September 20 2015. Hendrie Valley, Burlington ON. I spent all of the daylight hours today on a bird survey, we started at daybreak, six-thirty, and stayed until the light faded well after sunset. Our task was to count all birds seen and heard from a single location. It was a rewarding and interesting day and I certainly slept well at the end of it. This exercise was part of a project we have put together called the Long Watch. To save me the laborious task of explaining the whole project here, it’s with considerable relief that I can now point anyone who wishes to read about it by following this link.
The upshot of it was that over a thirteen-hour period we saw fifty-three species and well over eleven-hundred individual birds. Our team was positioned on a small lookout platform between a string of large ponds, which are flanked by woodlands, and river flats; it is a very bird-rich area. At first light, when you could hardly make them out, the dark forms of forty or more Wood Ducks flew in wheeling and side-slipping to settle in the waters. Black Crowned Night Herons laboured past heading for their day-time roosts, and behind us an Osprey sat atop the remaining spike of a long-dead tree, I think it had been there all night, and when the sun finally warmed things up, it left for a while to catch a large gleaming and wriggling catfish which vigorously objected to being eaten.
The first rays of sun illuminated an ash tree which we found was hopping with Nashville Warblers and a Blue-headed Vireo, both very nice sightings. Around mid morning a pair of adult Bald Eagles passed heavily overhead to settle just out of sight in some tree tops. We were thrilled by a couple of Merlins, at least two Green Herons and day-long flights of Northern Flickers and Blue Jays.And so the day went on. There was a noticeable mid-afternoon lull but as the evening approached, somehow the birds came out again.
There were several birds that might qualify as Bird of the Day: An early morning Blue-headed Vireo, some Rusty Blackbirds and a heard-but-not-seen Carolina Wren. But I think an Osprey or two provided us with just the right level of dramatic spice to keep us entertained and somewhat awe-struck all day. They had a favoured perch just around the corner, out of sight and from there would periodically wheel into view, sometimes carrying a fish. In this first shot it is carrying something orangey-red, perhaps a goldfish.
