October 2 2016. RBG Arboretum, Hamilton ON. A couple of days of disturbed weather: intermittent and drenching rain, strong winds, and clouds in angry colours moved aside this morning to let me walk around one of our census routes. Almost the first birds I saw was a group of thirteen Blue Jays flying purposefully westward, then not long after, another group passed and another and another. Before long I’d counted a little over one hundred, clearly the day belonged to Blue Jays.
The woodland edges and open fields of seedy plants were alive with birds moving restlessly; Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers, White-throated and White-crowned Sparrows, American Robins, Eastern Bluebirds and a squabbling pair of Hairy Woodpeckers. In the gloomier corners of the scrubby forest I found two Black-throated Blue Warblers and a Winter Wren.
I was about half way around, walking through a stretch of mature deciduous forest when a gentle, light rain started and I could hear thunder not too far away. I picked up my pace, hurrying on. I’ve heard all the warnings about the dangers of sheltering under a tree in a thunderstorm; but then, when it’s all trees between you and your car, what options do you have?
Still I could hear a woodpecker banging away overhead and I wanted to see if I could find it. It sounded purposeful, a bit like a Hairy Woodpecker or maybe a Red-bellied Woodpecker, they’re both fairly well established in these woods. I tried and tried to find it but eventually gave up craning my neck; if it was above me it must be hidden somehow, perhaps on the wrong side of a branch. I continued my hurried walk, and then making one last try from the other side of a gully I looked back to see a fragment of movement high on top of a crooked limb. It was a Pileated Woodpecker, a welcome sighting and worth getting a little wetter for. It also prompted a loud internal (if that’s possible) exclamation; Wow! The litmus test for my Bird of the Day.