A pelican in Nova Scotia? Unusual birds blown into Cape Breton by Dorian

Some rare birds have found their way to the Maritimes after Dorian blew them off course.

Alexandra Mae Jones, CTVNews.ca writer

Published Tuesday, September 17, 2019 11:08PM EDT

After a storm as big as Dorian, residents in Cape Breton probably expected to find a few strange things that had been blown in by the winds. But a pelican?

A large brown bird has been spotted strutting around Glace Bay wharf this past week, far from its usual tropical waters. Experts say the bird was probably as surprised to find itself in Atlantic Canada as the residents of Cape Breton were to see it -- it's thought that the bird was blown off course.

The eye-catching bird has become a sensation in the area.

 “There’s been people coming here from as far as East Bay to take photos,” resident Dylan Yates told CTV News Atlantic. “It’s just not something you see every day.”

Jeannie Fraser snapped more than one photo of the bird, saying it was “pretty exciting to see, in spite of the fact that it shouldn’t have been here.”

If the pelican wasn’t actually aiming to set up camp in a Nova Scotia harbor, where was it aiming to go?

David McCorquodale, a biology professor at Cape Breton University and an avid bird watcher, said that the pelican was blown from the coast of the southern U.S., confirming that the storm was at fault for the bird’s massive displacement.

And the pelican wasn’t the only bird whose flight plan went through a drastic change due to storm winds.

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Rare bird drawing crowds to Brookfield marsh

Lynn Curwin (lynn.curwin@trurodaily.com) 

Published: May 08 at 2:52 p.m.

Updated: May 09 at 7:52 a.m.

Jessica Rock considers herself lucky to have seen the rare visitor at the Brookfield marsh.

She was walking along the Brookfield Wetland and Nature Trail when she saw the glossy ibis, which is drawing photographers and bird watchers from across Nova Scotia.

“I think it’s great to see him, but we need be mindful of the effects we can have on wildlife,” said Rock, a veterinarian who often works with wild birds. “The marsh is very close to busy roads and so if people are photographing birds they should be careful not to be in a position where they might flush them toward the road.”

She said people not familiar with birding might be able to get tips from experienced birders at the site.

One of the experienced bird watchers who visited the marsh to see the glossy ibis was Jason Dain, who lives in Upper Tantallon and is a member of the Nova Scotia Bird Society.

“When I saw it there was 150 feet of muck between the bird and people, so it chose how close it wanted to get,” he said. “It’s a beautiful bird and I hadn’t seen one in Nova Scotia before.

“When news about it spread people headed out to see it. Sometimes they’re one-day wonders.”

Dain often travels for work and has seen a glossy ibis in other places.

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Volunteers wanted for rare bird study on isolated N.S. islands

Applicants must be prepared for long hours, rustic accommodations, physical exertion and severe weather

Frances Willick · CBC News · Posted: Jul 03, 2018 12:00 PM AT | Last Updated: July 3

It could be a trip of a lifetime or your worst nightmare: being stuck on an isolated island for weeks at a time with no running water or electricity, rustic shared accommodations and potential exposure to extreme weather.

The volunteer application for a study on rare birds warns applicants of the position's challenges: "If you cannot take isolation, communal living, long hours, physical exertion, bugs, the heat, the cold, irregular supplies of fresh food, or primitive working conditions, this may not be the right job for you."

Researchers from Oxford University and Acadia University are travelling to Seal Island and Bon Portage Island to study why rare birds end up off the coast of mainland Nova Scotia and whether they make it back to their fall migration destinations.

Lucinda Zawadzki, a PhD student at Oxford, explains that since rare birds are by definition infrequent visitors, "nobody really has an understanding of why or how they get here."

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Nova Scotia centre caring for rare golden eagle found in middle of ocean

TRURO, N.S.

THE CANADIAN PRESS

PUBLISHED 17 HOURS AGOUPDATED MAY 7, 2018

A rare bird has ended up in the care of a Nova Scotia rehabilitation centre after being plucked from the Atlantic Ocean by fishermen.

The Cobequid Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre usually sees about 30 eagles a year, but last week they got an unexpected visitor — a golden eagle.

“It came to us because it was found by some lobster fishermen off the coast of Seal Island about three kilometres into the ocean, which is a very unusual location for a golden eagle to be,” said Murdo Messer, co-founder of the Hilden, N.S., centre.

“We figured maybe it went after a fish or got into the water going after some prey and wasn’t able to get back out.

“If the fishermen hadn’t scooped him up, he definitely wouldn’t have survived.”

According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the golden eagle is one of the largest birds in North America, and is usually found in the western U.S.

Messer said it’s unusual for a golden eagle to be found in this part of Canada.

Volunteers did a physical exam on the eagle when it arrived at the centre, but did not find any obvious injuries.

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Rare Eurasian Kestrel spotted near Halifax

By Julia WongVideo Journalist Global News

HALIFAX – Dozens of bird enthusiasts clamored to Eastern Passage, N.S. to catch a bird not normally seen on this side of the Atlantic Ocean.

The Eurasian Kestrel is normally found in Europe, but one bird has made its way across the Atlantic Ocean and has been spotted near Hartlen Point.

“It’s very exciting. I think it’s the second [one] that’s ever been sighted in Nova Scotia,” said Joshua Donham, a member of the Nova Scotia Bird Society.

The last time an Eurasian Kestrel was spotted in Nova Scotia was more than 25 years ago, according to Donham.

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Arthur blows rare bird into southern Nova Scotia

Walking along the side of a windswept sand dune at Mavillette Beach on Saturday morning, apparently dazed and confused, was a rare bird.

The dominant feature of this black and white visitor was a slender, two-tone red and black needle-sharp bill some 10 centimetres in length.

He didn't want to fly until someone came a little too close and forced him to lift off and circle around, only to land a few metres away.

Most agree the bird is a black skimmer, likely exhausted after being blown to Digby County from Florida or the Carolinas, where the birds would be breeding just about now.

The bottom of a black skimmer's beak is longer than the top, says the All About Birds website. The bird will skim low over the water with its beak open, hoping to trap small fish, according to the site, operated by Cornell University.

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Cat owners encouraged to keep pets indoors

One of Nova Scotia's leading environmental groups is encouraging cat owners to keep their pets indoors to keep more birds alive.

"When it comes to birds, we don't necessarily think about it but there's a large number of birds that are killed by cats every year," said Mark Butler, the bird conservation co-ordinator at the Ecology Action Centre.

"The estimate in Canada is about 100 million birds a year are killed by cats."

The Ecology Action Centre and the Hope for Wildlife Society have teamed up to create the Allied Cats program and spread the message.

"As a cat owner you don't want to think of your pet as the one that's causing any destruction because they're like family and you don't want that to be the case," said Veronica Sherwood, the owner of two male cats and part of the Allied Cats program.

"I was hearing more and more from friends of mine in the birding community that we were losing a lot of songbirds as a result of cat predation and feral cat colonies and cats being outside, taking the birds."

Continued:  http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/story/2012/11/14/ns-cats-birds-eac.html