Monday 04 September 2023. Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island
Well, that was unexpected!
There had been a Crested Caracara on Prince Edward Island for quite a while, and we’d even discussed the possibility of going to see it. It would be a Canada tick, after all, although we have seen many individuals of this species when on vacation further south. Still, Canada lists are precious, and Mark is only a couple of species off his 450, so the urge was there. What was stopping us?
Well, mainly it was that the bird had not been pinned down-not literally, that would be cruel – but not being reliably seen in a particular area. After all, if you are going that sort of distance, you want a fair go. Mainly this was due to there being only a limited number of birders on P.E.I.-after all, once you’ve seen the bird then there is little incentive to go back to search for it again (except, perhaps, for ‘month ticks’). Perhaps the new month was the reason why the bird suddenly started being reported again, and for 3 days in the same spot, a blueberry field at Mount Vernon. Three days of confirmed sightings, and some splendid photographs, galvanised Mark to book the ferry for the next morning. We were going to Prince Edward Island for the afternoon!
This was a province that we had never visited, so that would be interesting. There is a bridge that links the island with New Brunswick, but that would add a couple of hours driving to our itinerary (each way) and the bridgehead was a considerable distance up the island from where we needed to be. Conversely, the ferry from near Pictou would get us to within 5 minutes drive of the site of the bird, so that worked better. Sandwiches were made, an emergency overnight bag packed and alarms were set for 4 am. We would be leaving home at 4.30 am in order to catch the 10.15 am ferry.
The next morning (early!) was foggy-oh no, that wasn’t good. Still, we made coffee, fed the cat (and promised her faithfully that we’d be back later that night -well, that was our intention!) and set off. At least the roads were quiet, a combination of early morning and Labour Day saw to that.
As the sun got higher in the sky, the fog began to burn off, and it was fairly clear, if a bit dull, when we reached the ferry terminal at the evocatively-named Caribou, early for our trip. No problem, we headed off to a nearby provincial park, Caribou Munroe’s Island, for a leg stretch and a bit of birding.
We found a few nice fall warblers, enjoyed a view of Northumberland Strait and Pictou Island from the long beach of red sand and then returned to the ferry port to wait for embarkation.
You have to be at the port for 40 minutes before embarkation, so it provided a chance for breakfast, whilst waiting in the lines.
They were pretty efficient at emptying off the previous passengers and getting us loaded, there wasn’t much time lost between the boat arriving and leaving again. As it is a ro-ro ferry, with a 75 minute passage time, we were not allowed to stay in the car, so we made our painful way up to the main passenger deck (those stairs are steep, and we are no longer spring chickens!) and found a perch outside, at the front. It was, after all, a sea crossing and you never know! The boat headed off on time, and we settled in for a bit of sea-watching.
A couple of Caspian Terns had been reported from the ferry terminal on the night before, so of course we kept our eyes peeled for them, but no luck. In general, birds were pretty scarce, with Double-crested Cormorants and Northern Gannets being the most common species seen.
We sailed out past Caribou Island and the picturesque Caribou Island Light.
Oddly, a birding friend was actually on Caribou Island, looking for Caspian Terns, and saw us on the ferry as we went past! He guessed why we were going….
Although the birding in the Northumberland Strait was quiet-it doesn’t ever seen to be busy there, to be honest-the 75 minutes passed quite quickly. Feeding gannets were fun to see, and a lone lobster boat quite near the shipping lane gave us something to look at, too.
We were heading to Woods Islands, and we could see the Front Range Light on the shore. It was time to return to the car, via the precipitous stairway, and wait to be disgorged onto PEI. It was 11.30 am and we would need to be back at the ferry port to catch our return trip by 5.45 pm. Six hours, that should be plenty of time to find a largish bird sat in a blueberry field-shouldn’t it?
The site was literally five minutes down the road. Mark was rather surprised by the terrain, Crested Caracaras are typically birds of open country, scrub and low vegetation, but this area was well-wooded. Had we got it wrong? Well, no, cut into the woods were large, open, blueberry fields and this was the landscape that the bird had been favouring for the last few days. We presumed it had been catching crickets. We drove slowly down the road at Mount Vernon, looking in all of the open fields we could see. There was no caracara. Hmm.
