Sandhill Cranes

RBG. Hendrie Valley, Burlington ON. March 14 2020. I expect (and hope) that some months from now we will look back on this post and remember yesterday’s eyes-suddenly-wide-open Friday 13^th when North America got the idea this Corona Virus thing had really landed. We’ll look back on how schools closed doors, community events were abruptly cancelled and national borders shut to foreigners; the stuff of movies.

Rightly or wrongly though, I concluded that walking country trails looking for birds was unlikely to expose me to the rogue virus or put me in contact with large gatherings of people so decided today to do a trial run spring transect around one of our defined routes. It was well worth the effort with thirty species seen and heard.

It’s been a mild winter running into early spring so I wasn’t particularly surprised, but charmed nevertheless, to find half a dozen White-throated Sparrows, and with them a single American Tree Sparrow.

The four ponds in this valley have unimaginative names: Ponds One, Two, Three and Four and when ice-free all are good places to see waterfowl, mostly Mallards, I counted 30 (all males) today – but also a surprise male Northern Pintail. Pond Four is long and well set back from human presence, each early spring it is a brief staging spot for Ring-necked Ducks (6 today) and Buffleheads (3) – and another surprise a male Wood Duck, the first of many to come.

Bird of the Day was a flight of seven Sandhill Cranes. A group of cranes calling at their gentlest (or least raucous) sounds a little like Tundra Swans, so stepping aside from obscuring tree branches I expected to glimpse another springtime swan flight but made a quick adjustment to Sandhill Crane.  They made their winding way up the valley, gaining height as they went.

The photos above are of Sandhill Cranes on a warm late summer days. They are not generally a difficult bird to photograph but today I knew it would be a challenge to get much more than silhouettes against the evenly grey clouds. But, never mind the camera, the live experience was quite enough, a sight to linger over. Here are some of today’s birds.