Grey Doe Trail, Royal Botanical Gardens, Hamilton ON. April 11th.2021. Steady rain kept me staring out the window for much of this morning but when I checked the radar map at 10.45 it seemed that the narrow band of heavy rain was about to leave us behind. Thirty minutes later I was at the start of a delayed transect hike. ( For an explanation of what I mean by transect hike, follow this link. There will be many more of them in the weeks ahead.)
The washed landscape still made little trickling noises as thin sheets of runoff found their way to ground and the air felt soft and almost silky. I enjoyed walking familiar trails with not another soul around.
Making my way through a forested area, notable for a large grove of towering White Pines, there seemed to be bird sounds all around. Many familiars like: American Robin, White-breasted Nuthatch, Hairy Woodpecker, Brown Creeper and some quite mystifying, little call notes and fragments that made no sense to me. And strangely, I thought, the short dryish trill of a Pine Warbler. But if credible, it came from rather a long way off so was easy to discount this early in April. Pine Warbler is one of the first warblers to arrive in spring; but not yet, more likely in another ten days or so.
But it wouldn’t go away, that trill, it grew louder and more certain and in time I could see a fluttering speck of yellow, busy against the sombre green of a pine. It really was a Pine Warbler and the longer I watched the closer it came and, bless it, was content to linger long enough to allow some photos.
A pretty little bird, not one of the gaudiest among the warblers to come, but a bright spark that certainly lifted my day
On the return leg of my transect circuit I passed under another grove of White Pines and again heard Pine Warblers, so I guess they’re back – I can’t argue. My Bird of the Day.