looks like a sockeye salmon.We were turning to go towards Sockeye and a basking shark went under our boat. We then started in towards Western Light and came across a feeding frenzy of diving gannets, shearwaters, harbor porpoises and tuna. Then we sighted a small juvenile skimming the surface. The next trip we steamed into the rip a ledge 5 miles western light and sighted flame, hopper, and vector traveling together. Flame was flipper slapping and putting on quite a show! Next we came across highlighter and cornucopia. Next we sighted one breaching and flipper slapping down below so we went to investigate and found out it was raindrop. By then it was time to come in. So we were quite sucessful on both trips and the weather was great!

Hurricane Bill

At 1:00 i grabbed my camera and headed down to pond cove where i could see some wave action at high tide and i wasn't disappointed. I took these pictures at point d'field and you could see where two waters meet along the ledges leading to the perfect conditions for this wave show. Also rollers were coming in around whipples point and making their way into pond cove. At the highest tide the outlet had lots of water rushing into big pond bringing along lots of kelp with it. While i was watching this happen a peregrine falcon flew by in search of a shorebird snack. There were Least Sandpipers, Semi-palmated Sanpitpers, Semi-palmated Plovers, 1 Baird Sandpiper, then the gulls scattered and we sighted a large Bald Eagle take a swoop through and kept going to the back of the pond. 2 Canada Geese were also in the area, along with 5 Double-crested Cormorants. Also sighted a short-billed dowitcher near the point. Many seals were bobbing in pond cove wondering what all the fuss was about!

Yellow-crowned Night Heron

Neil Green was kind enough to send me these photos taken yesterday at Northern Light. If you would like any of these images please contact me and i will put in a request to him. Beautiful photos Neil! Was worth the climb on the slippery rocks.

Shorebirds

I also had a chance to go to pond cove this morning and was the only one on the beach with only the shorebirds keeping me company. Some of the shorebirds included: White-rumped Sandpipers, Least Sandpipers, Semi-palmated Sandpipers, Semi-palmated Plovers, and two Nothern Harriers flying low overhead on the big pond side.Also two Canada Geese was in Big POnd. Here are some picture i took this morning, enjoy!

Yellow-crowned Night Heron

Hello Everyone
What a beautiful day! Calm before the storm. Went for a walk this morning to Northern Light and Neil stopped to see if i could ID a bird he didn't know. We went to where the bird was Northern Light next to the coast guard building on the beach was the bird in question. After getting some good pictures i went to the bird banding station to see if they could ID the bird in question (i didn't have a bird book on me at the time).Looking at the pictures and several bird books we decided it was a yellow-crowned Night Heron. Neil will be sending along some pictures so when i recieve them i will post.

Sightings on Brier Island

Dennis Garratt was visiting Brier Island on these dates and was kind enough to share his sightings with me for my blog.
Thanks Dennis

On Brier (15th)
Eastern Bluebirds, pair with definately 4 young but probably 5 on Second Street. The day after they had moved up to the cemetery.
While watching they flew up in alarm as an adult Peregrine passed swiftly through.
Juvenile N Harrier.


On Brier (16th)
N Harrier 5 (all fem/juveniles)
S S Hawk 1
Am Kestrel 1
(all circling above the island)


At sea (16th)
Great Shearwater 150+
Sooty Shearwater150+
Manx Shearwater 1
Red Phalarope 300+ sitting on the sea(so many hard to say)
R N Phalarope 10+
Wilsons Petrel 200+
Leaches Petrel 1
Fulmar 1
C Loon 4
We also had a large green dragonfly join us at five and a half miles out!
Fem humpback whale with calf (other humpbacks seen breaching)
Minke and harbour porpoises




On the way down Digby Neck just before East Ferry, Turkey Vultures 2 and a Golden Eagle (found by my 8 year old daughter Alex!) - these on the 15th.

Lacuna the humpback whale

Hi Everyone
Yesterday i went out whale watching in the afternoon. It was foggy and we had a hard time trying to lcate the whales but perserverance paid off. Whale watching in the fog takes alot of patience and we were rewarded big time. We found a whale called Lacuna just off the buoys. All whales have different personalities, Lacuna is the class clown! Close approaches rolling upside down and going underneath the boat, having a good look at us , flipper slapping what a fun trip! After Lacuna had enough of us he swam away in the fog and i am told joined up with 6 other humpacks down off the rip. We then went near western light and came across Photon with her calf. All in all we had a very memorable trip. The best one so far! Here is some pictures for you to enjoy of our trip.