St John’s, NL - Day 1 - 01 Sep 2018

In preparation for a week in Newfoundland, Robin and I crossed the Abassador Bridge Friday night and stayed at the Hampton Inn in Windsor, just 10 minutes from the Windsor Airport. We’d be flying Air Canada to Toronto at 6 am, then continuing on to St John’s. We couldn’t have been happier when the good folks at the Hampton Inn gave us permission to leave our car at the hotel and take a taxi to the airport in the morning. We’d save a week’s worth of parking fees and get dropped off at the entrance to the terminal.

We landed in St John’s shortly after 1pm to clear skies and temps in the mid 60s. Gorgeous! Our rental car pickup was right next to the baggage claim, so we had keys right before our bags were first off the belt. Navigation was included with the car, so we don't have to use cellular roaming to find our way around. 15 minutes later we were parked in front of The Narrows Bed and Breakfast on Garrow St in downtown St John’s. What’s neat about this place is that its part of the Jellybean Houses that are all connected with each one painted a different color. These are old buildings, but lovely and comfortable. Except for the 3 flights of creaky stairs we had to climb to get to our room, with suitcases and camera equipment in tow.

We decided to celebrate our arrival with our customary Guinness, so we walked down the very steep Prescott St and headed down to the Duke of Duckworth Bar a few blocks over. With Newfoundland so close to Ireland the Guinness tasted that much better; it really has a richer, sweeter taste here than in the States.

With just a few hours left in the day we decided to take a 20 minute drive along Waters St and Blackhead Rd to Cape Spear Lighthouse, the easternmost geographic point in North America (excluding Greenland). I was hoping to get some seabirds, but would have to settle for Herring Gulls and Great Black-backed Gulls. My one and only Northern Gannet of the trip appeared far out over the water.

From the top of the cliff I only had distant scope views of the gulls, and could barely make them out, but I did see an Atlantic Puffin, finally. One bird flew past my field of view and I needed all 60X of the scope to verify it, but I got it. Robin would be upset that I saw one and she didn’t, but we both ended up seeing several more fly by just before departing.

Otherwise, I spent the time braving the winds and getting a few pics of the cape.

As I was walking back the car along the windswept trail, I heard very faint “tsiips”. I managed to pish into view a pair of Swamp Sparrows. They stayed in view just long enough to get a few digiscoped images.

Exhausted from a day of traveling we headed back up our 3 flights of stairs and called it an evening.

Tomorrow we take O’Brians Whale and Seabird Boat Tour. Can’t wait!

NL--Cape Spear, Avalon Peninsula-St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, CA
Sep 1, 2018 5:00 PM - 6:00 PM
Protocol: Traveling
1.0 mile(s)
Checklist Comments:     Late afternoon visit to the Lighthouse
5 species

Atlantic Puffin (Fratercula arctica)  4
Herring Gull (Larus argentatus)  6
Great Black-backed Gull (Larus marinus)  6
Northern Gannet (Morus bassanus)  1
Swamp Sparrow (Melospiza georgiana)  2

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S152392149

This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (https://ebird.org/home)