RBG Arboretum, Hamilton. ON. September 2, 2024. Today started cool so I wisely pulled on a fleece sweater. The transect was modestly busy with bird life, mostly things I’d expect but two birds made my day. A Yellow-bellied Flycatcher obliged by foraging quite low, almost at eye level, and allowed me to get a handful of decent photos. It looks rather like the Least Flycatcher of a couple of days ago but is distinctly yellow on its belly and that gives it a bit of pizzaz. It’s been a few years since I last saw one, I don’t think they’re particularly uncommon, but they nest further north across the boreal forest and don’t waste much time on migration either coming of going, they’re probably easily overlooked.
A few moments later a female Black-throated Blue Warbler showed herself briefly. Had it not been for one key field mark I would have scratched my head for a long time and probably shrugged and given up on identification. The male (on the header above) is distinctive, but the female is definitely not, she’s just about all featureless olive drab, except for a little slash of white on her primary feathers. Both sexes have that white mark but for the male it adds little, while on the female it is diagnostic.
Apart from these two happy finds, there were several times when lingering and enjoying was pleasurable: A few Great Egrets, a young Osprey, a ragged looking Carolina Wren who was obviously in the midst of a molt but singing boldly anyway, and a rather distant shorebird that I concluded was an early southbound Dunlin.
