Hendrie Valley, Burlington. ON. May 1, 2024. May! The biggest birding month. We’ve been greeting spring migrants for several weeks, especially thoughout April, but nothing can hold a candle to May.
I was charged with doing one of our transects this morning in one of the best birding spots for miles around, I knew it would challenge me,. But the day started foggy and patches of fog continued to roll in making the light flat, but when it cleared out the going was glorious. There was bird song all around and many times in my two and a half hours I reveled in the sight and sound of several First of the Year (FOY) returnees .
I’d barely set foot on the trail when I could hear an Ovenbird calling in a valley off to one side, then a Wood Thrush singing its soft fluting. Ee-o-lay, two FOYs to start with and both birds of the forest floor missing from here since last September. Hundreds of White-throated Sparrows raked and scratched through the forest leaf litter and Ruby-crowned Kinglets ranged high and low foraging among bare branches and twigs.
I caught a clear song that I knew I knew but it took a while to place it, a male Rose-breasted Grosbeak, and then he showed himself; sensational.
Many birders view warblers as the stars of the show. Rightly, I understand the appeal, they can be very colourful, baffling to identify and neck-breakingly hard to spot in upper branches. I was lucky enough to find Yellow-rumped, Black and white, Palm, and Yellow Warblers as well as a couple of Northern Parulas and a Northern Waterthrush (both also warblers). All much appreciated and FOYs too.
But out of this richness the one bird that made me say Wow! and was therefore my Bird of the Day, was a briefly seen and heard Great-crested Flycatcher. It made a brief appearance fairly high up and I think it was objecting to a squirrel for no reason I could see. It called its distinctive Wheep just once and then vanished. I thought it was an unusually early arrival but various reference books support it being here on May 1. I have written about Great-crested Flycatchers several times I’m sure. I love their beautiful sulphur yellow breasts, rich brown rump and tail and assertive air of belonging-ness. They stay around here to breed and today’s bird was a promise of many summer hours of admiration ahead.
It was a 43-species morning. Some of the other highlights were a trio of Great Egrets somehow appropriately staged in light fog; two Caspian Terns who wheeled around one of the ponds and their presence half in and half out of the in fog again seemed to suit them. As I finished the circuit, four Barn Swallows traced large loops over the river, I expect they’ll be nest building under the bridge again; summer birds.
