Princess Point, Hamilton. ON. April 13, 2024. Caught by conflicting promises I tried to squeeze in today’s transect by starting at 7:30 but rain put paid to that. You can’t realistically blame the weather; it’s always been around but it sure complicated things and I found myself having to start an hour later and in Force 6 winds. Benignly labeled a Strong Breeze, Force 6 is ‘Large branches in motion; whistling heard in telegraph wires; umbrellas used with difficulty.” To all of that at six degrees C. I can only add that it made my eyes water, nose drip and knuckles stiffen.
I hastened around the route where despite the challenges I was pleasantly surprised a few times. I’ve been enjoying watching a flotilla of Northern Shovelers grow over the past week or so, mostly males so far, today the count hit 42. In the same area Gadwall numbers had grown to 27 but they tend to be shy and there could have been many more. I also noted several Bufflehead, Mute Swans, Lesser Scaup, Common Mergansers and even a beautiful pair of Green-winged Teal in a sheltered backwater. Open water though was being wind-ripped to a wavey chop and was apparently birdless.
Away from the water in a sheltered corner a solitary White–throated Sparrow was singing boldly but apparently alone. My bird of the Day was a Yellow–bellied Sapsucker which at first, I took to be a Downy Woodpecker. They are close-ish in size and overall colouring, but the sapsucker is a dowdier looking bird, instead of crisp black and white patterning it is more soot-black and off-white. The reliable field mark for the sapsucker is its pale wing-slash.
I think sapsuckers as a family could do with re-branding. That name, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, sounds as if it was invented as a comic book joke. True that it does sometimes show a pale yellowish cast on its belly and that it does tap trees to prompt a flow of sap to attract insects, but I think ornithology could do better.
Today’s sapsucker sighting was brief, and anyway I was distracted by the repetitive calls of an Eastern Phoebes who was staking out its territory among some Witch Hazels, I enjoyed it too but didn’t linger, time was not on my side.
