We continued our chase of Snow Buntings in Forteau with pretty good success…in the morning anyway when it was overcast and there had been a light dusting of snow. But the skies cleared shortly before noon producing deep blue skies and brilliant sunshine that sparkled off the ice in the Strait of Belle Isle….and melted much of the snow that had fallen two days ago leaving bare patches which the birds find more alluring than cut corn-baited traps. Still, we banded 18 bringing our total to date up to 78. One bird though was surprising. We captured a solitary female – the first one of the trip. Usually males precede the females to the nesting grounds by 2-4 weeks in order to establish territories. Better territories are more likely to result in a male attracting a female. So getting this early female threw us off. Who knows what she was thinking!? So our male to female ratio now stands at 77:1. (At my banding site the female to male ratio is 3:1.)


Another significant bird was a “foreign retrap”; i.e., a bunting that was banded in some other area. This was the 2nd such recapture. Two days ago we caught a bird that had been banded by David Lamble in February of 2022 at his banding site north of Fergus Ontario. The one this morning is still a mystery as the bander has not yet submitted the data to the Banding Office which leads me to believe that it is one that has been banded this year. It isn’t one of mine, or Nancy Furber’s, or David Lamble’s, or Bruce Murphy/Joanne Goddard’s up in New Liskeard; so maybe one of the Quesbec banders….? I’ll let you know when I find out.

Southern Labrador sits next to the Strait of Belle Isle, the northern outlet of the St. Lawrence River. It’s a magical place where I’ve seen numerous seabirds and cetaceans….in the Summer. Right now though it’s clogged with pack ice. This makes for ideal conditions for seals that are having their pups. And polar bears that are eating the seals. I heard today that in a recent aerial survey of the ice-clogged strait 60 polar bears were spotted. I hope this is good news. On the other hand, I was told that there wasn’t the normal amount of ice out on the coast farther north so the bears were having to travel farther south to find food. Well, the food is certainly here – you just have to scan from an overview to see lots of seals – but the trip back to the Arctic will be energy intensive. Let’s hope the bears get enough to sustain that trip and the energy needs of the ensuing Summer.

All towns have dumps – it’s the way of the world it seems. It’s interesting how wildlife has adapted to take advantage of them. Here in Forteau it’s gulls, usually Great Black-backed, Glaucous, and Herring Gulls. But today Vernon and Sam turned up the first Lesser Black-backed Gull of the season in Labrador.

Rick

The main reason for our coming to southern Labrador was to start what we hope will be a long term banding/monitoring program of Snow Buntings. We don’t know much about this bird and need to find out so we can assess the impacts of climate change both on it and on the ecosystem it represents. Banding recoveries so far have shown that many buntings that spend the Winter in southern Ontario and Quebec migrate along the St. Lawrence River and to Labrador but very little is known about how they move through this province and where they’re going (although quite a few have been recovered in Greenland – one of “my” birds, in fact). But there has never been any banding in Labrador. We’re hoping to change that, first by doing the banding ourselves but then teaching interested birders here how to go about it.

When we arrived a couple of days ago there was lots of snow…but there were also lots of bare patches – evidently it hasn’t been a very severe Winter and locals feel the birds are coming early. When there’s bare patches it’s also difficult to attract Snow Buntings to cut corn baited traps. So until today we had only banded 4 birds. But last night we got a 10 centimeter drop of fresh snow which covered up all the bare spots. This brought the birds to the traps! We banded 52 today In Forteau.

There had been reports of “Snow birds” at Red Bay which is about a 45 minute drive to the East. Several people have been feeding for awhile and as many as 35 at a time have been reported. In the afternoon we headed down there to see for ourselves and to try to catch some of them. They hadn’t got the snow that we had so there was a great deal of exposed ground. But….there was a flock of close to 30 still in the area and had been coming to the feed area all day so we put out some traps and caught 4 more. Red Bay is a magical little community which hugs the coast surrounded by rolling rocky hills. The water in the bay held Black Guillemots, Thick-billed Murres, Glaucous and Great Black-backed Gulls.


