30 September 2015, Hendrie Valley, Burlington ON. Last night the weather changed, it turned cold and blustery and millions of migrants took heed. On a day when the Toronto Blue Jays baseball team made some sort of scoreboard history, their namesake Blue Jays, the originals, took to streaming west in enormous numbers vacating the north as fast as they possibly could.
On my census round today I counted one hundred and fifty-seven Blue Jays, shrieking, screaming and riding south-westward on the brisk north-east wind. If I saw that many over two hours in my little slice of the sky, the total number making their way must have been immense. For the sheer wow-value spectacle of this exodus, Blue Jays were my Birds of the Day.
But there were lots more on the move and I seemed to be in the thick of it. The geography of our little corner of Ontario creates something of a natural funneling corridor for birds heading south in fall, it was as if rush-hour had been uncorked. There were uncountable numbers of Yellow-rumped Warblers, and White-throated Sparrows. The Yellow-rumps, looking nothing like the handsome birds of spring, were especially fond of the margins of cattail marshes where there were lots of insects; while the White-throated Sparrows stayed low in woodlands, scattering in front of me along the paths; who knows how many there were away from the paths. Four Winter Wrens seen may not seem like many, but they are usually all but invisible creeping through dense underbrush; for every one seen there could well be dozens not seen.
Two young White-crowned Sparrows were an identification challenge. Adult White-crowns are very handsome birds with three bold slashes of bright white on their heads, the youngsters definitely lack that heraldic distinction, but fortunately the give-away was their hefty size (for a sparrow) clear grey-buff breast and pinkish bill.
The trees were bouncing with Ruby-crowned and Golden-crowned Kinglets, Nashville Warblers, Common Yellowthroats and Western Palm Warblers. I watched as two Red-bellied Woodpeckers harassed a young Yellow-bellied Sapsucker for no apparent reason. The sapsucker clung quietly to a dead limb hoping its attackers would lose interest and helpfully posed for this picture.
This Gray Catbird caught my camera-sense when it fed briefly on some Red Osier Dogwood berries.
Even after my census was done the day kept on delivering surprises. Dozens more Yellow-rumped Warblers, swirls of Cedar Waxwings and high in the troubled skies were circling Sharp-shinned and Red-tailed Hawks, while a young Bald Eagle flapped manfully against the wind or maybe it was just enjoying the change of season.