Whale Neighbours – Harlequin Duck

Harlequin Duck
Histrionicus histrionicus

On April 22, 2008, Joyce Morrell of Campobello sent around a photo of a single drake at Head Harbour Light House. This reminded me of a very short story about one of the most beautiful of the Bay of Fundy marine birds.

I was once involved with an aquaculture application for White Head Island off Grand Manan in the mouth of the Bay of Fundy. There, slap dab in the middle of the proposed site was a small and very relaxed flock of these beautiful birds. Roosting on a nearby ledge, their daily flights tooks them directly across an embayment where the cages would be moored. Interestingly, the birds won because they were listed as endangered in both Canada and the United States. Times have certainly changed. Today, the truly endangered north Atlantic right whale doesn’t seemed to have stalled the steamroller of development from LNG, refineries, quarries, and other coastal developments.

Perhaps the little harlequin duck can do the trick? Located off Point Lepreau, the Wolves, White Head Island, Campobello, East Quoddy Head and elsewhere along the proposed route of LNG and aggregate ships entering Passamaquoddy Bay, they are certainly a species that must be considered.

The Harlequin Duck, Eastern population, is protected under the federal Species at Risk Act (SARA), the federal Migratory Birds Convention Act which is currently under assault by J.D. Irving in their defense against their violation of a great blue heron rookery. Under this Act, it is prohibited to kill, harm, or collect adults, young, and eggs. Harlequin Ducks are also protected in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland and Labrador under their respective Endangered Species Acts.

Get more information at: http://www.sararegistry.gc.ca/species/speciesDetails_e.cfm?sid=22

Photo credit: wikipedia.com

Whale Neighbours – The Fabulous Puffin

Everyone loves the Puffin. With its unique, colorful beak and contrasting body colors, it can only be called “cute”. In flight it resembles a stubby cigar with inadequate wings. Nevertheless, the Atlantic Puffin is a successful Bay of Fundy seabird that is best known as a resident of Machias Seal Island its principal nesting area.

Despite being claimed by the United States, Canada maintains its ownership with a presence on this disputed island including establishing rules that protect the puffins and other nesting seabird.

The United States has never recognized the construction and continuous occupation of a lighthouse since 1832 by the United Kingdom, and now Canada, to determine the island’s ownership, citing several cases worldwide (e.g., a case concerning the Red Sea). However, the United States has never maintained an ongoing presence on the island as Canada has and, until recent decades, many branches of the federal and state of Maine governments were inconsistent in their communications: they sometimes have referred to Machias Seal Island as being owned by Canada.

Machias Seal Island (Wikipedia)

In 1918, with Canadian agreement, a small detachment of Marines was placed on the island following the U.S. entry into the First World War, as a means to assist in protecting the territory and its key lighthouse guarding the entrance to the Bay of Fundy from German U-boat attack. These forces were withdrawn after several months, and no U.S. presence has been re-established since. Several private citizens in Maine have staked ownership claims of the island, and American tour boat operators from Jonesport and Cutler bringing tourists to view seabirds have maintained their sovereignty in light of some Canadian conservation measures in the seabird sanctuary, such as removing a wharf (slip), and limits to visitors during sensitive periods for birds. Several skirmishes have arisen over lobster fishing rights in recent decades.

The Atlantic Puffin (Fratercula arctica) is a seabird species in the auk family. It is a pelagic bird that feeds primarily by diving for fish, but also eats other sea creatures, such as squid and crustaceans. Its most obvious characteristic is its brightly colored beak during the breeding seasons. Also known as the Common Puffin, it is the only puffin species which is found in the Atlantic Ocean. The curious appearance of the bird, with its colorful huge bill and its striking piebald plumage, has given rise to nicknames such as “clown of the ocean” and “sea parrot”.

Quotes and photos are from Wikipedia. Painting is copyright, 2008 Art MacKay

Whale Neighbours – Black Guillemot

Black Guillemot

The unobtrusive little Black Guillemot (Cepphus grylle) is one of my favourite marine birds from the Bay of Fundy area. I first encountered them up close in 1960 when I was doing research on Outer Wood Island off Grand Manan Island, NB, where a good-sized population was nesting in the rocks along the shore.

We discovered that they were really easy to photograph because they can’t count. If one of us hid among the rocks, they knew and stayed away. If, however, two of us went into the rocky nesting area and one walked back out, then all was well and in they would fly, sitting on the rocks above my head they looked down in total confusion at the vision that has materilized among their nests.

Since they don’t occur in large flocks and appear at first glance to be a uniformly black colour, they are often overlooked by casual visitors. But they are there everywhere along rocky shore that face on open water and, seen up close, they are quite startling with their crimson feet and mouth lining and the bright white wing patch contrasting against the black body.

Guillemots are only about a foot long with a wingspan that approaches 2 feet. They overwinter in the Bay of Fundy when they take on a grey/white plumage. They feed on fish, crustaceans and other marine invertebrates as well as some plant materials.

If you visit the Bay, watch for them. They are, perhaps, not as spectacular as our eagles, terns, puffins, and gulls, but they have an elegance in their own right.

Photo Credit: Wikipedia.

Little Auk or Dovekie in Bay of Fundy?

NB Nature Digest posts suggests some Dovekie (Little Auk) have shown up in the Bay of Fundy. Only about 20 cm long this tiny little bird often confuses locals and visitors alike. Have anyone seen this fascinating little bird?

Here’s some info from Wikipedia:

The Little Auk, or Dovekie (Alle alle), is a small auk, the only member of the genus Alle. It breeds on islands in the high Arctic. There are two subspecies: A. a. alle breeds in Greenland, Iceland, Novaya Zemlya and Spitsbergen, and A. a. polaris on Franz Josef Land.

Their breeding habitat is coastal mountainsides, where they have huge colonies. They nest in crevices or beneath large rocks, usually laying just one egg. They move south in winter into northern areas of the north Atlantic. Late autumn storms may carry them south of their normal wintering areas.

Little Auk in winter plumage

This is the only Atlantic auk of its size, half the size of the Atlantic Puffin at 19-21 cm in length, with a 34-38 cm wingspan. Adult birds are black on the head, neck, back and wings with white underparts. The bill is very short and stubby. They have a small rounded black tail. The lower face and fore neck become white in winter.

The flight is direct, with fast whirring wing beats due to the short wings. These birds forage for food like other auks by swimming underwater. They mainly eat crustaceans especially copepods, but also other small invertebrates along with small fish. They collect in large swarms before leaving their breeding rocks to head out to sea for food as well as when they return.

Little Auks on Svalbard

Little Auks produce a variety of twitters and cackling calls at the breeding colonies, but are silent at sea.