On Friday, 5 August 2022, an Ontario birder who summers in New Brunswick was checking for shorebirds along the shoreline of the St. John River between the bridges in Hartland, NB. We are fortunate this woman was familiar with shorebirds and recognized that what she saw through her binoculars was a rare species for New Brunswick, a Black-necked Stilt. She also knew how to alert others by contacting a local birder who posted it to online discussion groups. That began a magical day for birding for a handful of New Brunswick birders.
It is unknown when the bird arrived in Hartland and from where it came. It undoubtedly is a vagrant which migrated up (or down?) the St. John River. It is a male adult and is probably dispersing from the breeding area before returning south for the winter. Just how far are we referring to here? Well, the Black-necked Stilt (Himantopus mexicanus) normally summers in southern Florida, the coastlines of Georgia and North and South Carolina, the mid-western and western states and southern Alberta and Saskatchewan. They winter in California, the Gulf coast and southern Florida south to the tropics. So this bird is far from the normal movements of this species.
And how rare is it in New Brunswick? We have had 4 recorded occurrences since records have been kept: 1862, 1880, 1982, 2000. Nova Scotia has had a few records as well. The 1862 and 1880 records were confirmed because the birds were 'collected' (shot and sent to the museum for mounting). Unfortunately that is what they did in those days. The 1982 and 2000 records are listed as 'unconfirmed' which actually means that no specimen was collected and no photos were taken. But, today we are a photographic generation and there are lots of photos of this visitor, I would guess well over 1000 were taken that day. All the photos in this blog post were taken by me.
Hartland is a very picturesque place. We wandered around along the shoreline which was mowed grass in most cases checking for the bird from both sides of the river. We crossed the historic covered bridge to move from one side to the other. The bird was feeding along the shoreline of the river and the island located there. The shoreline was composed of rounded rocks of various sizes with a bit of sand. On the east side a brook flows into the river bringing cold water and rich aquatic food. This made good feeding for the Black-necked Stilt and the 2 Lesser Yellowlegs which it was keeping company with some of the time. Viewing and locating the bird was difficult because we were looking into the sun for a good part of the time. As bright and beautiful as the bird is, it was well camouflaged with the bright sunlight reflecting off the water and the black of the wet rocks. The difficulty of seeing this bird was a surprise to me. Even though it is a rather large shorebird, 33 cm long with very long legs, it still was difficult to see. One could pick it up only when it was moving or silhouetted against the bright water.
Please see a previous post on this blog for information on the life history of the Black-necked Stilt; 'Black-necked Stilt - Nemesis Bird', June 4, 2022.
This species was my 'nemesis bird', meaning I have been trying to see it for at least 30 years. I was just never in the right place at the right time while out west or in the south. I have chased around flocks of American Avocets which it sometimes flocks with but with no success. I had missed the 2000 bird from Jacquet River by 15 minutes. But on that special Friday luck was with me. I had many good looks at the bird and was able to photograph it from a safe distance with no disturbance to the bird at all. It was fun to share the excitement with the group of NB birders for which it was also a 'life bird'. For me it was the 351st avian species seen in NB over my lifetime!
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