[CT Birds] Newfoundland Trifecta

[htg1523 at att.net]

My friend John Pfeiffer and I were on a three week camping trip during July into August, 2005 in Newfoundland  and August 4th found us at Stephenville Crossing where the George's River runs into the Gulf of St Lawrence and has probably the best mudflats and marsh area on the entire Island.  John spotted a white heron on the edge of a distant mudflat,,too far away for me to make anything of it.  While watching the heron a godwit landed not too far from us.  I took a few field notes because it did not look like a Hudsonian.  John said," the heron is up"!  We watched it coming our way, then turning to go away, but toward the road where it dropped down.  As it had flown closer to us we noticed a gray colored heron flying behind it.  When we looked back for the godwit, it was gone  
  We were headed back to the car to drive up to the area where we had seen the two herons  drop down along the road.  We met a Island birder (Keith) back by the car and he told us that the two herons had been there a while and he had come to see them.  They were a Little Egret and a Western Reef Heron.  At this time John and I had not been closer to the birds than a quarter mile or more.  Keith did not know anything about the godwit.  We all headed over to where the birds were and I was able to digiscope a few pictures.
  I checked Sibley for the godwit after we found a place to camp that evening.    With what I saw and wrote down I was leaning toward Bar-Tailed and was hoping for another look tomorrow.  We did not see the bird again the next day but we did meet Terry Downy, the local Stephenville Crossing birder, and he verified the sighting as Bar-Tailed.  Terry said that the godwit had been there one or two days.  The day that John and I saw it was the last sighting.
  I like to think that I would have been able to ID the Little Egret and the Western Reef Heron without assistance .  I had seen and digiscoped a Little Egret the previous winter In Culebra, Puerto Rico (first sighting) where I do volunteer work for USFWS at their refuge there.  Western Reef Heron had also been seen on Culebra sometime previous to my going there,,but I'll take them any way I can get them. 
  The Western-Reef Heron created quite a stir in North America.  I'm not sure if that was the first NA sighting but people were coming from far and wide to see it.
   Little Egret, Western Reef Heron, Bar-Tailed Godwit,,,Not a bad threesome to stumble on.  As Casey Stengle said," You can look it up".    
Hank Golet