RBG. Hendrie Valley, Burlington ON. December 21st. 2020. This morning at 05:08, we Northern Hemispherers started on our road back to summer. Overly optimistic you might think, but true nevertheless; although, it seems, anything could happen these days.
Faithful followers of this site will recall that I am part of a team engaged in a spring and fall project to study bird populations in Canada’s Royal Botanical Gardens (RBG) – follow this link for a refresher . The trouble is that once October is finished so too is our project and we have little to do but wait for spring. As some kind of therapy, we have taken to doing Winter Solstice transects, informal and something to look forward to.
All three of our defined routes got attention today. Two companions and I made our way around this valley route knowing we would meet many old faithfuls but hoping for a surprise; we noted 19 species. I avoid recounting lists of any length on these pages but 19, on a special day, why not? And really, for the shortest day of the year, here is the shortest list. In no particular order here except as I wrote them in my field notebook.
Northern Cardinals 3, American Crow 1, Red-breasted Nuthatch 1, House Sparrow 26, Black-capped Chickadee 15, White-breasted Nuthatch 10, White-throated Sparrow 5, American Goldfinch 13, Blue Jay 6, Dark-eyed Junco 9, Carolina Wren 3, Song Sparrow 1, Downy Woodpecker 7, Red-bellied Woodpecker 7, Hairy Woodpecker 2, Mallard 42, Belted Kingfisher 1, Canada Goose 22, Mourning Dove 2.
To us they are the regulars although some readers of this will doubtlessly view them as exotics, the sort of sightings to go out of your way for. For one reason or another there’s a story worth telling about each one, three or four are visually downright spectacular and, under the circumstances, all of them are my Birds of this Solstice Day.
Subject to any limits on size, they’re all here:
Mrs. Mallard such a lovely little thing and that dapper dark-eyed junco… some great armchair, vicarious birding on this Solstice day… possibly on the brink of a lockdown.
Many thanks!
Angelique
Thanks for noticing Angelique. She is indeed a stunningly beautiful bird. Much overshadowed by Mr. Mallard with his gaudy bottle green and chestnut. That particular photo or maybe the next in a group, was the centre of a post almost exactly 2 years ago. I picked it then for the precision of its feathers and wrote, “I was struck by the clear and beautiful definition of each individual feather. How they fit and lie in precise groups and overlays to give contour and function. Examine it for a while and you’ll never again think of plumage as random.”
All so amazing!
Beautiful winter birds