November 13 2019. Hendrie Valley & Cherry Hill Gate, RBG, Burlington, ON. A mid-week string of cold snowy days has persuaded me to catch up on domestic stuff and my birding has been limited to watching a dozen House Sparrows empty the feeder. But today I needed a leg-stretch and opted to walk the valley to see what, if anything, was new. The valley is known to harbour appropriately named Winter Wrens through the coldest months. I had my thoughts on where I might find some, they like damp, thick, sheltered tangles, often not far from water perhaps where food is more likely to be found. I found two but neither allowed me more than a glimpse, they’re entitled to their privacy. Otherwise it was pretty much as expected: Black-capped Chickadees, a couple of Blue Jays, Downy Woodpeckers and this Red-bellied Woodpecker who followed me around for a while, chuckling a softly abrupt Chuff Chuff as he skipped from tree to tree. Here he is when he came in almost close enough to touch.
A Fox Sparrow flew from me and remained frustratingly difficult to see, but as my first and probably last this autumn, it was a satisfying sighting.
It had been surprisingly good exercise trudging around the slippery trails but not much noteworthy from a birder’s point of view. But to my surprise, at the parking lot, in a puddle of meltwater, was where I found my Birds of the Day, a group of American Robins splashing and bathing socially together with an even larger group of Cedar Waxwings. There’s nothing unusual about birds bathing, I imagine their mothers insist on it, but you don’t witness it very often. Here’s a few of them photographed in the late afternoon gloom.
