Birding with Roger Burrows - Grand Manan

My family returned from our trip to Grand Manan yesterday. Before leaving, I made contact with Roger Burrows. He had been planning on going to White Head island but every day I was there it was too windy. However, the day before I left he said that I could come with him to Ingalls Head and Oxhead to see what was around even with the high wind.

I really appreciated being able to tag along with an expert like Roger. He shared many stories and pointed out every bird he saw. I didn't get any good pictures (too windy), but it was such a great learning experience that I was alright with that.

When I go looking for birds, I take my camera, nothing else. Roger has his notepad and binoculars, no camera. He writes down the code for each bird and inputs all the data into ebird.org when he gets home. I also input everything into ebird, but its based on my pictures. So after going with Roger, I decided that from now on I would also bring along a notebook and a pair of binoculars.

Roger saw a few species that I could not with my camera - Atlantic Puffin, American Wigeon, Black Scoter, Iceland Gull and even an Ivory Gull which he said was the first for NB. I did see a number of birds (all blurry pictures, but enough to see their features) that were all firsts for me even with just my camera - Bufflehead, American Black Duck, Horned Grebe, Red-necked Grebe, Razorbill, Black Guillemot and Red-breasted Merganser.

Roger had a copy of his most recent book for me to buy - http://www.amazon.ca/Birding-New-Brunswick-Roger-Burrows/dp/0864926189 I am excited to go through it as he goes through each area of NB in great detail.