Category: Uncategorized

Hamilton Harbour, Hamilton,  ON. November 25^rd. 2020. I have drafted, redrafted, written, edited and rewritten this post many times. After several hundreds of words mired in a meaningless “Compare and Contrast’ discussion of ducks’ and coots’ feet, I scrapped the whole thing. (But, if you find that narrow topic somehow fascinating, leave me a comment). But really all I’d wanted to do was shine a little light on today’s Bird of the Day, American Coots.

Coots and Moorhens in general, are superficially duck-like inasmuch as they inhabit ponds and lakes, swim around and forage for aquatic vegetation; but they’re not ducks at all. They are members of the very large (159 species), Rail or Rallidae family.  Drawn from that family Virginia Rail, Clapper Rail and Sora –have all brightened these pages from time to time.

Rails are often sweepingly described as chicken-like, which is appropriate for some, but Dodo-like might be more apt for coots; size difference notwithstanding. Take a look at this one.

This day, as I walked a waterside trail, there were many American Coots muddling around at the water’s edge. We see plenty of them through the winter months, but in spring and summer most make their way to the central prairie states and provinces where they find the thickly vegetated, deep-water, pothole habitat they need for breeding.

The day was heavily overcast, there was rain in the air, and it’s late November. All of which is to make the point that the light was low and photography difficult. American Coots are pretty well entirely sombre grey which made it hard for my camera to focus. I took about 50 photos and discarded nearly all, still, not too bad in the end. American Coot – My Bird of the Day.

(Well, I guess I can’t let it go so, touching briefly on the matter of their feet it is passably interesting how evolution has variously adapted the feet of birds that swim:  Webbed feet in the case of ducks, geese, swans, cormorants and gulls, and lobed feet for coots and grebes.  I’m not aware of any studies of comparative swimming efficiency but one thing coots have over web-footed birds is that they are adept at walking and running. And ducks don’t run! Enough!)

RBG. Hendrie Valley, Burlington ON. November 23^rd. 2020. This morning the valley reversed a couple of no-shows from my post of just four days ago. I found the elusive American Bittern (who should know better) and a Fox Sparrow happy to be where there was food to be found. Of course, there was more to the morning than those two: countless Dark–eyed Juncos, a handful of White–throated Sparrows, several vocal Red–bellied Woodpeckers and a devoted pair of American Black Ducks all turned my head. But the foxy and the bittern were especially notable, with the American Bittern clearly My Bird of the Day.

Freakish sightings of birds unsettle me and I view the bittern as doubly freakish: first, because it’s still here when it should be long gone, and second because this normally shy bird was so openly visible close to a much-used trail.  We’ve seen other misfits around here over the years: a way-off-course Brown Booby might still today be fishing the waters of Lake Ontario rather than enjoying the relative comforts of the tropical Pacific; goodness only knows why. 

From early April to the end of October the American Bittern is a bona fide member of our avifauna, but now it should be many hundreds of miles south of us, probably in Florida, a place where winter will be less unyielding. It relies for its diet on spear-fishing in open water for frogs, minnows, crayfish and other wriggly things, but the pond where I saw it today will soon freeze hard. Of course, it could be that it’s just taking a breather and any day now will continue on its way south, but somehow, I suspect it believes that this is it, that this is the Gulf of Mexico.

Whatever its fate, whatever the outcome, an American Bittern is a wonder to see at any time. My encounters have been few, I can recall no more than half a dozen in the last ten years. They’re solitary birds, rather secretive and cryptically invisible in their preferred cattail marsh habitat.

Today’s Fox Sparrow was in a small group of House Sparrows picking for food along a much-used trail where families gather to feed the birds. It wasn’t a stop-me-in-my-tracks type of surprise, but because I hadn’t expected it, it was a delight. Various authorities suggest that some Fox Sparrows linger in south-western Ontario all winter so, maybe it was a lesson learned for me. Fox Sparrows are always engaging having an industrious jump-scratch way of uncovering food in the leaf litter and lovely, deep brown, check-marks on the breast. It could easily have been My Deputy Bird of the Day.

RBG. Hendrie Valley, Burlington ON. November 19^th. 2020. It’s been a while since I last set foot in the valley. Blame it on an end to our 2020 transects and the need to catch up on other urgencies of life. I needed the exercise today and few places are as satisfying as this valley, both for birds and scenic value. Despite that, I did not have very high expectations of bird variety; I should have had a little more faith.

It all started rather tensely when I saw a Mink slide submerged into the river a few feet from a couple of paddling Mallards. I was sure the mink could and would happily catch and devour one of them, but how would it do it? It was worth waiting around for. I was over-dramatizing the situation though, the Mallards paddled confidently away and the mink soon emerged carrying a mollusk or maybe a small fish, shook dry like a retriever and withdrew into the undergrowth. A little disappointed I continued on my way looking for birds.

