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3 January 2013 Hamilton Harbour.  It was definitely cold today.  It didn’t matter much whether you live by the Fahrenheit or Celsius scale, it was bitterly cold either way.  But the sun shone brightly and I felt a need to get out and see how birds in general and waterfowl in particular are responding.  I suspect that many passerines and perhaps hawks too, succumbed to the intense ice storm of two weeks ago.  With all plants encased in ice and the ground sealed with a layer of ice-capped snow, food of all kinds would have been very hard to reach.  We’ll probably never know the extent of the mortality.  Waterfowl though may do better as long as there’s open water to swim in and, one hopes, food within reach or a quick dive away.

My first stop was at the shipping canal that links our harbour with the open waters of Lake Ontario. The canal is deep and the water within it heaves and surges in response to the mood and thrusts of the lake.  The canal is evidently a food-rich place as there are often hundreds of wintering Long-tailed Ducks, Lesser and Greater Scaup, and Common Goldeneye to be found there.  Today with the harbour largely frozen over and the lake clogged with plates of drifting ice, the canal was a refuge for large rafts of the above species and more besides.  I didn’t stay long though, because even though I was well dressed for the cold, the cutting wind very quickly chilled me to the bone.

Admiring a group of ducks and swans milling around in a different and sheltered area of open water, I was excited and surprised to hear and see a Belted Kingfisher.  It was working the edge of the harbour and perched for a minute or two, watching the ducks to see if there was anything worth waiting around for.  It was undoubtedly Bird of the Day, but I hope it survives because I think its presence may be an indicator of how desperate conditions have become as reliable fishing spots freeze over.

Had I not seen the kingfisher my vote for today would have gone to a handsome Hooded Merganser who was paddling just offshore.  I’m sure it would much rather have put more distance between us, but with the ice closing in there wasn’t much choice. 

29 December 2013.  Haldimand County. There’s a drive I take almost every winter through the flat farm landscape of Ontario’s Haldimand County down to the shore of Lake Erie.  I don’t care for the dreary and exhausted winter countryside, I don’t like the coating of frozen road grime but I do like the numbers and variety of hawks, owls and eagles seen along the way. But not this year; oh I got the dreary, exhausted winter countryside and the coating of frozen road grime alright, but I didn’t see much in the way of hawks and owls and there were simply no eagles at all.  I am hoping they all had the good sense to go much further south to escape this tough winter (which really has only just started.)

Still, all was not lost. There were a few hopeful roadside American Kestrels, a dozen or so Red-tailed Hawks and a single Sharp-shinned Hawk on the prowl. A few flocks of American Tree Sparrows, a Northern Cardinal or two and the odd Slate-coloured Junco were the only passerines.  I was hoping to see Snow Buntings, but no such luck.  Bird of the Day was a beautiful Snowy Owl perched on a fence post several hundred yards from the road, too far way to photograph but nice through binoculars.  On the lake: Red-breasted Mergansers, Common Goldeneyes, Black Ducks, Buffleheads, Mallards and a rapacious Greater Black-backed Gull that growled menacingly at a Herring Gull who wisely surrendered its meal.

A slim pickings day of birding – the Birds of Winter. Here’s one of them.

If you’ve ever wondered which of all of the birds I’ve celebrated in 2013 was the best, you can find out by clicking 2013 Bird of the Year (above) or follow this link.  The picture below is not a clue, it’s just a cute American Tree Sparrow.

 

25 December 2013. Burlington ON. I scanned the harbour early this morning.  We’d had a cold night and snow was falling steadily; it was Christmas Day quiet.  It seemed the rest of the world was either eating, napping or sleeping it off, whatever the ‘it’ was they’d indulged in.

The water surface as far as I could see was iced over, perhaps just a centimeter or so, for the quiet snow was settling on it rather than melting.  From the warmth and anonymity of my car I made a binocular sweep of gatherings and pockets of waterfowl driven inshore to quiet unfrozen inlets.

No surprises: lots of Mallards, Canada Geese, Trumpeter Swans, Common Goldeneyes, Scaup and a handful of elegant Canvasbacks.  This Christmas Day some people somewhere just may be eating Canvasback, hunters consider them as choice targets.  I prefer them this way as my Birds of Christmas Day. 

22 December 2013. Burlington ON. It might be hard to invent a more trying weather recipe for wildlife than that of the past few days; a foot of snow, followed by a couple of days of rain and topped off with freezing rain.  Trees and power lines are coated in ice, trees split, branches snap and fall, power lines break, flash and short-out, homes are in darkness; Christmas is coming.  We stay warm and dry mostly but all that food for wildlife, seeds and berries, is either buried or wrapped in ice.

Stopping briefly to see how ducks around the harbour were making out, I found this beautiful Northern Mockingbird working hungrily over a reasonably sheltered rose bush.  I’ve taken lots of dreary photographs of mockingbirds in the past; despite their legendary powers as choral performers they dress like litigating lawyers in shades of pearl grey and charcoal.  But there’s something about this one, perhaps it’s the splash of red or maybe just the somber winter background that has elevated it to a higher court. The Honorable Northern Mockingbird – Bird of the Day.

 

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