Author’s Note: This column was written from Jeff’s perspective following a recent work-related trip to Newfoundland. 

Ever since Nanny and Grandfather Chase returned from their one and only visit to Newfoundland in the 1970s, I have wanted to visit. They drove up with the camper that they carried on their pickup truck, taking the ferry crossing from Cape Breton Island. I remember Nanny describing how Grandfather, a descendant of sea captains, was seasick all the way across. The details of their time on Newfoundland are hazy to me because I was young at the time, but I remember the excitement and enthusiasm they shared about their time on the island. They made it sound incredibly beautiful and wild to my young ears, leaving a lifelong pull to eventually make my way to Newfoundland. 

Well, that time came last week when I was involved in a big event for the National Audubon Society that took place in Rocky Harbor, Newfoundland, in the heart of the world-famous Gros Morne National Park on the western coast.  

It was easy to see what had captivated Nanny and Grandfather. The landscape was big and stunning, with expansive views of barren, rocky mountain tops; towering cliffs disappearing into lakes and ocean; waterfalls; stony bubbling streams; open heathlands, and fragrant, mossy forests of spruce and fir. 

It was so much fun to be in a new place, learning about the birds by being submersed in natural areas and from talking to some of the ecologists from the area. My colleagues and I enjoyed seeing and hearing some of the classic boreal birds that can also be found in spruce-fir forests of northern and eastern Maine. We enjoyed species like boreal chickadees, giving their wheezy “chicka-dree-dree-dree” calls at many spots where black-capped chickadees often occurred in close proximity as well.  

I was surprised that we saw Canada jays at only one location—a place called Lobster Cove Head (how many other places share that name, I wonder?). Two spruce grouse provided us with great views as they crossed and then lingered on the roadside as we drove back from Woody Point on the southern shore of Bonne Bay. 

One of my favorite bird sightings was of the pair of very tame pine grosbeaks that allowed us to watch them and photograph them as they fed in some small spruces outside of the Discovery Center in Woody Point. The Discovery Center is a world-class facility with exhibits on the Indigenous knowledge and culture of the Miawpukek First Nation and on the remarkable geology of Gros Morne National Park. The pine grosbeaks were the icing on the cake. Although an occasional pair will nest in northern Maine, the typical way we see them is when, every few years, small flocks come south in winter.  

We were not lucky enough to see a few of the species that are particularly unique in Newfoundland including in Gros Morne. Some of the most famous are willow ptarmigan and rock ptarmigan. To see rock ptarmigan usually involves hiking to the top of one of the high mountains where they breed— Gros Morne itself, especially. Another specialty that we didn’t see (despite scanning rocky streams diligently) was harlequin duck—there are a few streams where they have been found breeding. 

American robins were widespread, but other thrushes not so much. We saw one Swainson’s thrush on a narrow, wooded trail and heard the familiar “chuck” of a hermit thrush behind the Discovery Center. Sparrows were among the species that we found in most diversity—fox sparrows, savannah sparrows, swamp sparrows, dark-eyed juncos, and white-throated sparrows.   

The day after I got back to Maine, I took our little dog for a walk. On a path near the Kennebec River, we flushed a group of white-throated sparrows—birds in the midst of migration. It was wonderful to imagine that they, like me, had just arrived from Newfoundland. If so, they will return to Newfoundland come spring. Hopefully I’ll get back there, too, someday.  

Jeffrey V. Wells, Ph.D., is a Fellow of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Vice President of Boreal Conservation for National Audubon. Dr. Wells is one of the nation's leading bird experts and conservation biologists. He is a coauthor of the seminal “Birds of Maine” book and author of the “Birder’s Conservation Handbook.” His grandfather, the late John Chase, was a columnist for the Boothbay Register for many years. Allison Childs Wells, formerly of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, is a senior director at the Natural Resources Council of Maine, a nonprofit membership organization working statewide to protect the nature of Maine. Both are widely published natural history writers and are the authors of the popular books, “Maine’s Favorite Birds” (Tilbury House) and “Birds of Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao: A Site and Field Guide,” (Cornell University Press).