RBG. Hendrie Valley, Burlington ON. September 14th. 2020. I was a bit tight for time this morning and would have benefitted from another hour on the valley transect route. But never mind, it was an interesting, surprising, and delightful hour and forty-five minutes.
Most interesting was a group of three Cooper’s Hawks engaged in some kind of wide-ranging flight play, although play may not be quite the right choice of word. A more realistic interpretation might be that they were engaged in non-combative, high-speed chases to develop the flight skills needed to capture prey. Whatever the reason, it was quite exciting to watch. Many a photograph was missed as a bird launched away just as I focussed – although as any bird photographer knows, that happens more often than not.
I think the trio may have been a parent and two young, certainly one was a mature adult showing pale brownish-pink barring across the breast and belly and the other two were brown-streaked youngsters. We’ve known of the presence of Cooper’s Hawks in the valley over the years and it is almost a certainty that breeding has occurred and that youngsters would become apparent sooner or later.
Most surprising today was a glimpse of a White–throated Sparrow. It will be the first of thousands to come, but being first is being noticed, being last is usually recalled retrospectively.
The morning produced several pretty migrants, a Common Yellowthroat, a shy Swainson’s Thrush, two or three American Redstarts and a quickly vanishing Magnolia Warbler.
Best and most delightful was a Philadelphia Vireo. I like all vireos a lot, I’ve gushed about then on these pages many times. The much-to-be-admired Red-eyed Vireo is, for me, the standard from which I compare others in the family. Here’s how I get from a Red-eyed to a Philadelphia Vireo: Scale down the size by about 15%; tone-down the iris colour from crimson to a warm hazel brown; and add a wash of delicious yellow its underparts; and there – a perfect Philadelphia Vireo.
Philadelphia Vireos, especially today’s can be rather flitty and active, certainly today’s was but this one was photographed just about three years ago to the day. Philadelphia Vireo – My Bird of the day.
