December 29 2012. This time last year the birding fraternity hereabouts was all atwitter about a couple of Black Vultures hanging out along the banks of the Niagara River in Lewiston, NY. What made it extra tantalizing was that the Niagara River marks the international border between the U.S.A and Canada. So for those who compile winter, country, province and goodness-knows-what lists, waiting in the cold, willing the birds to take flight and wander into Ontario must have been some kind of exquisite, self-imposed masochism. And yet….in 1987 on this very date a Black Vulture had taken up residence not so far from my house, albeit in a slightly more up-market neighbourhood.
This entry in my diary qualifies it as retrospective bird of the day, though not necessarily in the celebratory sense. “1987. Sheltering in hemlocks at LaSalle Park a Black Vulture. Found on Boxing Day by others. D.S looking for it failed at first but found a Varied Thrush instead. Burlington now temporary home to Black Vulture, Varied Thrush, adult Bald Eagle and 2 Brant Geese.”
A few words more about each: I saw the Black Vulture that day but was only mildly impressed, lumpen and black, sitting disconsolately high in a hemlock tree it was no prize for me. Soaring in high wheeling circles on a hot day – now that’s worth looking up at, that’s when it could be Bird of the Day. The Varied Thrush eluded me, I have only ever seen one and that was in British Columbia where they belong; a very pretty bird, in stature like our American Robin but coloured in black, orange and blue-grey, like the mountain slopes in October. Bald Eagles were a rarity around here until about 10 years ago since when they have become regular winter visitors and have established breeding territories. Brant drift through from time to time, they must be strays gone off-course in migration, they are a bit like a familiar but erratic cousin who shows up from time to time then leaves without even saying goodbye; here today gone tomorrow.[slickr-flickr tag=”boxingday”]