WORLD OF BIRDS Reproduced from the May 2018 issue (311: 45-48) North-east passage A voyage through Canada’s icy waters from Nova Scotia to Frobisher Bay delivered seabirds galore and a host of marine mammals, among many other wildlife highlights. Rod Standing reports on the experience of a lifetime. olar Bear, 3 o’clock, 1 We started our journey some kilometre!” I train the 1,200 miles to the south, in “Pscope across the pressure Louisbourg, Nova Scotia, ridges of the ice pack and the huge by getting better acquainted butter-yellow bear stands out clearly with some North American against the sparkling white snow. It species previously known to me only as lifts its head to sni the chill air and vagrants. At the historic fortress on a then continues its quest for seals. A grassy promontory south of the town, Brünnich’s Guillemot stands like a American Cli Swallows hawk around miniature penguin on a nearby fl oe the buildings, the adults brightly and an immaculate adult Iceland coloured red, brown and cream, in Gull slides past. contrast with the drab juvenile I saw in We are on the deck of the Akademik Su olk in 2016. A Greater Yellowlegs, Sergei Vavalov, a polar research alerting me with its tew-tew-tew call – ship chartered by One Ocean very similar to Greenshank – circles a Expeditions, under brilliant blue small pool looking for a landing place. skies in Frobisher Bay, a huge sea Family parties of Green-winged Teal inlet in Ba n Island, north-east swim about like town park Mallards. Canada. Over the last 10 days we A small fl ock of ‘peeps’ fl ushed from have travelled north from the relative the seaweed-line on the beach are warmth of the Maritimes, witnessing probably Least Sandpipers, but the extraordinary transition from without leg colour or photos I boreal forests to arctic tundra. ‘let them go’. The seas around Newfoundland and Labrador provided wonderful views of Humpback Whale (main photo), while further north, the ‘blue’ variant of Northern Fulmar (inset) was numerous. ❯ PHOTOS: ROD STANDING PHOTOS: ROD www.birdguides.com/birdwatch Birdwatch•May 2018 45 1805 p045_048 north east passage FIN.indd 45 12/04/2018 16:23 WORLD OF BIRDS A magnificent Bald Eagle – with huge golden beak, ❝white head and black body – sits by the road to the fortress, looking out to sea❞ A trip to northern Canada isn’t just about seabirds and cetaceans. Newfoundland is also good for a variety of North American passerines such as Common Yellowthroat (above left) and Blackpoll Warbler (above right). Below: this Moose was among pines at L’Anse-aux-Meadows, Newfoundland. Zodiacs allowed a landing at Charles Francis Hall Bay on the west coast of Frobisher Bay. Many of the birds are breathtakingly grassland. In Gros Morne National dashing food pass with his mate as she Distant icebergs and mountains are fjords lined by majestic peaks composed explorer Sir Thomas Button. The water new. A magnificent Bald Eagle – with Park, Newfoundland, we encounter sits on the nest, while a Short-eared Owl distorted into weird reflections of of some of the oldest rocks on earth. thermometer registers 0.6 degrees and huge golden beak, white head and black White-throated and Song Sparrows hunts around the houses of the township themselves by the ‘Fata Morgana’ A female Black Bear, disturbed from a chill mist blankets the islands. Large body – sits by the road to the fortress, (rather like a large Savannah but as though we are on a Scottish island. mirage effect. We encounter our first eating berries, runs up the scree as we numbers of Northern Fulmars swirl looking out to sea. At the other end of without the yellow tinge above the eye) Back onboard ship we are treated true Arctic birds moving south. Flocks pass, with her two cubs scampering around us and about a quarter of them the size scale, a Yellow Warbler sings and have great views of a Lincoln’s, to a Humpback Whale repeatedly of summer-plumaged Grey and Red- behind. A young Caribou, with antlers are of the ‘blue’ variant, in different from the top of a bush, tropical looking with its broad grey supercilia. Further breaching, tail-waving and flipper- necked Phalaropes wheel about the still encased in velvet, grazes along the shades of grey. Our first Iceland Gulls ALL PHOTOS: ROD STANDING ALL PHOTOS: ROD with its yellow underparts striped red. up the coast at L’Anse aux Meadows, at splashing for more than 20 minutes. ship and settle on the water, the red tideline. and Red-throated Divers appear. An American Goldfinch puts even the northern tip of Newfoundland, we These seas are among the richest in bellies and white underwings of the We take to the zodiacs and approach Three