Saturday January 7 2017. Royal Botanical Gardens Arboretum, Hamilton ON. A young friend, an enthusiastic and personable staff member at Royal Botanical Gardens, is offering a series of monthly Introduction to Birding walks. Registration is limited, people love it and he’s a little overwhelmed. He asked for help and I’m always happy to share my enjoyment of birds even though I’m a fair weather birder and today was cold like old stone.
Still, our happy group was captivated and eagerly absorbed the instruction on effective use of binoculars. (A side note here; the eyecups on most modern binoculars can be adjusted by a quick turn between extended or flat-down. If you’re not wearing glasses extend them up, if you are wearing glasses the cups should be down. The distance from the surface of your eye to the lens of the binoculars makes a ton of difference.)
Frankly we didn’t see many birds but the group enjoyed learning about the characteristic flight style of an American Crow (Straight ahead, flap flap flap.). We watched a group of House Sparrows finding some food and maybe warmth in the crevices of an old wall and enjoyed the hungry attention of Black-capped Chickadees.
The highlight was undoubtedly the appearance fairly low overhead of an adult Bald Eagle. Against the blue sky it was a classic, its stark white head and tail set against the all-black wings and body had everyone’s full attention. We were in a small, tree-sheltered valley and instead of the eagle crossing from one side to the other – in view for a moment and then out of view – it hesitated half way, made an abrupt acrobatic turn and changed course. It was unquestionably our Bird of the Day.