Our house. Burlington Ontario. October 6 2022. I like to think of our back garden as colourful and chaotic. It is both of those but not entirely unplanned. I invest several hours in spring setting things in motion and several hours in fall preparing for the hard freeze ahead and there is enough turfgrass to justify some effort in mowing. But otherwise it looks after itself with little trimming or transplanting. The late season outcome of this near-neglect is dense tangles, dark corners and lots of colour.
Just a year ago I wrote about a Ruby-crowned Kinglet who had found plenty to pick and eat on the stems and flowers of our backyard Gaura. I noted how stepping outside will often send a small migrant, darting for cover, usually too fast to identify. It’s that time of year again, fall migration, and our colourful-chaos garden is a bit of a bird magnet.
The past five days I’ve been catching glimpses of a Winter Wren, a Hermit Thrush and, late this afternoon, a Lincoln’s Sparrow, all birds worth stopping work for.
Golf ball size Winter Wrens value secret places and dense cover and true to form, this one appears at garden edges, picks for food and withdraws at the faintest hint of a threat. I’ll miss it when it finally decides to move on. Today it was My Bird of the Day.
I nearly missed the Lincoln’s Sparrow, I was about to burst out the back door but fortunately paused to glance ahead . The sparrow was close and indeterminate, I went for my binoculars half expecting it to vanish before I returned. The day was fading but still I was easily able to make out the few key field marks: dark streaks drawn finely on a buff breast. Lincoln’s Sparrow has been a Nemesis bird for me for many years but having finally clinched it a couple of years ago I am content.
The Hermit Thrush posed long enough for me to get several decent photos and considering they were taken through two layers of window glass, they’re pretty good. This is it, above and below.
As I write this I’m aware that a White-throated Sparrow is somewhere close, I can hear it. But for today it’s the Winter Wren that comes out top.