May 31 2016. Ruthven Park, Cayuga ON. The end of May is the end of spring bird censuses. I went to the bird observatory feeling a little remiss for having not helped as much as I’d hoped and to see how the season had shaped up. Activity was slow and they banded relatively few before taking down the mist nets for the season.
As usual I undertook the daily census and quite surprised myself with nearly sixty species. Many were just single birds of a species: Green Heron, Scarlet Tanager, Trumpeter Swan, Yellow-billed Cuckoo and Yellow-throated Vireo being stand-outs in my mind.
Last year, same time, same place I found a lone Trumpeter Swan paddling down the river, it was a first for the observatory. Something must have gone well for it because it, or possibly another individual, showed up this spring and appears to like it well enough to stay; whether it has found a mate no one seems to know.
The day also produced large numbers of Baltimore Orioles, Warbling Vireos, and Yellow Warblers. Six Chimney Swifts chased and wheeled around, sometimes in courtship flight where one bird, usually the trailing one of a pair, holds his or her wings in a deep V for a couple of seconds.
My best bird was a brief glimpse of a Yellow-billed Cuckoo. I heard it calling several times and it always seemed to be on the move. Cuckoos are a bit on the secretive side and tend to stay fairly high in the forest canopy and I knew that getting to see it was a bit of a long shot, but in the end it was just luck; there it was, my Bird of the Day.
