April 25 2012. I was pretty sure a Western Grebe would be my Bird of the Day even before I left the house. I’d heard that one had appeared on Lake Ontario, just a couple of miles away, and while I never (well hardly ever) chase a rarity (and Western Grebe is a rarity), I really wanted to see this bird simply because Western Grebes are elegant. It’s as simple as that.
I found it okay but it was heading east, swimming just offshore, but fast; it was hard to keep up. This picture was taken last October in British Columbia where Western Grebes are fairly common.
The weather was so promising that I decided to visit a number of sites, one of them new to me. It was the kind of satisfying bird day with lots of variety. I visited a rehabilitated quarry where some ponds, woodland edge and rock faces make for an interesting mix of habitat. There I found Spotted Sandpiper, Greater Yellowlegs and Solitary Sandpiper.
At a large woodland I heard a Brown Creeper and my first House Wren of this year, a Broad-winged Hawk soared overhead.
Hiking below a march of power lines, along a dry upland area of scrub and exposed rock I heard but could not see, a Brown Thrasher and struggled to get a photograph of a Northern Harrier sailing over treetops; the photos I did get were not keepers. But the day was.