Adopt-a-Beach

Alcids, also known as Auks, although closely resembling penguins are not related and are believed to be an example of convergent evolution. Alcids are well known for being excellent underwater swimmers – sacrificing grace in the air and on land for this ability. Alcids are pelagic birds, spending most of their adult life at sea, going ashore only for breeding. They are monogamous (only one partner for life) and philopatric (returning to the same nesting site year after year).

Atlantic Puffin

Typically standing no more than 28-30 cm tall, the Atlantic Puffin is known for their distinctively bright orange-coloured bill and feet.

Puffins are excellent swimmers, able to dive up to 60m below the surface to look for food. They are not, however, good flyers. They need to flap their wings up to 400 times per minute in order to remain airborne.

They spend the majority of their lives at sea, however in the spring puffins gather in colonies on the coast of the North Atlantic Ocean to breed. The Witless Bay Ecological Reserve, located off the coast of Witless Bay, Newfoundland is the largest puffin colony in North America and the second largest colony in the world. There is also a smaller colony located off the coast of Elliston, Newfoundland.

Murres

Commonly referred to as a “Turr” in Newfoundland, the Murre is larger than the small Atlantic Puffin – ranging in height from 38-46 cm. In North America there are two species of Murres: the Common Murre (or Thin-Billed Murre) and the Thick-Billed Murre.

The Murre has the most densely packed nesting colonies of any bird species. Nesting spots can be so close together that incubating adults may be touching other adults on both sides. They make no physical nest, and instead incubate their single egg on a bare rock ledge on a cliff face.

Common Murres have a thin, dark, and pointed bill, which sets them apart from the Thick-Billed Murres, whose bills are short and thick with a white gape stripe.

Some individuals, known as the Bridled Type, have a white ring around their eyes that extends back as a white line. This is a polymorphism – a different form but not a different species.

Razorbills

The Razorbill Auk (or lesser Auk) is the closest living relative of the extinct Great Auk. Their thick blunt bill is very distinct, as well as the white line that extends from their eye to the end of the bill.

The parents spend equal amounts of time incubating their eggs, and once the chick has hatched, they take turns foraging for their young. Like the Murres, Razorbills nest along coastal cliffs in enclosed or slightly exposed crevices.

Black Guillemot

Black Guillemots can be seen in and around its breeding habitat of rocky shores, cliffs and islands in single or smalls groups of pairs. They have mostly black feathers, but in the summer they have large white patches on the tops of their wings. Their bills are black while their feet are coral-red. In the early fall, adults lose their summer plumage – their upper plumage becomes flecked with light grey and white, their head is pale grey, their bellies  are white, and  their legs and feet a pale red.

Dovekie

The Dovekie (also known as Little Auk) breeds on islands in the high Arctic, and come south in the winter months. They small, only about half the size of the Atlantic Puffin.  These birds forage for food like other auks by swimming underwater – they tend to prefer eating crustaceans, especially copepods, but will also eat invertebrates and fish.

Adult birds are black on the head, neck, back and wings, with white underparts. Their bill is very short and stubby and they have a small rounded black tail.

Black-legged Kittiwake

The black-legged kittiwake is a small, cliff-nesting gull. They breed along northern coasts and winter out at sea. It is named for its nasal “ki-ti-waak” calls.

It has a white head and body, grey back, grey wings tipped solid black, black legs and a yellow bill. It is one of the smallest gulls you will find along the coast of Newfoundland.

Kittiwakes do not typically forage at landfills, they are fish-feeders and are more pelagic than other gull species outside breeding seasons.

Herring Gull

The gerring gull is a large gull that occurs in a variety of habitats including coasts, lakes, rivers and garbage dumps. They have a broad diet which includes invertebrates, fish, and many other items. They usually nest near water, laying around three eggs in a scrape on the ground.

They are heavily built, large gulls with long powerful bills, full chests and a sloping forehead. Adults are typically all white with a pale gray back and upper wings. Their black wingtips have white spots known as “mirrors”, the rear edge of their wing is white, and the under-wing is gray with dark tips to the outer primary feathers. Their legs and feet are normally pink but can have a bluish tinge, or occasionally be yellow. Their bill is yellow with a red spot on the lower mandible. The eye is bright, pale to medium yellow, with a bare yellow or orange ring around it. In winter, the head and neck are streaked with brown.

Great Black-Backed Gull

The great black-backed gull is the largest in the gull family, with a wingspan of 1.5-1.7m. The adult great black-backed gull has a white head, neck and underparts, dark grey to black wings and back, pink legs and yellow bill.

Like most gulls, great black-backed gulls are opportunistic feeders, apex predators, and are very curious. They will investigate any small moving organism they come across, and will readily eat almost anything that they can swallow. They are highly predatory and frequently hunt and kill any prey smaller than themselves, behaving more like a raptor than a typical gull. However, unlike a raptor they do not have razor-sharp talons and curved, tearing beak, they instead rely on their aggression, physical strength and endurance.

When attacking other animals, they usually attack seabird eggs, nestlings or fledglings at the nest, mostly terns but also alcids, smaller gull species, eiders and gannets. They will swallow the majority of their food whole, including most fish and even other gulls. When something is too large, they will sometimes shake it in their bill until they fall apart into pieces.

Ivory Gull

The ivory gull is a small gull which breeds in the Arctic and has a circumpolar distribution throughout Greenland, northernmost North America, and Eurasia. They are typically about 43cm high, with a pigeon-like appearance. Unlike other gulls, they have completely white plumage, lacking the grey back of other gulls. Their thick bill is blue with a yellow tip, and the legs are black. In the breeding season their bill is tipped with red, and their eyes have a fleshy, bright red eye-ring.