There was a lot more action in Forteau besides buntings though. Vernon Buckle has a number of feeders on the go and these were being kept busy by Common Redpolls. We decided what the heck and put out a trap to see if we could get them too. We ended up banding 18. So a good day all round.


Rick

Time is an issue here in southern Labrador. We’re staying in Blanc-Sablon just inside the Quebec border but our “work” takes us into Labrador. At the above sign, when I’m heading East I lose one and a half hours; when I come back by this sign I gain one and a half hours – how time flies. So let’s say it’s 8:00 AM when I’m standing right in front of it. When I walk 5 meters ahead it’s suddenly 9:30 AM. Where did that time go!?


Our main task is to band Snow Buntings that are beginning to migrate through there on their way to the Canadian Arctic and Greenland. Our secondary task is to teach local interested “bird people” how to do it so that they can continue in the years to come. One of these people is Vernon Buckle whose family has lived in the area since the late 1790’s. Vernon is one of the pre-eminent birders in the province. We spent the morning and most of the afternoon with him at his house where he has established a couple of bait sites. There were not a lot of Snow Buntings about but we did manage to band 4 (all males). We also caught and banded 5 Common Redpolls. As well as the usual aluminum band, we are putting on a distinctive yellow plastic band to identify this as a bird that has been banded in southern Labrador. Hopefully these birds will be picked up in other communities as they continue their journey north.

In the late afternoon we made a sojourn to Red Bay which is about a 45 minute drive to the east. There has been a good bait site established there (it’s amazing how many regular citizens in Labrador are interested in Snow Buntings and put out feed for them). At this site we watched as a flock of 30 buntings whirled around the feed area. We decided we would come back tomorrow and try to catch and band some of them. While we were there, Mary (who has established the bait site) came running out of her house to report that there were 2 Polar Bears seen just about a kilometer away on the pack ice (see above picture). What a thrill to see them lolling about – one laid down to go to sleep using a block of ice as a pillow. In the open water closer to shore there were Black Guillemots (in basic plumage) and Thick-billed Murres.

Rick

Heads up, a polar bear was spotted in Blanc-Sablon yesterday so be aware of your surroundings everyone. -Sara…Labrador Wildlife Biologist
I started banding Snow Buntings in a serious way around 2010. Initially I though “my” birds just headed north in the Spring to the Canadian Arctic. So I was surprised to find that not only did they tend to migrate NE along the St. Lawrence but they then turned north to move along the Labrador coast and, thence, to Greenland! We think….at least that’s what the banding recoveries would suggest. One of the first recoveries of a bird I banded was by Eva Luther from St. Lewis, a little town at the SE corner of Labrador. Well….actually the whole bird wasn’t recovered, rather it was a leg with a band on it, predator unknown. Another of my birds was recovered (whole – a fellow was able to photograph the leg of a bird at his feeder enough times to ascertain the number) just outside of Nuuk Greenland. And then Cheryl Davis came up with the great idea of starting a Facebook page – Canadian Snow Bunting Project – for people in Labrador to announce birds in their area (and give them something constructive to do during the Covid years). Over time this has become a wonderful source of information on the movement of Snow Buntings through the province.

With this background information I developed a strong desire to head to Labrador to try to recapture banded birds from southern Canada, band new ones moving through, and, most importantly, teach local interested people how to band them so that the birds could be consistently monitored along the way in years to come. Well, the opportunity has finally come and I flew into Happy Valley-Goose Bay last night with a small team from the University of Windsor to start the project.

Along the south coast Vernon Buckle, in Forteau, a wonderful birder and photographer, is VERY keen to learn. He’s built 8 traps so far (in just a couple of days) and started putting down cut corn bait about a week ago. Almost right away he had Snow Buntings coming to the piles – tantalizingly, one of them was banded. Today we’re going to head down to Blanc-Sablon, just west of Forteau, and will spend the next week or so banding and teaching – WISH US LUCK!.

[I also contacted Eva to see if she was getting any buntings in her area yet. She replied that they hadn’t shown up yet but….they had seen plenty of polar bears; in fact 22 have been sighted so far this Winter. And as the above quote from Sara indicates, it’s possible to see them all along the south coast of Labrador. This will add a whole new dimension to bunting banding that we don’t get in southern Ontario!]
Rick