We came across a couple of other birders, one from New Brunswick and one from Ontario, both hopeful of seeing the prize. Where did it go when it wasn’t in these fields? We decided to go for a wander, around the back roads, looking for a possible roosting spot or another feeding area, or even for a view of the rear of the same blueberry fields, in the hope that it was just lozzicking around somewhere at the back. Besides, this was a new province for us so every bird, even the most common, was ‘new’.
Prince Edward Island is the smallest and least populous of the Canadian Provinces, although, due to its diminutive size, it is actually the most densely-populated one. I have to say that it didn’t feel that way when we were driving the back roads. We had been told that is was ‘boring’ and, in truth, there wasn’t much to see in terms of spectacular scenery, just pleasant greenery and lots of wild flowers. I was struck by the numbers of butterflies, flapping lazily over the verges and hedgerows. There were lots of Cabbage Whites but I also saw a Monarch and some Painted Ladies. There seemed to be a lot more of them than we’d been seeing at home. We rather liked it.
In terms of the birding, over the course of the afternoon we drove a considerable distance around the area, searching for the caracara and seeing what else we could find, whilst regularly popping back to the ‘scene of the crime’ to check it out. No caracara, but a nice selection of warblers and other small birds, and some good quiet back roads to find them on.
It was getting later, and we still hadn’t seen the caracara. We spent the last hour or so back at the site, seeing American Kestrel, Olive-sided Flycatcher and a couple of Bald Eagles. We were joined by the birders we met previously and three other cars. I’m not sure if the number of vehicles lined up on the road had put the bird off but it never appeared. One of the locals said that it had been in the trees behind his home last night at 9.30 pm, so it really should have been around. Oh well, you win some…
We headed back to the ferry port, tired and a bit down-hearted but, as Mark said, it would be boring if we always managed to see the bird. Very philosophical. It can’t be denied that it was a big dip, though.
We were booked on the last ferry of the day, 6.30 pm, and were glad we’d reserved since the ferry was said to be full. Of course, had we thought about it, it was bound to be so with holidaymakers making their way home at the end of the long weekend. Strangely, the cafe at the terminal was closed, and the vending machine was broken, so it was not great for a car park full of hungry and thirsty voyagers. Still, we whiled away a few minutes looking at the marsh surrounding the port. Those in the ‘know’ nipped through the fence and headed for a little takeaway restaurant on the shore. I thought it odd that it was allowed-it didn’t seem very security-conscious, given that our boarding pass was never checked from the moment that we drove onto the harbour to leaving the port on the opposite side.
We saw the previous ferry, the ‘Confederation’, slip away as we arrived, and then our own hoved into view.
Once on board, and back up the killer stairs, we thought we’d see what the ship’s cafe had to offer. Very little, it seemed. I asked what the ‘soup of the day was’ and was told that it had been Beef and Barley-apparently this evening wasn’t ‘the day’. It all had the feeling of ‘the last turkey in the shop’ (turkey? you’ll be lucky!). Now we knew why so many people had slipped through the fence at the ferry port. Oh well, replete on bottled water, we headed outside to watch PEI slip into the distance.
Although it was only 6.30 pm, the light seemed to be fading fast, so we spent much of the trip back sitting comfortably in the lounge. We had a bit of a drive to look forwards to once we landed, so it made sense to rest up a bit. I nipped outside every so often to take a photo of the setting sun, over the water-well, it’s traditional!
It was 7,45 pm when we landed at Caribou, but it felt much later. However, the rest on the boat had given us our second wind and we decided to head straight home rather than find a hotel for the night. After all, we’d promised the cat! It actually wasn’t a bad trip and we made it back just after midnight, philosophical about the dip. Maybe the bird had decided it was time to move on? We shall just hope that it flaps its way south, to somewhere in Nova Scotia, in the next few weeks-it just might!
Postscript
The damn bird has been seen again, early next morning, in the same blueberry field-arrghh! if we’d stayed over we would ahve seen it. It seems that it frequents an area behind one of the houses, which can’t be seen from public areas, when it is not catching crickets in its favourite field, that is.
I don’t think we’ll be going back…but if we do we are definitely going to stay the night.
San on the Lam 