of a Red-tailed Hawk seen by only one member of the team. While the hawks abandoned us at this site, the seabirds and woodland birds made up for it. Gannets were abundant but a Dovekie, phalaropes, warblers, a Fox Sparrow, and two Blue Grey Gnatcatchers only ten feet from us made the day.

From East Point we wandered along Route 16 slowly adding a few species at a time to our list. First we found first a Merlin hunting a road by flying just above its surface and then flitting up to vegetation height. Then a Peregrine swooping off a cliff edge and hunting ahead of us. These sightings were down played by the failure to find the Sharp-tailed Grouse in the normal sighting area. Instead, new cottages were found nearby.

The path from Cable Head led via Red Head, through Head of Hillsborough to Pisquid Pond, and then to Mount Stewart via the Pisguid River Wildlife Management Area. At Tracadie Harbour, a Bald Eagle caused a large flock of Black Ducks and Canada Geese to lift off the bay beside Black Bush. We travelled onward toward Covehead Harbour hoping to see Caspian Terns, Common Terns, or kingfishers. A stop at Long Pond yielded an Island lifer for some members of the team with the golden forehead revealing the presence of a Eurasian Wigeon. Shortly thereafter, a Western Sandpiper at Covehead Harbour concluded the day's highlights.

As the sun settled and obscured our vision, we tried for short-eared Owls. However, we could not break the ninety species mark despite a valiant effort. By the day's end, we had created a new record for an October count of ninety species! The total list is provided below:

Common Loon

American Kestrel

Black-capped Chickadee

Red-throated Loon Ruffed Grouse Boreal Chickadee Pied-billed Grebe Semipalmated Plover White-breasted Nuthatch Northern Gannet Lesser Golden Plover Red-breasted Nuthatch Great Cormorant Black-bellied Plover American Robin Double-crested Cormorant Ruddy Tumstone Golden-crowned Kinglet Great Blue Heron Spotted Sandpiper Ruby-crowned Kinglet Canada Goose Willet Blue-grey Gnatcatcher Mallard Greater Yellowlegs Cedar Waxwing American Black Duck Lesser Yellowlegs European Starling Northern Pintail Pectoral Sandpiper Yellow-rumped Warbler Green-winged Teal Least Sandpiper Pine Warbler Blue-winged Teal Dunlin Palm Warbler

Eurasian Wigeon Semipalmated Sandpiper Common Yellowthroat American Wigeon Western Sandpiper House Sparrow Ring-necked Duck Sandeng Red-winged Blackbird Greater Scaup Phalarope spp. Rusty Blackbird Common Goldeneye Greater Black-back Gull Common Grackle Oldsquaw Herring Gull Purple Finch

Common Eider Ring—billed Gull Pine Siskin White-winged Scoter Bonaparte’s Gull American Goldfinch Surf Scoter Dovelrie Savannah Sparrow Black Scoter Rock Dove Northern Junco Common Merganser Great Horned Owl Chipping Sparrow Red-breasted Merganser Barred Owl Field Sparrow Red-Tailed Hawk Northern Saw-whet Owl White-throated Sparrow Bald Eagle Northern Flicker Fox Sparrow

Northern Harrier Blue Jay Lincoln’s Sparrow Peregrine Falcon Common Raven Swamp Sparrow

Merlin American Crow Song Sparrow

Thanks to the generosity of our many sponsors, just over S 960 was raised towards the Island Nature Trust’s

purchase of a 157 acres natural area on the Trout River in Coleman, P.E.I.

-4-