November 2nd 2018, Valley Inn, RBG, Burlington, ON We found a Winter Wren on our transect this morning, it promptly became my Bird of the Day despite three or four other notable head-turners. Head-turners like a magnificent Bald Eagle in full adult, white-head-white-tail, plumage, that we watched fly the length of a long pond. Despite a richly coloured Fox Sparrow scratching for seed along with a couple of White–throated Sparrows. Despite a Brown Creeper mousing its way up the trunk of a now-bare White Oak. And despite another fifteen species on this overcast morning drying out after a day of steady rain.
We are at the end of two months’ worth of observations for our Long Watch project . Two months that have taken us from plus 16 degrees Celsius on August 31, touched September days at 28 degrees and recently sliding into storms and a scant 2 degrees at daybreak. Days that started out at summer’s end with trailside vegetation still rank and thick with flowers, but after 60 and a bit days and a few frosty nights it’s all starting to collapse.
This valley is known for its over-wintering population of (aptly named) Winter Wrens, Until the temperatures plummet and things freeze hard, which they will in January, there must be tons of food around for them and the other few species that stay. For the bold and the omnivorous life is made a bit easier by families who visit the valley to feed birds and squirrels, although management is unimpressed and concerned about the impact of tons (perhaps literally) of sunflower, cracked corn and peanuts finding its way into the ecosystem.
I don’t think these hand-outs are of any use to Winter Wrens though but somehow they survive, small but tough, and worthy Birds of the Day any day.