August 12th. 2011. Seeing an Acadian Flycatcher in Southern Ontario is noteworthy, but I probably would not have made much of a deal of it if not for the fact that it was a very late and barely fledged nestling that caught our attention and it explained a mystery bird that I’d been unable to place half an hour earlier.
August is a time to turn your attention to migrant shorebirds. The Arctic nesters, having raised their broods, are starting to head south and birders check out mudflats and sewage lagoons (more on this another day) in quest of shorebirds: sandpipers, dowitchers and plovers. My companion and I had spent a couple of hours on the fringes of a local wastewater treatment facility (government-speak for sewage pond) enjoying the varied bird life. Sitting protected from the wind we’d watched Solitary Sandpipers, Lesser Yellowlegs and Semi-palmated Plovers find delicacies in the half digested human waste. A Northern Harrier swept by sending the shorebirds piping in wheeling flocks and dozens of Bobolinks, the males no longer dressed in black, white and yellow, fed in the nearby goldenrods and thistles.
But we left that feast of migrants to check out a quiet wooded valley to see what late summer does for trout streams and fern glades. As we explored the forest I heard a constant and metronomic ‘pikk’ ‘pikk’. It was a small bird that hung close but refused to show itself. Frankly I gave up trying to identify it because it doesn’t really matter much what it is; it’s far more important to let it be.
As we went to leave the forest my companion pulled me to an abrupt stop to point out an eye level bird just a few feet ahead of us. It was juvenile, barely fledged and obviously dependent on parents for food, within moments we could tell that we were intruders in the middle of a family group as more youngsters hopped around and adult birds moved in.
The youngster ahead of us and then the parent that came to feed it were clearly flycatchers, and then it all fit together: Acadian Flycatchers, the habitat and the mystery calls. A delightful Southern Ontario rarity and bird of the day. 