distant eiders fly past the bow, our European version to shame in the find singing American Tree Sparrows, the world for whales and other wildlife Grey Phalaropes flashing in the sun as a shingle bar on which Semipalmated too far to identify with binoculars. I fire plumage stakes: lemon yellow all over a rufous-backed Fox Sparrow and our due to the Labrador Current, which they twist and turn. Pomarine Skuas, Plovers run and call to their chicks. A off some frames with the camera and with deep black highlights. As we drive first White-crowned Sparrows. sweeps down the coast of Labrador from Great Northern Divers and Glaucous small dark duck swimming distantly later it is clear from the blurry enlarged away a tough-looking Cooper’s Hawk L’Anse aux Meadows, where the Greenland and Baffin Island, meeting Gulls appear and flocks of White- among some large rocks is interesting. photos that they are King Eiders, the observes us indifferently from its perch earliest-known Europeans to live in the warmer waters off the Maritime winged Scoter hurry past. Brünnich’s There are submerged boulders in two adult males resplendent in their on a roadside wire. North America landed 1,000 years ago, provinces. This creates a cold micro- Guillemots progressively replace their the way but with care we find a path blue-and-pink finery. Photography gives us our first taste of tundra. Among climate – Newfoundland is at the same Common cousins as we move north and through them and approach the duck. It really does add a new dimension to Sparrow surfeit the Arctic Cotton and the stunted pines, latitude as France, but the climate is a Little Auk splashes along the water’s hops up onto a rock and flaps its wings modern birding. The profusion of Nearctic sparrow we find Blackpoll Warblers singing their much colder. Our visit is in July, but in surface under the bows. as it preens while we sit just a few metres These low barren islands sit at the species is bewildering. Savannah thin si-si-si-si-si song, resembling Great winter the north coast of Newfoundland The coast of Labrador is very lightly away – a Harlequin! pinch-point where the Hudson Strait Sparrows, like Corn Buntings with Tits with their white cheeks framed by has huge flocks of wintering Little Auks populated, but the Torngat Mountains meets the Labrador Sea. The tidal yellow-tinged supercilia, are everywhere black. An almost unbelievably large attended by numerous Gyr Falcons, at the top end are a true wilderness Chill factor currents, funnelled by the immense in the southern part of our voyage. In young male Moose stands among and even Ivory Gulls are seen in good – no roads, settlements or even signs; The temperature drops further as we land masses to the north and south, Louisburg, we also see Swamp Sparrow the taller pines, inspecting us from a numbers. they contain the highest mountains in leave continental North America behind are incredible. In our zodiacs, we are and hear the weird hissing song of distance. In the nearby valley bottom, We continue north with the Labrador Canada east of the Rockies. We cruise and enter the Button Islands, named propelled along the rocky coastline at Nelson’s Sparrow coming from the wet a male Northern Harrier performs a coastline low on the western horizon. 42 miles into the range along deep after the early 17th century Welsh 7 knots by the current alone, dodging ❯ 46 Birdwatch•May 2018 www.birdguides.com/birdwatch www.birdguides.com/birdwatch Birdwatch•May 2018 47 1805 p045_048 north east passage FIN.indd 46 12/04/2018 16:28 1805 p045_048 north east passage FIN.indd 47 12/04/2018 16:24 WORLD OF BIRDS A male summer-plumaged Lapland Bunting singing on White-winged Scoter take to the air at Battle Harbour, Newfoundland. the outskirts of Iqaluit, Nunavut, looks very different Journeys such as this provide great opportunities to study species from the winter birds seen in Britain. known only as vagrants in Britain. standing waves one minute and the next Rough-legged Hawk some of them blown by storms across sliding over eerily smooth upwellings is the most northerly the ocean to our islands. Silence will of North America’s from submerged ridges. buzzards. return to the empty wastes, except for the sound of the wind. Polar position Even in summer the birdlife here Huge herds of Harp Seals fi sh the is thinly spread and the snow and ice churning waters and allow surprisingly are never far away. On our fi nal day, ALL PHOTOS: ROD STANDING ALL PHOTOS: ROD close approach as they swim a gale picks up from the south and splashily on their backs and turn crowds the bay in front of us with pack to look at us, their black faces ice.