. The Canadian field-naturalist. Natural history. 2001 HiCKLiN AND Bunker-Popma: Migrations of Scoters 437. Figure 1. The Confederation Bridge across the Northumberland Strait between New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. sighted from New Brunswick were seen to fly parallel to the bridge towards Prince Edward Island until they were lost from view and before they could be accu- rately identified. Thus, an observer on the Prince Edward Island side was necessary to count and identi- fy all the birds that reached visible range from the island. This observer was located under the bridge at Borden
. The Canadian field-naturalist. Natural history. 2001 HiCKLiN AND Bunker-Popma: Migrations of Scoters 437. Figure 1. The Confederation Bridge across the Northumberland Strait between New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. sighted from New Brunswick were seen to fly parallel to the bridge towards Prince Edward Island until they were lost from view and before they could be accu- rately identified. Thus, an observer on the Prince Edward Island side was necessary to count and identi- fy all the birds that reached visible range from the island. This observer was located under the bridge at Borden, looking towards New Brunswick to docu- ment only the numbers and species of seaducks, pri- marily scoters, reaching and crossing the bridge. Results 1. Spring Forty-one species of birds were seen from Cape Jourimain at Confederation Bridge in spring (Table 1). As this project was primarily concerned with scot- ers, only the observations of Black Scoters Melanitta nigra. Surf Scoters M. perspicillata and White- winged Scoters M. fusca are presented here. The numbers of scoters seen in the spring, and their rates of movement are shown in Table 2. The northward migration of scoters was already in progress when the observations began on 14 April, when 209 scoters were recorded (Table 2). The largest flocks of scoters seen in spring consisted of 1200 Surf Scoters and 320 Black Scoters resting on the water, south of the bridge, on 17 April. The first White-winged Scoter (1 bird) was seen on 26 April and scoter numbers peaked the following day (150 birds) with the last 16 White-wings observed on 1 May, the final day of observations (Table 2). In the spring, a relatively low proportion of the scoters which reached the bridge actually crossed it. Many landed in nearby waters or continued flying along the bridge towards Prince Edward Island. On a daily basis, birds which were seen flying over Confederation Bridge ranged between of the totals which had migrated into the area.
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