Hermit Thrush

Merrick Orchard, Dundas Valley, Hamilton ON. December 1 2021. I’ve said this before but as November fades to December it sometimes feels as though a vacuum cleaner has sucked up all the birds and taken them away; it can be awfully still out there. Those fields and woods that were so lively and musical are now deadly quiet. But it is what it is and yesterday I took a long and taxing uphill-downhill walk through the woodlands and fields. I could hear White-breasted Nuthatches busy socialising, the odd noisy Blue Jay and watched a Hairy Woodpecker hammering at the soft wood extremities of a dead Red Ash. But it was slim pickings bird-wise until I found my Bird of the Day.

A Hermit Thrush sat quietly, clearly visible in the open upper level of abundantly berried bush. I was a little taken aback, Hermit Thrushes are usually quick to make themselves less visible, like all their thrush cousins. But this one sat quietly and watched me as I moved to get the best angle for photos, it gave me plenty of time to study it and pick out the field marks that distinguish it: a shy demeanour, a fairly heavily spotted upper breast and rusty brown back and tail.

It really was a wow! Bird, not because it’s improbable, a few always winter over this far north, but because it was just sitting there, being seen, studied and enjoyed. My Bird of a cold Day.