Common Eider

The common eider is a large sea duck that is distributed over the northern coasts of Europe, North America and eastern Siberia. It breeds in the Arctic and some northern temperate regions, but winters somewhat farther south in temperate zones, where they can form large flocks on coastal waters. They can fly at speeds up to 113 km/h. They are the largest of the eider duck, and the second largest sea duck in North America.

Eiders are characterized by their bulky shape and large, wedge-shaped bill. Males are unmistakable, with their black and white plumage and green napes. The females are brown birds, but can still be readily distinguished from all ducks, except other eider species, on the basis of size and head shape.

Long-Tailed Duck

The long-tailed duck is a medium-sized sea duck. Males and females look different. Males have long pointed tails, and a dark grey bill crossed by a pink band. In winter, males have a dark cheek patch on a mainly white head and neck, a dark breast and mostly white body. In summer, males are dark on the head, neck and back with a white cheek patch. The females have a brown back and a relatively short pointed tail. In winter, females’ heads and necks are white with a dark crown. In summer, their head is dark. The males are vocal and have a musical yodeling call.

Harlequin Duck

Harlequin ducks are small sea ducks. They get their name from a Harlequin, a colourfully dressed character in Commedia dell’arte (an early form of Italian theatre).

Adult breeding males have a colourful and complex plumage pattern. Their heads and necks are dark blue. In front of the eye is a large white crescent marking, behind the eye is a small round dot, and down the side of the neck is a larger oval spot. Over the top of the head is a black crown stripe, with chestnut patches on either side. Separating the head from the breast, and dividing the breast vertically, are black-bordered white bars. Their body is largely a lighter slate blue with chestnut sides. Their tail is black, long and pointed and their speculum is metallic blue. Their inner secondary feathers are white and, when folded, form white markings over their back. Their bill is blue-grey and their eye is reddish.

Adult females are much less colourful, their plumage is a brownish-grey with three white patches on the head, a round spot behind the eye, a larger patch from the eye to the bill and a small spot above the eye.

Great Shearwater

The great shearwater is a large shearwater. They nest in large colonies, laying one white egg in a small burrow or in the open grass. These nests are visited only at night to avoid predation by large gulls.

They have the typically “shearing” flight of the shearwaters, dipping from side to side on stiff wings with few beats of their wings, their wingtips almost touching the water. Their flight is powerful and direct, with wings held stiff and straight.

It is identifiable by its size (43-51 cm in length with a 105-122 cm wingspan), darker upper parts, and white under parts except for a brown belly patch and dark shoulder markings. It has a black cap, black bill, and a white “horseshoe” on the base of the tail.

Sooty Shearwater

The sooty shearwater is a medium to large shearwater. They are slightly smaller than the great shearwater, at 40-51 cm in length with a 94-110 cm wingspan. They also have the typical “shearing” flight of the shearwaters.

This shearwater is identifiable by its dark plumage, which is responsible for its name. In poor viewing conditions, it looks all black, but in good light, it shows as dark chocolate-brown with a silvery strip along the center of the underwing.

Manx Shearwater

The manx shearwater is a medium sized shearwater. They are 30-38 cm in length with a 76-89 cm wingspan. They also have the typical “shearing” flight of the shearwaters. As it flies, it looks like a flying cross, as it holds its wings at right angles to the body, and it changes from black to white as the black upper parts and white under sides are alternately exposed when it travels low over the sea. The eerie, nocturnal cries of nesting shearwaters have led to associations with the supernatural.

Leach’s Storm Petrel

The Leach’s storm petrel is a small seabird named after the British zoologist William Elford Leach. It breeds on inaccessible islands in the colder northern areas of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. It nests in colonies close to the sea in well concealed areas such as rock crevices, shallow burrows, or even logs.  This storm petrel is strictly nocturnal at the breeding sites to avoid predation by gulls and skuas/jaegers, and even avoids coming to land on clear, moonlit nights.

They are a small bird at 18-21 cm in length with a 43-48 cm wingspan. Like many other storm petrels, it has all-dark plumage and usually a white rump.

It is strictly pelagic outside the breeding season, and this, together with its remote breeding sites, makes Leach’s petrel a difficult bird to see from land. However on overcast nights, petrel chicks, when preparing to fledge, can be attracted by lights on land and can get confused thinking they are the moon and end up getting stranded on land.

A breeding petrel stores energy-rich lipids in a sac anterior to its stomach, which is used to either sustain itself while incubating its single egg, to feed its chick, or as a defensive mechanism when caught by a predator.

Northern Gannet

The northern gannet is the largest of the gannets. It is 87-100 cm long with a 170-180 cm wingspan. The adult has a mainly white streamlined body with a long neck, long and slender wings. The head and nape have a light golden tinge that is more prominent in breeding season, and the wings are edged with dark brown-black feathers. The long pointed bill is blue-grey, contrasting with black bare skin around the mouth and eyes. There is a black groove running along the length of their mandible that merges into the skin around the eyes. A black band of bare skin also separates the pale feathers of the forehead and throat from the bill, which gives them their distinctive face markings, and their eyes are a striking blue. Juveniles, however, are mostly grey-brown, becoming increasingly white in the five years it takes them to reach maturity. Males and females are typically similar in size and appearance, although males can be more deeply coloured than females.

The northern gannet undertakes seasonal migrations and hunts for the fish that form the bulk of its diet by high-speed torpedo-like plunge dives into the sea.

Gannet is derived from Old English “ganot”, meaning “strong or masculine”. As a conspicuous and common bird, it has been mentioned in several ancient myths and legends.