Waterdown ON. April 15 2020. I try not to make this a place of overt social commentary but these are strange times with many new currents and tides. One such current is governments at all levels urging us to stay home, to not visit our parks, conservation areas or trails. We are to stay away from recreational opportunities (at least the ones they manage) they’re barricaded, fenced and caution-taped off anyway, it’s for our own good you see. For some, going birding now is bad citizenship, but others reason that one person alone in the great outdoors does not pose a risk of sharing a viral infection. I’m strongly inclined to the latter point of view although current cold, early spring weather makes it easy to fall in line with the stay at home edicts. But what will happen when spring truly arrives as it will any day now?
Needing some exercise today and despite a cold wind and social pressures, I visited an old worked-out quarry that has been rehabilitated to include a network of four ponds plus walking trails; trail-side deposits confirming the popularity of the place among dog owners. It is the same spot I visited exactly a year ago where I watched a pair of Pied-billed Grebes in extended courtship. There was no sign of grebes today but I did hear the brief kidick kidick call of a Virginia Rail – heard only and from somewhere in an expanse of dense winter-beaten cattails.
The spectacle to be enjoyed though was a pair of Caspian Terns patrolling the ponds and occasionally plunge-diving for a bite to eat, my Birds of a cold Day. They wove fast, winding loops swooping from pond to pond, sometimes close to where I stood in the lee of some junipers. I challenged myself to get a decent photo knowing that my chances were slim, the difficulties included fast moving subjects moving in and out of focus against a bright sky, sometimes near and sometimes far. I knew I’d need luck so just kept shooting, 147 photos in the end. Of them just six were near-keepers but still not good enough, I’ve included some from another day.
