Newfoundland

[Dr. John]

Just got back from a trip to Newfoundland. I would definitely recommend a visit to the island for many reasons, but certainly the birds are one. We enjoyed two boatrides out into Witless Bay, seeing many hundreds of puffins, common murres, black legged kittiwakes, greater black backed gulls, herring gulls, and a few razorbills and black guillemots. We also saw a few ruddy turnstones, firsts for us. We also went to Cape St. Mary's to see the northern gannet colony - mesmerizing to see these birds just a few feet away. Lots of other birds during the trip including bald eagles, ospreys, savannah sparrows, northern harriers, gray jays, and boreal chickadees. Plus seeing lots of whales and moose added to the fun.

-John

[mr.sharp-photo]

i second what he said!

lots to see on hikes on the East Coast trail.

[egret]

Newfoundland

is a fine place to visit!


Egret

[bernie2112]

Did you make any arrangements to visit the places you went to? That is did you hire a guide?

Cheers,

Bernie

[Dr. John]

We did not arrange any birdwatching guides or tours, although I believe there are people available to do this in Newfoundland. We did take a number of boat tours to see seabirds. We also took several guided hikes where the guide explained a little bit about everything - plants, birds, geology, etc. A number of the parks and ecological preserves have ranger-guided walks for example.

-John

[mr.sharp-photo]

Did you make any arrangements to visit the places you went to? That is did you hire a guide?

Cheers,

Bernie

i will start off by stating that my fiancee and i are not tour/guide people. so we may have a bias.

when we went to Costa Rica, we first tried doing some hikes without a guide. once we were in the rainforest and realized that we wouldn't be able to spot the birds on our own, we went for a guide. after a half day, we learned how to look for birds and what to look for. so we were fine on our own and, by day 3, we were pointing things out to the professional guides. guess we just have a knack.

we've been to Newfoundland twice and the only areas that we had a "guide" were:

-Cape St Mary's, where a ranger walked us out to see the gannets so we didn't walk too far and kill ourselves.
-Bay Bulls, where we went on a guided boat tour. Unless you can rent a boat and sale out into the ocean on your own or you want to find a private boat that you can pay to take you to where you want to go, a boat tour is your only option to see myhrs, puffins, etc.

otherwise, we saw an ok amount of birds doing self-guided hikes. saw a bald eagle on the Spout hike on the Irish Loop (a  bloody hard/long hike. took us 10 hours). otherwise, we didn't happen upon a lot of birds on our journeys. and i really don't think a guide would have increased our quantities.  now, we didn't head to Nfld to see birds (the nature is beautiful and was our primary reason to visit), but i would suggest that what you want to see can be seen on your own or on a boat tour.