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A group of us (Alan Covert, Gisele D'Entremont, Sylvia Fullerton, Ken McKenna, Ian McLaren, Don MacNeill, Eric Mills, Bernice Moores & Judy O'Brien) spent most of this week on Brier Island. Monday (22 Oct.) featured an estimated 12,000 Great Shearwaters, 200 Sooty Shearwaters, and about 300 Kittiwakes between 0730 and 0930 off Northern Point. The birds of the day were a fine cooperative White-eyed Vireo and a Clay-colored Sparrow at Northern Point. Also of interest were Wood Duck, Blue-winged Teal, both Scaup, 2 Pied-billed Grebes, Peregrines, a Puffin, a Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Red-bellied Woodpecker, E. Phoebe, White- breasted Nuthatches, a migrant Cardinal, and an Evening Grosbeak. Tuesday (23 Oct.) was extremely windy and cold. Nonetheless, we saw all 3 Scoters, a nice selection of hawks, a late Spotted Sandpiper, a few Semipalmated Plovers, a Northern Shrike, a N. Mockingbird, a Nashville Warbler, Ipswich Sparrows, several White-crowned Sparrows, a Rusty Blackbird, a Pine Grosbeak, numbers of White-winged Crossbills, and scattered Pine Siskins in small groups, in addition to most of the species seen before. The bird of the day was Black-capped Chickadee - we estimated at least 300 seen and noted that they were everywhere on the island. Wednesday (24 Oct.) brought a massive arrival of land birds, including 75 Blue Jays, ca. 150 Chickadees (numbers down slightly), 6 Boreal Chickadees, 30 Golden-crowned Kinglets, 7 E. Bluebirds, 1000+ Robins in many flocks at Northern Point in the morning, 150 Yellow-rumped Warblers, 12 Palm Warblers, 30 Chipping Sparrows, 3 Nelson's Sparrows, 2 Fox Sparrows, 200+ Song Sparrows, 30 White-throats, 30 White-crowns, an estimated 700 Juncos, 12 Cardinals, 75 Grackles, at least 100 White-winged Crossbills, and 80 Pine Siskins. Others of interest included migrating D-cr. Cormorants, 44 Turkey Vultures, 30 Sharp-shinned Hawks, Sanderlings, a White-rumped Sandpiper, a Dunlin, a Woodcock, Hairy Woodpeckers, Hermit Thrushes,Blue-headed Vireos, Swamp Sparrows and Red- winged Blackbirds. It was a spectacular Brier Island birding day. Thursday (Oct. 25) brought another huge arrival of birds, in the morning at Northern Point notably Robins, Siskins, White-winged Crossbills, Grackles, and thousands of Juncos, which were spread over the island (later in the day I saw countless thousands more along Long Island, on Digby Neck, and along back roads into Annapolis County). Before dawn I saw 30 Hermit Thrushes along the Brier Island roads, and by noon I estimated that I had seen 50. There were also at least 100 Robins, many Song Sparrows and countless Juncos in my car's headlights. The Bluebird flock had grown to 9 by the time I left the island in early afternoon. Some birders remained on the island until Friday; they may have additional reports. Eric L. Mills 286 Kingsburg Road, RR#1, Rose Bay, NS B0J 2X) Canada e.mills@dal.ca
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