Nova Scotia

Our Nova Scotia birding tour officially begins in the evening in our hotel lobby where we will meet and head off to a nearby restaurant for dinner. Night in Halifax.

We will leave Halifax and drive the Annapolis Valley towards King’s County, where we will encounter an amazing variety of excellent birding habitats, from the Miner’s Marsh for waterfowl and songbirds, and the Guzzle for shorebirds and the Grand Pre area. The Guzzle offers a chance to see thousands of roosting sandpipers up close at high tide.

We will spend a second day in the area where we will explore the scenic Blomidon and Cape Split areas that are great for songbird migration, and offer views of the dramatic Bay of Fundy tides, and red sandstone cliffs.

As with much of Nova Scotia in the fall, rarities turn up regularly in this area, and we make an extra effort to track them down. We will stay in the picturesque and charming university town of Wolfville on the shoreline of the Minas Basin, an offshoot of the Bay of Fundy. Nights in Wolfville.

We will drive down the Annapolis Valley and stop at the French Basin Trail in historic Annapolis Royal. This wetland teems with ducks, songbirds, and shorebirds. We then set off down the Digby Neck and catch a ferry to Brier Island, where we check in at our comfortable lodge.

It is traditional on Brier Island to be at Northern Light (lighthouse) near dawn to observe the often-spectacular stream of migrants departing for the northeast; they are compensating for having gone too far out to sea during the night. Northern Flickers, Eastern Kingbirds, several warblers and vireos, with attendant Sharp-shinned Hawks, are prominent.

There are always the unexpected among the birds — unseasonable “reverse migrants” and sometimes-real exotics from afar. These rarities often stay through the day, perhaps exhausted by their long, mis-oriented journeys.

During the day, there will also be plenty of opportunity to study “obscure fall warblers” and other birding challenges. The island is famous for its raptor flights in fall, particularly of Sharpshins, Broadwings, and falcons. Short walks to Pond Cove will give us a good list of shorebirds: Baird’s and Buff-breasted are sometimes there during this season.

On one of these days, we will board one of the island’s long established whale-watching boats—safe, well-outfitted and comfortable—for our half-day pelagic trip. Among the pelagic species, Great and Sooty and sometimes Manx Shearwaters, Gannets, Red and Red-necked phalaropes, Kittiwakes, and Puffins are frequent. Jaegers, South Polar Skua, fulmar, murres and Razorbills are possibilities, and who knows what else! Then, of course, there are the great whales. Days 4 and 5 we will spend the night on Brier Island.

On day 6, we will depart Brier midday and head to Yarmouth for the night, stopping at the scenic and birdy Mavillette Beach Provincial Park.

The morning we will check out Cape Forchu. It is situated on a point south of Yarmouth. The iconic lighthouse offers great seawatching opportunities, and the surrounding forest is good for migrating songbirds.

After lunch, we will head to Cap Sable Island. Cape Sable Island is strategically located along the Atlantic Flyway, making it a crucial stopover for migratory birds. This will be our best site for shorebirding, with American Oystercatcher, Whimbrel and Hudsonian Godwit as specialties. Birds such as “southern” herons and warblers, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Western Kingbird, Blue Grosbeak, Summer Tanager, Dickcissel, and Clay-colored and Field Sparrows are routine on Cape Sable Island at this time of year, and real “improbables” are always possible. Night in Barrington Passage.

Today we will return to Cape Sable Island in the morning for anything we missed, and then try Baccaro Peninsula. Another lighthouse clad headland, Baccaro offers some of the best seawatching in all of Nova Scotia. From there we will work our way up the ‘South Shore’ stopping at two sandy beaches on the way as we head towards Lunenburg, a UNESCO world heritage site. Night in Lunenburg.

Today we will make our way from Lunenburg to Halifax stopping at various locations along the way. We will try our luck along some side roads for some boreal forest specialties including Spruce Grouse, Black-backed Woodpeckers, and Boreal Chickadee.

We will also explore the rocky shores around Peggy’s Cove, taking in Nova Scotia’s most iconic landmark. Night in Halifax.