Half way around I reckoned I’d seen everything probable: Black–capped Chickadees, Blue Jays, White–breasted Nuthatches, Carolina Wrens, Downy Woodpeckers and a Red–bellied Woodpecker, it’s mid-November after all. But a then small group of Wood Ducks, surprised me, surely the valley’s last hold-outs, a soaring Bald Eagle and a sudden Hooded Merganser made me re-think the day. It was turning out to be not too bad.

I met up with a small birding group under the leadership of a friend who suggested that quiet patience on my part should reward me with glimpses of an American Bittern. They’d been watching it for several minutes until it finally retreated into the cattail background.  This bittern is a recently arrived, somewhat-out-of-place, sensation. It drew crowds for a few days last week but became old news and was soon forgotten. I waited and watched for perhaps 30 minutes but saw nothing, it doesn’t take much background to hide a bittern. I mused that it might have been a nice Bird of the Day for these pages.

A little later, the above-mentioned friend found me again. He had parted company with his small group and was now on the lookout for Fox Sparrows. I suggested that mid-November might be a little late, but he was in a Find-a-Fox-Sparrow competition with his cousin and was anxious to keep looking, particularly now since she had. As we stood around, idly weighing birdy topics, a Cooper’s Hawk dashed through the now bare branches rightly alarming various House Sparrows, Downy Woodpeckers and Dark–eyed Juncos. And as we gazed up a Turkey Vulture drifted across the tree tops.  Eight warmer months of the year a Turkey Vulture wouldn’t turn heads, but now they’ve all gone south, at least I thought they had, but not this one apparently and I was surprised enough to think of it as My Bird of the Day.

October 23rd 2013. Four vultures hanging in a funereal sky. The sort of setting that somehow suits them.

RBG. Hendrie Valley, Burlington ON. October 26^th. 2020. This site is not noted for its biblical references, but this from Ecclesiasties, “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:” is surely appropriate in the world birders inhabit. In the case of Fox Sparrows, today’s Bird of the Day, it is particularly apt. We expect to see them in the last two or three weeks of October and, like clockwork, my first fall sighting this year was six days ago, today I encountered another seven.

Fox Sparrows are appropriately named for their all-over foxy-red plumage which is saturated in varying intensities. All-over other than for some rather clay-coloured facial markings and the pale background to the breast splotches.  We usually find them actively tossing, picking and scratching through the freshly-fallen leaf litter, they’re sometimes difficult to pick out in the leafy debris. Today’s Fox Sparrows easily made My Birds of the Day for their gorgeous colours and seasonal reliability.

The Fox Sparrow is a very widespread North American species and one of the most geographically variable. There are four subspecies and much colour variation within them, not all are nearly as foxy-red as the ones we meet around here. I remember, a dozen years ago, puzzling over an unexpected Fox Sparrow on coastal British Columbia. The western subspecies is a much sootier brown and it was a bit of a struggle to identify because my field guide emphasised the redness of more eastern populations. It was, I recall, something of a disappointment.

There was more to the day though and on our transect the Mallard count was 189 (see yesterday’s post), we watched Purple Finches feeding greedily on thick seed-heads, and found three Green–winged Teal mixed in among a group of Mallards and Wood Ducks.

RBG. Hendrie Valley, Burlington ON. October 25^th. 2020. I’m certain all birders scan the sky, the skyline and exposed branches. It’s easy pickings sometimes, we do it without thinking and constantly.  On our regular transect in this valley there are a number of old spikey snags, once formidable trees, now just crooked fingers. Today I noted a bird atop one of them and assumed it to be a lingering Red-winged Blackbird, it’s the sort of thing they do. My companion though took a little more care and wondered what it was on that dead old tree.  I looked again. “Merlin I think. Let’s get a bit closer.” 

Fearing that it might fly off at our approach, needlessly as it turns out, we hurried closer and discovered that it was indeed a Merlin, it was too busy plucking a Cedar Waxwing for breakfast to care about us, and besides it was a full twenty metres above us.

Just minutes earlier we had seen a tight flock of twenty or so waxwings and not paid it a lot of attention; they’re quite common about now but Merlins are among the many hazards that thin out bird populations.

Our transect this day was uneventful, typically autumnal although, I should note that the Mallard population in this valley has swollen enormously. We are experiencing days with three or four times the usual number.  Fifty or sixty Mallards is not unusual in the valley, but today it was 213, five days ago 133. The valley must look ideal to migrating birds high above and on their way south but, looking down to see a sheltered place with quiet ponds and plenty of food, how could they resist. I’m sure they are feeding on appropriately named Duckweed, a tiny green plant the size of a match-head, millions of which may carpet a pond bright green making it look sinisterly unhealthy, but in fact fuel for ducks, geese and swans. In short order the Mallards will leave and the ponds will become more suitable for skating.

Today the Merlin and its Cedar Waxwing breakfast were My Birds of the Day but the Mallards, in their own way, set the scene.