Category: Uncategorized

Lemmonville Rd, Burlington, ON. April 9^th. 2021.  I set out before breakfast to see if I could find a group of Wilson’s Snipes who had settled into a nearby wet field, as they do every April around this time. I was able to find just two: one busying itself probing deeply for some wriggly invertebrate meal, the other was almost overhead, doing its aerial territory-claiming display.

The snipes were a nice start to a day that was to produce several firsts. Not far from the snipes was a large flock of Rusty Blackbirds and, like the strutting Common Grackles of a month ago, they are interesting to watch when they choose to pick-and-flick for food around watery margins. If I had to sum up Rusty Blackbirds I’d say they are: Rather uncommon and we only ever see them during spring or fall migrations; Generally browny-black; Not songsters at all, managing only a funny squeaky sound like a gate-hinge that needs oiling; And having a startling white eye. It helps to see them periodically, for a refresher, because they can be confused with grackles. Above is a photo of two males and a female.

I stopped at another flooded field and was pleased to see two wading Greater Yellowlegs feeding and picking their ways delicately, like a couple of high-stepping ballerinas. They are on their way to their swampy muskeg breeding grounds of central Canada and southern Alaska.

 A low-flying Cooper’s Hawk panicked the yellowlegs and they left in a hurry, far beyond my line of sight leaving me to enjoy a pair of Blue–winged Teal, a duck that is better described as locally infrequent rather than rare. The yellowlegs and teal were both first-of-the-year sighting for me.

On a woodland-edge walk much later in the day, I binocular-checked a nearby communication tower and was pleased to see that a pair of Ospreys had returned to reclaim their nest site from last year. They weren’t there yesterday so I assume they had only just cleared immigration.  The communication industry doesn’t like the way Ospreys appropriate the tops of cell towers and has taken to removing the nests and installing exclusion barriers. This nest is now active and I hope the industry shows the good grace and sense to leave it alone, it is illegal to interfere with an active nest. Finally, and My Bird of the Day, was a Field Sparrow heard singing its sweetly distinctive ping-pong-ball-coming-to-rest song, close-by but unseen, another first-of-the-year but plenty more of them to come, and they’re always welcome.

Flatt Rd, Burlington ON. April 6^th. 2021.  The sudden sweep of a shadow across my path is a birding clue to be taken as a challenge. Invariably it’s a large bird, soaring, a gull usually, but sometimes an eagle, crow or hawk. The challenge is to react quickly, spin around and figure out where it is in the wide skies above – or was. Following the shadow’s source will often add a sighting that would otherwise have gone unnoticed.

This afternoon I was exploring a long up and down path through a quiet forest of oak, maple, and beech. Quiet because it is still early, it’ll be three or four weeks before a filling-in of the leaf canopy and the flood of migrants bring their bird-song. For now the forest floor is open, bright and soon warmed. A few early flowers had unfolded making the most of the available light, this Round-lobed Hepatica caught my attention.

It was as I was paying attention to the forest floor that a couple of dark shadows scudded past. I looked up to see a convoy of Turkey Vultures drifting over and as I watched they decided they’d had enough for a while and settled to rest in the top of a White Oak. I moved closer to watch as they spread their wings as if to dry them out. They didn’t stay long just long enough, curious enough and attention-grabbing enough to be My Birds of the Day.

Bulls Point Trail, Royal Botanical Gardens, Hamilton ON. March 29^th.2021. It was a ‘should-have-worn-gloves’ morning as three of us set out for a hopeful circuit through woodlands, the brisk north-westerly seemed unfair and probably dampened bird activity, we were happiest when we were out of its cruelest cut.

We were half way around our planned circuit when we found an endearing pair of Eastern Bluebirds. They were unconcerned by our presence allowing a careful photo-ops approach.

It’s not hard to understand why bluebirds are so popular, it would be hard to improve much on the male Eastern Bluebird for colour in particular and overall cuteness in general. His mate is a little less eye-popping but her evident, albeit muted, similarity makes the species popular for studying the different behaviours and appearance of the sexes, something not always easy for newer birders.

Their bounce-back from relative scarcity in the 60s and 70s is partly (perhaps largely) thanks to the popularity of erecting nest boxes. So popular, that there are many organisations devoted to creating bluebird trails and thereby encouraging the growth of bluebird populations. Who could possibly object?  Bluebirds have recovered well and are so easily observed and studied that I suspect many graduate degrees have been earned on the back of Sialia sialis.

We continued on our way and racked up thirty or so species with few surprises. At a nice lookout spot a male Red–bellied Woodpecker came close to us, I think he thought we were bringing food, as many do at this spot, if so he was disappointed. He, like the bluebird, was spectacular in his spring, breeding, plumage designed to impress a mate and hold his ground.

The day produced a few more notables: newly returned Killdeers and Belted Kingfisher, and a vocal Cooper’s Hawk that swept past clacking loudly to let us know he was master of that neck of the woods; but otherwise nothing totally unexpected. The Eastern Bluebirds were My Birds of the Day, I’d known that from the moment I first saw them.  

King Rd, Burlington ON. March 23^rd.2021. The thing about American Woodcocks is that although they’re fairly common, you rarely ever see them. They have just returned from warmer parts and started pair-bonding and staking out their territory, but they’re secretive. Fluky sightings offer some of the best views and they do happen: in mid-April 2018, a very late, ground-freezing, cold snap forced woodcocks out of their habitual deep-cover habitat to find soft ground and we happened upon one at the soft edge of a little spring. An accidental woodcock.

But to go looking for woodcocks takes effort, good eyesight in fading light and hearing much better than mine.  If and when you do finally see one, visual connection is usually very short-lived. Why bother at all, you might reasonably ask.,

Well, American Woodcocks are a common enough breeder around here (if largely invisible), I know that, and wanted evidence for my atlas work, so we made a sunset-hour outing to find them. You have to look and listen for them where forest edges give way to clearings, that’s where they come out to court.

As it gets dark, males make little, rhythmic nasal grunts. Apparently, the females are impressed so, to reinforce their point, the males take bold flight in a sweeping, climbing spiral, way up high, perhaps 100 metres, pause, and then descend singing a sibilant twittering before returning to their starting point. So, what we listen for are the grunts, (‘peents’ is how they’re usually described) and then watch for what looks like a running shoe catapulted overhead on whirring wings.

Like many things that happen in the fading light of day, finding American Woodcocks has its special attraction. We saw four or five last night, more than enough to make them My Birds of the Day.

I know I will be referring to the Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas (OBBA) many times in forthcoming posts. So, here’s a quick backgrounder: OBBA is a project to map the distribution of all birds that breed in Ontario. It is the third such exercise following our atlas work of 1981-85 and 2001-2005.  Five years of data gathering starts now.

It is work to be done largely by amateurs, birders willing to methodically observe and collect indicators of breeding. Our observations and discoveries in the field will provide evidence in one of four categories of increasing value: Observed, Possible, Probable, and Confirmed.  A male singing his territorial heart out is considered as ‘Probable’, while a nest with eggs or young is considered to be ‘Confirmed’, there are many more fragmentary pieces of evidence within each category.

I have been assigned an interesting square to scour for evidence of breeding over the next 5 years. It measures 10Km. X 10Km. and includes farmland, woodland, suburban tracts, old city, industrial lands and our large harbour, very varied and none of it far from home, it will be interesting. It is an opportunity to explore places that I know about but but scarcely know at all. As and when I find birds of the day, I’ll let you know.