Pelagic birding on  1 
     
    
   
   
    
     BY BRIAN DALZELL 
     
    
   
   
    
     The weather always seems to play a major part in determining the 
     
     success of outings into the great outdoors, whether you are simply working 
     
     in the garden or planning a backyard barbecue. It also seems to deterior- 
     
     ate just when a long—planned event arrives. 
     
    

    
     Such was the case on September 27, the day I had chosen to travel to 
     
     the Magdalens in search of pelagic birds (pelagic means relating to, occur— 
     
     ing or living in the open sea). 
     
    

    
     Referred to simply as "pelagics" by birders in the know, these birds 
     
     of the open ocean are right at home on the briny deep and think nothing 
     
     of spending months at sea, seldom coming to land except to nest. A quick 
     
     look at the latest edition of the field check list of birds for P.E.I. 
     
     reveals that at least eight of these pelagics have occured in Island waters. 
     
    

    
     One, the Black-browed Albatross, is listed as hypothetical, so that 
     
     leaves only seven that could be said to occur here with any regularity. 
     
     These seven are Greater and Sooty Shearwater, Northern Fulmar, Leach's 
     
     and Wilson's Storm-Petrel, Northern Gannet and Black-legged Kittiwake. 
     
    

    
     They range in seasonal status from accidental for the fulmar to very com- 
     
     mon for the gannet. 
     
    

    
     Not surprisingly then (except for the gannet), if you want to see these 
     
     birds, a trip out to sea is usually the only way to go. With this in mind 
     
     I had planned my trip to the Magdalen Islands. The five-hour crossing would 
     
     be in P.E.I. waters for at least half the way, so I hoped to be able to 
     
     shed some more light on the occurrence of these wanderers of the open ocean 
     
     in this part of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. . 
     
    

    
     One very obvious fact that I somehow overlooked was that most of the 
     
     previous records for the Island were a result of storms. That is, the 
     
     birds were recorded close to shore during or after periods of prevailing 
     
     on-shore winds of storm force. It is rather difficult to plan a pelagic 
     
     trip around a storm though, unless you have a direct line to that someone 
     
     up above. But as I was soon to rediscover, luck still plays a bigger part 
     
     in birdwatching than anyamount of skill or planning. 
     
    

    
     The ferry to the Magdalens was not scheduled to leave until 2 p.m. that 
     
     day, so I decided to take my time and do a little birding along the north 
     
     shore enroute to Souris. Starting about 8 a.m., my first stop was at the 
     
     mouth of St. Peter's Bay near Greenwich, an area endowed with copious 
     
     amounts of sand dunes, scrub spruce and heather-like shrubs.. 
     
    

    
     I did notice the wind was blowing quite hard when I got there, but that 
     
     was just fine, as it made for good birding, there being quite a few small 
     
     birds feeding along the edge of the woods in the lee of the wind. In short 
     
     order I found a little group of yellow-rumped warblers, complete with a 
     
     small entourage of palm warblers, white-crowned sparrows and a single red- 
     
     start. 
     
    

    
     The sparrows were doubtless new arrivals from their breeding grounds 
     
     in Quebec and Labrador, but I couldn't help notice how similar the habitat 
     
     along the dunes was to that I had previously seen white—crowned sparrows 
     
     in during a trip to Labrador. 
     
    

    
     Perhaps they had nested there this summer, perhaps not. I did later 
     
     find out that fox sparrows (a bird which prefers similar habitat) have been 
     
     recorded during the breeding season on nearby Blooming Point, which is simi— 
     
     lar to the Greenwich Point area. It would certainly be worth checking out 
     
     next year for the Maritimes Breeding Bird Atlas. 
     
    

    
     However, I digress, so back to the story at hand. My next stop was at 
     
    
   
   
    
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