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Paletta park, Burlington, ON. April 30 2020.  It was wet here all morning, our share of an ugly looking weather system that swept south to east across North America. That system probably impeded much of last night’s spring migration flight but when the skies cleared around lunch time, staying indoors any longer seemed like a bad idea. So, I went over to a local park known as a good place for birds and a particularly good spot to find spring migrants. It lies perhaps 10 kilometres from a similar park on the opposite shore of Lake Ontario and it’s easy to imagine that birds take a shortcut crossing the lake, park to park, rather than going all the way around the heavily urbanised west-end shoreline of the lake.

The park was very active with hordes of White-crowned Sparrows working through the thick undergrowth of the naturalised creek floodplain. If anyone had asked me how many there were I’d have said at least 200 – although it would have been a wild guess. But the same, equally wild guess might just as easily have applied to Ruby-crowned Kinglets busy picking through the thick upper reaches of a bank of White Cedars; each one a mere 6 grams, little more than a 25-cent coin. Just those two species alone made the trip worthwhile but a Swamp Sparrow, a Yellow-rumped Warbler and a few late-leaving Dark-eyed Juncos added a bit of variety and made the afternoon complete. Complete that is until a Brown Thrasher flew past me. Brown Thrashers are always worth stopping what you’re doing for, so I moved towards it hoping for a better and confirming view. It wasn’t very keen about my approach but a long lens enabled me to get a few satisfying photos and the smile to myself said Bird of the Day. Yep, and so it was.

Aldershot, ON. April 29 2020.  At eleven last night the radar map showed the skies of North America to be almost solid with birds in flight. So, this morning I was up early and out hoping to find a feast of new arrivals. I made my way to a quiet, wet-bottomed valley and for a while wondered what all of last night’s radar fuss was about. But then, as often happens in spring, there was a sea change and there were new arrivals around me. First, a nervous White-crowned Sparrow that brought a smile to my face, it was keeping company with a group of White–throated Sparrows foraging in the understory. Above, in some towering White Pines I could hear a Pine Warbler trilling and not far from it a Yellow–rumped Warbler worked through some dogwood branches searching for an insect breakfast.

Making my way back to my car, I heard a Swamp Sparrow in full ‘this-bit-of-swamp-belongs-to-me’ song, he was so absorbed in it that I had little trouble getting photos of him. As I watched and listened I heard another song off to the right, somewhat familiar but a touch off-key. It took a minute or two to process but I thought I was probably hearing a Common Yellowthroat; their song is distinctive and bold and they are probably much more often heard than seen. But this song was tentative and perhaps a touch hoarse, I made a mental note, ‘possible Common Yellowthroat’ and then, moments later, it popped up right in front of me! We eyed each other for a moment before it flew to the other side of a small watercourse to hunt down a meal in a tangle of spring flood debris. This is him.

There are many months of the year when a Common Yellowthroat is a touch routine; but not this morning, it was My Bird of the Day and confirmation that last night’s radar had it right.

Greenwood Cemetery, Burlington ON. April 24 2020 Two streaky brown bird species made my day today, several Brown Creepers (nice but not unexpected) and a pair of Merlins – a big surprise and My Birds of the Day.

This post is written in the context of the Covid 19 virus lockdown.  While we are actively discouraged from leaving home, common sense has its place in the fight against spreading the infection.  I decided to go for exercise and explore the solitudes of an old cemetery not far from home. You could hardly call it quiet as it is flanked on one side by perhaps the province’s busiest highway but the cemetery is heavily treed and has an unkempt creek valley between it and the highway; it should hold some interesting birds particularly when the spring surge starts in a few days.

Within moments of starting I saw small movements which turned out to be several Brown Creepers busy gleaning insects from the craggy bark of mature trees. You have to be very quick to get a decent photo of a Brown Creeper, they make their way up a tree trunk so rapidly that I had trouble following them with my camera. My only success came by focussing a few feet above the bird and waiting for it to scurry up into view – then take one quick shot before it’s gone. This is the best I could manage.

The Merlins were a delight. I’m pretty sure they are a breeding pair and I’ll be back to watch for progress. One, probably the female, seemed pretty content surveying the landscape from the extreme tip of an old Norway Spruce while her mate patrolled the neighbourhood vocalising and sometimes rocketing off to chase away someone or something unwelcome, I was never sure who or what he took exception to but take exception he did. Here he is about to chase off another would-be intruder.

Hamilton, Ontario, ON. April 23 2020 This is an auspicious day. The English in particular note it as St. George’s Day, and as if that weren’t enough, it is also William Shakespeare’s birthday – or would be if he was still around. Still, two calls for celebration in one day is hard to beat. But, wait there’s more, a birding friend texted us today with another cause for celebration, a “White Crowned Sparrow in my garden!”

I am thrilled for her, Alex is a keen student of this birding game and joins me as often as she can, and it pays off. That’s twice in a couple of weeks that she’s shared an exciting, close-to-home bird, two weeks ago it was an Eastern Towhee. Towhees are a nice sighting but after a while tend towards the “Oh Yeah really” response  But a White-crowned Sparrow! A gorgeous little bird that would make the running for My Bird of the Day any day.

Well, it seems everyone else is re-writing the rules, so I confer upon White-crowned Sparrow my Bird of the Day c/o Alex. I’m left with limiting myself to reviewing my many photos of them, some of which I share for our collective enjoyment. (The one below was taken on a late November day after a thick wet snowfall. It is a juvenile, identifiable as a White-crowned Sparrow by its all-pink bill – otherwise how would you know).

Paletta Park, Burlington ON. April 19 2020. “Are we there yet?’ It’s on the tip of my tongue; a quote, of course, from the same mouths that gave us “Yuck!” and “I’m bored.” But I know we’re not there yet, it’s only mid-April. Sometimes it can be a long teasing road into spring, and Covid 19 isn’t helping.  I tried for some spring breakthrough sightings today and count my blessings that I found a couple of, always charming Ruby-crowned Kinglets, one or two Horned Grebes bobbing far offshore and a pair of Red-necked Grebes snoozing in a quiet backwater, waiting for someone to bring out the old floating tire so they can start nest-building. (see photos below and post from 2012) 

I should add that in the absence of our usual seasonal bird population survey work, (temporarily sidelined) I am rising to the challenge of seeing how many species I can find within a 5-mile (or 8-kilometer) radius of home, I started my tally on March 1. I think I’m doing pretty well at 72 recorded so far, today’s kinglet was a valid addition and the snoozing grebes just squeaked in at 4.8 miles from home.

But other than that, my Birds of the Day were a pair of Northern Cardinals taking a bath together. I’m sure no-one would seriously quibble with the notion that a committed couple might shower together but I think we’d probably draw the line at using a small urban stream, icy cold in April. But as I typed this, I remembered that I had indeed done just that, bathed in a blue-with-cold meltwater river (the river that you’ll see in this post) in the mountains of Kyrgyzstan, just two years ago. But I didn’t do it with the relaxed composure and relish that these cardinals showed. Perhaps I should have kept my clothes on.