It started when Jamie Brandon posted a picture of cattle egret in a field with cows at Great Barasway. When the dust cleared a whopping nine cattle egrets had been discovered making it the largest influx of cattle egrets in Newfoundland in living memory.

Blue Heron near Humpback Bay

Bird sighted far north of normal migratory range.

A rare sighting of an elusive wetland species.

There were lines of cranes flying north and then this morning just before daylight, flying south

The rarest bird sighted in 2018 was the purple gallinule on the Waterford River in St. John’s. There have been more than a dozen recorded sightings in the past, typically on a ship or in a random back garden only to be seen briefly and never again. This bird was different. It was present for about six weeks from mid-May and into June.

As 2018 comes to a close it is time to look back at the birding year in Newfoundland. According to my calculations 272 species of birds were observed on the island of Newfoundland in 2018. This grand total is on par with recent years.

Egret near Inuvik observed by numerous folks in Inuvik.