Northern Cardinal

Hendrie Valley, Burlington. ON. February 19, 2024.  So, it’s mid-February-looking-for-signs-of-spring time and we’re ice-bound.  Exercise is important so I headed out early and walked the valley this morning.   Today is an obscure public holiday in Ontario and by the mid morning, the parking lot was filling with expanding family groups.

Bird-wise it was probably predictable; if it was just a matter of compiling a list of valley birds I could have stayed home. (Eastern Screech Owl, Black-capped Chickadee, American Tree Sparrow, Dark-eyed Junco, Song Sparrow, Northern Cardinal, Mallard, Hooded Merganser, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker and Red-breasted Merganser. That’s it.)

But then there’s that matter of signs-of-spring, they were few and far between. I count as valid the rather weak songs of a couple of  Song Sparrows and, at a stretch, some communicative, perhaps competitive, drumming by a couple of Downy Woodpeckers.  Enough to lift your spirits for a minute or two. Here’s one of those sparrows searching for something, anything, to eat along the water’s icy edge.

I was little surprised to see a female Red-breasted Merganser (above) hastening upstream in the ice-fringed creek.  There is open water in the creek so she has a chance of a fish meal.  My Bird of the Day was this male Northern Cardinal who seemed to glow in the winter light.

But that’s just about the best I can do for mid-February.