14 November 2015. Hendrie Valley, Burlington ON. This time last year the first snows fell, while it didn’t last long it ushered in a very cold winter. In contrast, today was not especially cold and there is a forecast for some balmy days ahead. I completed a census in Hendrie Valley and was struck by the quietness of the place. Just a month ago it was a birder’s challenge but the stiff broom of November has swept away almost everything.
I walked my circuit rather dismayed at the paucity of birds. When winter really takes hold I expect the few birds that remain to become more apparent as they become increasingly dependent on families with children coming to feed them. Indeed at almost any time of year the resident Black-capped Chickadees are extremely bold and many times a chickadee will land on my writing hand as I add entries to my field notebook. Today I counted more than thirty chickadees and for every three or four there’s an almost-as-bold White-breasted Nuthatch not far away.
I wouldn’t say that I trudged around, that would imply that the circuit was burdensome and it was far from that, but it did lack sparkle. There were Blue Jays shrieking at imagined injustices, a couple of Carolina Wrens purring to mark their place in the order of things and several Mallards gossiping quietly in the tree-enclosed ponds.
The wow moment came when I heard the rattle call of a Belted Kingfisher and caught a fleeting sight of him flying upstream. I was surprised that he was still around, although perhaps I shouldn’t be for as long as there’s open water there will be fish to catch.
A little later I stopped at a large sprawling and somewhat shabby pond where I was pleased to find twenty or thirty Hooded Mergansers, males and females. They are late migrants and will continue heading south until they are out of reach of possible freeze-up. They were just milling around in little bands, padding nervously to avoid any movement or noise that seemed out of place; first one way then another.