First storm of the year

The snow started yesterday morning and continued through the day before turning to rain in early evening. The rain overnight took away most of yesterday's accumulation but switched back to snow again early this morning and has snowed steadily all day today. Winds last evening were pretty wild from the northeast with gusts approaching 100 kms/hr. I went out early this morning to check along the coast to see if any seabirds had got blown in overnight but the visibility was generally pretty poor and I saw nothing of note at Cap Bimet or at Point du Chene.

At the Caissie Cape wharf the snow let up for a while but there was nothing flying by except for a few Long-tailed Ducks and a couple of Common Eiders. There were still some pretty good waves breaking over the wharf (see above) and there were small numbers of Herring and Iceland Gulls sitting on the ice and slush in the basin formed by the wharf and breakwater (see below).

The Northern Mockingbird was at his usual post at the Acadie Optometry Clinic on Main Street this morning.

New Years Day Birds including SNOWY OWL and eider migration

I had only a short amount of time for birding today but ran into Richard Leger at the Point du Chene wharf who shared some bird news from this morning. He along with Julie Pellerin and Fred Leger spent the morning birding around Shediac and recorded 24 species inlcuding the Northern Mockingbird at the Acadie Optometry Clinic. They reported seeing two flocks of migrating Common Eiders - one numbering 400-500 flying southwest over Scoudouc and another in the order of 200 flying west past Cap Brule.

In late afternoon I checked along the shore at Cap Bimet and spotted an immature Snowy Owl on the ice close to shore in the cove just east of the new condominium development at the end of the Cap Bimet Road. It's very likely that this is one of the two Snowy Owls that have been on the ice off Point du Chene in recent days. At dusk I saw a flock of 12 Canada Geese heading west over Shediac.

Southbound migration continues! Hopefully in just a few short weeks we can look forward to the start of northbound migration!

Happy New Year to everyone!!