ATLANTIC PROVINCES & ST. PIERRE ET MIQUELON 
Ruff had never been photographed in New Brunswick before the spring of 2009, when these two images were taken less than a week and 240 kilometers apart. The male was present at Fred- 
ericton 18-20 (here 20) May, while the female was at Maisonnette Dune 26 May. New Brunswick has fewer than 25 records since the early 1970s. Photographs by Haiti MacDonald (male) and 
Robert Doiron (female). 
20 May (ph. Peter Pearce), Stephenville 
Crossing, NL 18 May (Paul Linegar), and Re- 
news, NL 25 May (ph.; fide BMt), and a fe- 
male at Maisonnette Dune, NB 26 May (ph. 
RD). There are more than 20 previous 
records of the species for New Brunswick, 
These Black-necked Stilts at Lunenburg, Nova Scotia were 
nicely photographed 18 April 2009; records continue to in- 
crease north of past range across much of North America. 
Photograph by Eric Mills. 
but this spring’s Ruff and Reeve are the hrst 
to be documented by photographs in the 
province. A Wilson’s Phalarope at Little Har- 
bour, PEI 27 May (DO, DS) was a very rare 
provincial spring record. 
The 22nd Franklin’s Gull for Nova Scotia 
was photographed at Hartlen Pt., 21 May 
(MK). There was a modest arrival of ad. 
Laughing Gulls in the Region. The hrst turned 
up at St. John’s, NL 18 Apr, notably early, and 
lingered through 3 May (m.ob.). Reports of 
other singles included one unusually far in- 
land at Scotch L., York, NB 4 May (fide Bev 
Schneider), one at Broad Cove, NS 8-9 May 
(Sylvia Fullerton), one at Bon Portage L, NS 
16 May (Claire Diggins, m.ob.), and one at 
Cow Bay, NS 21 May (MK); 3-4 were on 
Grand Manan 21-22 May (ST et al). The win- 
tering ad. Yellow-legged Gull in St. John’s, NL 
was last seen 25 Mar. Iceland Gulls, routine in 
the Region at this season, are rarely discussed 
in this report, but they are worth examining. 
Pascal Asselin of St. Pierre decided to count 
the Iceland Gulls in the harbor 8 Mar and was 
astonished to hnd 325 present. We don’t ex- 
pect large counts of white-winged gulls in Apr, 
so tallies of 325 at Riverview, NB 17 Apr and 
640 in Prince, PEI 19 Apr (DO) were note- 
worthy. And from Nova Scotia, Ian McLaren 
offers this Iceland Gull observation: “1 am 
stntck by the number of pure- 
ly-white-winged Iceland Gulls 
lingering at the mouth of Hali- 
fax Harbour. There were six 
hrst-cycle birds and an adult 
19 Apr. It may be that these are 
Kumlien’s, bleached by the late 
winter and spring sun, rather 
than nominate Iceland Gulls 
from Greenland, but it’s a prob- 
lem to be solved. Do these 
northern gulls with limited 
melanin in primaries bleach 
more readily than ones with 
much more?” Or are they nom- 
inate Iceland Gulls from 
Greenland? A Slaty-backed 
Gull in St. John’s 25 Mar was 
the same individual that had 
been noted twice in Feb. Twen- 
ty Caspian Terns at Prince Edward Island N.R 
28 May (DS) was a good spring count; the 
species is a scarce breeder in the province. 
DOVES THROUGH STARLING 
Durian Ingersoll found 2 Yellow-billed Cuck- 
oos on Grand Manan 10 May; they are rare in 
spring, and these were unusually early. A few 
Northern Hawk Owls made the news, not 
surprisingly, following the multiple reports 
this past winter. One was found dead 13 Mar 
at Green Hill, Pictou, NS (KM); another was 
seen at Waterside, NB, 20 Mar (DC, Mary Ma- 
jka); and another was at East Pt., PEI 28 Apr 
Oim Sutton). The 5th Great Gray Owl for 
Prince Edward 1. was heard calling just w. of 
Summerside on 10 Mar (Ray Cooke). Whip- 
poor-wills are close to extirpation in the Re- 
gion, so a singing bird in Fairview, PEI 31 
May-r (Linda Thomas, Roberta Palmer) was 
slightly encouraging. Numbers of Chimney 
Swifts in Nova Scotia remain distressingly 
low: the largest spring roost in New Glasgow 
averaged just over 200 swifts a night, down 
about 33% from last year. Two swifts, howev- 
er, did reach St. Pierre in May, where they are 
not annual. 
The wintering Red-headed Woodpecker on 
Cape Breton 1., NS was last reported 26 Mar. 
The photographer found this odd Herring Gull or hybrid at Dartmouth, Nova Sco- 
tia (here 8 April 2009). With dark irides and reddish orbital rings, the bird is not 
typical of the American subspecies smithsonianus, but these, in context of the 
rest of the bird's features, also do not fit well for other taxa in the Herring Gull 
group. Photograph by Bernard Burke. 
386 
NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS 
