Newfoundland Birds

The storms that rage along the Atlantic seaboard in spring, summer and fall carry many migrants and vagrants north to the shores of the southeast Avalon where they make their final landfall. Some are attracted to lighthouses and terra firma. Tragically, the majority, especially passerines, are lost at sea and never recorded.

To a lesser extent lighthouses, in these seasons, also attract night migrants from central and western Canada. Lighthouses are of lesser importance in attracting European birds which are largely non-passerine vagrants.

Since the lighthouses have by far the greatest impact on attracting might time passerine migrants and vagrants, they have a major impact on seasonal migration and many of th eoutstanding the bird records found on the Checklist. There are four lighthouses in the area at:

• Bear Cove Point, Renews
• Cape Race
• Cape Pine
• Powles Head, Trepassey

The importance of each is discussed in relation to how the surrounding landscape and vegetation affects where the migrants end up after reaching landfall.

Bear Cove Point Lighthouse, Renews

At the small lighthouse at Bear Cove Point, north of Renews, exhausted birds immediately find boreal forest close at hand. Almost immediately they move south to nearby dense alders along Bear Cove Point Road. Further south they encounter mixed vegetation in the village of Renews, alder pockets on Cutler Road on the south side of Renews, and alders extending south along Route 10 through Bear Cove, the hamlet of Cappahayden to Freshwater Road on the edge of the barrens. The presence of extensive alder beds from the Lighthouse all the way to Freshwater Road provides the largest area of suitable habitat for migrants in the southeast Avalon.

Cape Race Lighthouse

Where a lighthouse is surrounded by barrens such as those at Cape Race, storm survivors and vagrants seek out the nearest available food and cover. At Cape Race it is patches of tuckamore about one km north of the Cape, and more importantly tuckamore along the Cape Race Road to the west at Thimble Cove and Cripple Cove and to a lesser extent just east of Long Beach. Tuckamore is low-lying dense spruce and fir which can survive in more sheltered spots on otherwise treeless barrens. Tuckamore offers limited feeding opportunities for most passerines adapted to feed on insects associated with deciduous vegetation.

With an incentive to find a more hospitable environment, one can speculate, given the sheer volume and variety of vagrant passerines occasionally found in profusion along Route 10 in Chance Cove Provincial Park, and especially further north in the Cappahayden-Bear Cove area, that some may have originally landed at Cape Race. A small number of vagrant records from the Drook and around Portugal Cove South suggests that at least some of the Cape Race birds continue further west along the Cape Race Road.

Cape Pine Lighthouse

Similar to Cape Race, the Cape Pine lighthouse is also surrounded by barrens. Storm and migrant survivors reaching landfall find treeless barrens for many kilometres in every direction. Almost certainly those who are most likely to survive and be recorded fly east along the coast to reach the nearest significant vegetation, the road-accessible boreal forest on the west side of Trepassey harbour, known as the eBird hotspot as “Trepassey-West Side”.

Here, in addition to dense spruce and fir forest, they find suitable food and cover in the welcoming alders along Route 10 between Doran’s Lane and Fish Plant Road, also on Doran’s Lane and Fish Plant Road. It is likely that some will continue north to the mixed vegetation along Route 10 north to Northwest Circle, Riverside Road and Daniel’s Point in northwest Trepassey. This area is known as the eBord Hot Spot: “Trepassey – Point Rd area”

Powle’s Head Lighthouse

At Powle’s Head, Trepassey, like at Bear Cove Point Road, birds find a band of alders along Powle’s Head Road from just north of the lighthouse for 3 or 4 kms to the old battery site near the Lower Coast, Trepassey. Perhaps seeking out more extensive vegetation some may well fly across the harbour to West Trepassey or continue north through the village of Trepassey to more extensive mixed vegetation, including alders, at Northwest Trepassey.

Discussion of the Relative Importance of Local Lighthouses

The two birding areas Renews: Bear Cove Road, Renews, Bear Cove and Cappahayden and Trepassey: Powle’s Head Road, Trepassey, Northwest Trepassey and West Trepassey are magnets for vagrants from different lighthouses. In the Renews area it is the Bear Cove Point lighthouse with likely some contribution of vagrants from Cape Race. In the Trepassey area it is the lighthouses at Cape Pine and Powle’s Head.

The historical record indicates that the Renews-Bear Cove-Cappahayden area is the best migrant trap in Newfoundland. The Trepassey area is arguably a close second. As the Checklist and seasonal analysis data clearly shows, from late summer into fall having two major migrant traps to explore is a luxury that few birders can pass up. As has been noted, it is a less certain where birds attracted to the Cape Race lighthouse ultimately end up. Without this knowledge it probably accurate to say, strictly based on the bird records from the Cape Race Road, that the Cape Race light ranks third in importance.

It must be emphasized that while the list of tropical-bound fall migrants shown in our Checklist is surprising, perhaps astounding for remote southeastern Newfoundland, observations vary from year to year. Indeed the vagrant list in any year is hugely dependent on two key factors:

1. the number and intensity of post tropical storms which pass by the Avalon peninsula;
2. the number of dedicated birders who look for them.

It would be remiss not point out that, because of its location, the St. John’s area is not as well situated for attracting migrants and vagrants as the southeast Avalon. On the other hand it is much more heavily birded. The St. John’s area fall vagrant record in the last few years includes at least two extreme rarities, a single Virginia’s Warbler (Quidi Vidi Lake area) and two Hermit Warblers in different years (Mobile and Cape Broyle).

It is probably accurate to say that with more attention given to birding the southeast Avalon during the prime migration season, the prospects for extreme rarities is better in the southeast Avalon than the north.