July 9 2012. I may have set myself a trap by asserting that there’s always a Bird of the Day; what am I to do if there’s not? What if, like today, they’re all special?
Birds were not on my agenda today. I returned to my favourite Lake Erie forest sanctuary to continue my study of the many ferns to be found in the cool, dark forest. But just as it’s impossible to leave the supermarket with only one item, so it is for the natural world and me; there’s too much to choose from, too many seductive diversions and too many limited-time offers.
But with my baffling Field Guide to Ferns, Liverworts and Club Mosses and dressed to thwart the biting flies, I followed a plan. First a long circuit through a lofty dark grove of Eastern Hemlocks to a swift-running, sand-bottomed creek. Follow the creek upstream then back to the main trail, a quick and early lunch, then down another, wetter, trail to the creek again – and back. But I made good progress, I have more than a dozen fern species figured out such that I’ll know them next time and plenty of photos to sort through to help with the puzzlers.
The seductive diversions were, of course, the birds and their songs. I noted 20 species in the forest: Caught a glimpse of a Pileated Woodpecker whacking at an old rotting tree trunk, almost stepped on a Ruffed Grouse sending it careening out into a sunlit clearing, and, watched a young Blue Jay among the high branches of some birches. A distant Winter Wren was singing its high, complex song like a thread pulled through the forest, and several Black–throated Green Warblers called back and forth in the tops of the hemlocks; a theme that was taken up by Red–eyed Vireos whose steady rhythmic notes punctuated the maple, oak and beech canopy. A Ruby-throated Hummingbird buzzed me as I sat watching over a quiet clearing and a Scarlet Tanager or two sang tiredly far out of sight. Finally, as I was making my way back to my sun-baked car an Ovenbird took loud exception to my presence, so we exchanged ‘chik’ notes for a while, and I thought for a moment that it was my bird of the day, but really no; they were all special.
