Quebec year list 2007

North Shore sortie

17-19 February 2007

Despite transport Canada’s dire road warnings, a very recent snow dump and the distance, we decided to visit Tadoussac on the north shore of the St-Lawrence hoping for Purple Sandpiper and a lot more.

Thanks to our company’s generosity we were able to enjoy an extended weekend so drove over Saturday and came back Monday, 1700km in all. As it happened the roads were OK but the wind on Monday was a killer so we had to abandon Tadoussac and flee south. In between we had a nice break in the excellent cabins at Domain des Dunes (just Google it) an ideal birders location and highly recommended, just take your own food, the cabins are well kitted out with everything you need, oh and take your own music, the TV is rubbish.

Back to the birding. We pushed on from Montreal to Malbaie without a stop, about 4.5 hours driving in a car that still stuttered despite lavishing $450CAN to try to solve the problem, we ignored it, the van coped. At Malbaie high water drew the wildfowl close in and we enjoyed good views of Barrow’s Goldeneye, outnumbering the Common Goldeneye 20:1. We also picked up Glaucous and Iceland Gull in the bay while dozens of Long-tailed Ducks scuttled about on the edge of the bay.

Moving on to St-Simeon we trespassed on the docks and quickly picked up several Black Guillemots but little else. The weather at this point was positively balmy, about –2, no wind, just perfect. Just prior to arrival at Tadoussac we birded Baie Ste-Catherine which always looks like more birds should use it. Common Goldeneye were now in the ascendancy, 300+ Red-breasted Mergansers made a good flock and around 150 Greater Scaup fed off the quay. Everywhere we went we saw Black Ducks, hundreds of them, a feature of the next two days.

Riding the free roll on-roll off ferry to Tadoussac I scanned every rock looking for the 50 Purple Sandpipers in the area, I sort of assumed that they would be all over the place, wrong!

After a comfortable night and a novel meal of beef fondue, a truly fiddly way of eating, we set out around Tadoussac. The weather had changed to snow with grey skies and more of a breeze. The bay below the observation platform at Tadoussac had lots of Iceland Gulls, Black Ducks and nothing much else Flocks of Common Redpolls were milling around, perhaps 300+ and we saw a few Evening and Pine Grosbeaks along with groups of White-winged Crossbill, no Reds though. I tried all the rocky bits around the bay, fighting the snow drifts and the increasing cold wind but zilch on the sandpiper front.

We decided to try for a recently seen King Eider at nearby (200km away) Baie Comeau. When we eventually reached it, enjoying hundreds of Pine Grosbeaks, a Grey Jay, a Black-backed Woodpecker, 30 or so Harlequins and a very surprising male Surf Scoter at Bergeronnes on the way, we dipped the King Eider, in fact we didn’t see a single Common Eider anywhere.

Monday was beautifully clear but as cold as anything I have known. The wind blasted off the cliffs from all directions and the car coughed and spluttered, it was –18 inside!!
We birded Baie St-Catherine again but the gales whipped up the snow and the birds were sensibly keeping low. We moved on to St-Simeon and did a ‘sea watch’ from the quay. The wind was less forceful there and we had great views of 50+ Black Guillemots and a fairly close Little Auk whirring past. A great surprise of the trip was the American Robins which fed all over the beaches at low tide, despite the plethora of Rowan berries everywhere.

We decided to press on home and see how the weather looked nearer Montreal. We then decided on a whim to look for Red Crossbill in the Parc Mauricie. Our route cut across open farm land and I suggested we might find a Snowy Owl, sure enough, at St-Prosper a male was squatting behind the ridge of a barn. I snapped him as he squinted at us then took a few as he flew off.

In Parc Mauricie we saw snow, nothing else! The bird news in this Province is rubbish for directions. Anywhere else the Purple Sandpiper stake out would be covered in detail, as would regular Red Crossbills coming for grit, here you get the chance to search 100 square miles, its very irritating and its my personal mission to post precise details every time I have anything interesting to report, who knows, in ten years time all birders here might do the same.

The photos: I’ve posted a few snaps as usual, if anyone wants higher definition images, let me know.
The year list is now 90 species with March on the way. I still have a few gaps I’d like to fill and plans on how to fill them, watch this space.