Category: Uncategorized

February 1 2018. Dundas, ON. A sudden change of plans leaves the month of February open to me for new challenges. Free of major obligations I’ve set myself the goal of hiking a stretch of quite rugged trails, about thirty to forty kilometers in bite-size chunks is what I have in mind.

A decent snowfall two nights ago has made the trail with its uncertain footing and steep slopes out of the question,   I opted instead to follow a part of it through an old residential neighbourhood. The strengthening sun had the upper hand today so the roads and sidewalks were dry and clear of ice patches, you couldn’t say it was spring-like, winter is still firmly in the driver’s seat, but you could dream.

My attention was caught by a sudden flurry of bird life and found the attraction was a small, well-loaded feeder. House Sparrows – How dreary I thought. When you weigh up the positives and negatives of House Sparrows you’re really not left with a lot one way or the other; but at least they’re here and they can brighten up a winter day. I took a number of photos, which manage to make them look quite engaging. Engaging enough to be Birds of the Day.

And some will think I have my priorities all wrong for, on my way home, I stopped at a reliable spot to see an Eastern Screech Owl and there it was, making the most of the morning sun. I suppose it should have been Bird of the Day, after all it’s an owl. But lovely though the owl is, I give the recognition to House Sparrows, the unsung foot soldiers of winter.

January 28 2018. Valley Road Dundas, ON. In need of exercise and because the day dawned bright and mild, I walked a steep and wooded trail this morning. I was more focused on the treacherous footing than anything else but it entered my mind that this might be the sort of day to keep a list of birds heard but not seen, easy enough in mid-winter I suppose. Today the list would have been Black-capped Chickadee, White-breasted Nuthatch, Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers and American Crows.

Although spring is three months away the air was warm and I could imagine these woods as they will be a few months from now. It was an enjoyable two hours and made all the more enjoyable by the appearance of two Common Ravens passing overhead.  They were calling to each other in a voice I can’t begin to describe, but which Pete Dunne, in his excellent book Pete Dunne’s Essential Field Guide Companion, takes a stab at as follows, “Short, loud, varied and comical. Some vocalizations are loud and harsh; others are low, gurgled or muttered. All have a rough musical finesse that makes crows sound amateurish.”

What’s so special about Common Ravens is that they were anything but common a handful of years ago, indeed they were a rarity in these parts. But over the past two or three years more and more have been reported, it’s as if they’ve made a decision to colonize urban Ontario.

They are birds synonymous with wilder, emptier and more rugged areas than this densely populated realm. I’ve seen or heard Common Ravens in Sweden, Mexico and at the Grand Canyon, Arizona, and in Uganda I met the very similar White-naped Raven, which behaves and sounds very much like the Common Raven – but its malevolent looking Roman-nose bill gives it a distinctly brutish look. Here is an international selection of photos of ravens.

January 21 2018. Oakes Rd. Stoney Creek, ON. Birding seemed like a good idea, the hard cold of two weeks ago has gone, the snow cover was fading and it wasn’t particularly cold. Barry & I set out to follow up on a number of oddities and rarities reports.

We hadn’t even started the car when we heard the first spring whistle-song of a cardinal coming from an old tree overhead. It’s amazing what a few notes of “Tewww-tewww-tewww’ can do to a mid-winter day. This was a male Northern Cardinal probably made aware by increasing daylight that he had better stake out his territory before someone else seizes it.

Almost every stop turned up some good birds: Twenty Bald Eagles on the frozen harbour, just as it was two weeks ago; A single Harlequin Duck found and much publicized earlier by others but interesting because they are few and far between on the Great Lakes, and one of our local Peregrine Falcons scaring the living daylights out of resident Rock Pigeons hanging around a bridge.

We stopped to see a reported group of King Eiders, there were six of them, one young male and six females, quite a long way offshore and close to large groups of Surf Scoters, a bird I haven’t seen well for many years. Here’s a picture of three King Eiders from four years ago when they wintered in a nearby marina.

At our next stop, while my companion was searching the distant lake waters for Black Scoters, I was completely smitten by a youngish Snowy Owl sitting on the rooftop of a nearby house.

Leaving the owl and the far-too-distant-for-me scoters, we went in pursuit of a reported Ross’s Goose – a rarity which we didn’t find. Instead we were surprised and delighted by the company of half a dozen White-crowned Sparrows (totally unexpected and always a treat). They are close relatives of the rather common, if seasonal, White-throated Sparrow and, like them, have a sweet, distinctive and drawn-out song. Going a little off road we spotted a Northern Mockingbird and somewhere distant could hear a Great Horned Owl calling.

Finally, we stopped at a spot known for Short-eared Owls, and although we didn’t see any we were happy with two American Kestrels, a Northern Shrike, two Common Ravens, another Peregrine Falcon a brief glimpse at a Rough-legged Hawk (almost certainly the same bird I wrote about on January 1^st) and to wrap up the day, a flock of about thirty Turkeys.

When I set down to write this I couldn’t say which of so many good sightings was my Bird of the Day. The Northern Cardinal was top of the list for a long time but became equal-first with that close-at-hand Snowy Owl. But I think the wow moment came with the White-crowned Sparrows, quite unexpected, totally charming and they stopped me in my tracks.

January 16 2018. Hendrie valley, Burlington, ON. Canadians like to think of themselves as winter-hardy. I doubt that many of us really are, most of us are urbanites and live in cosseted comfort; no wood to hew or water to draw. I sure felt un-hardy today when I took two heavy falls on ice. Both times I landed hard and gracelessly with disconcerting cracks and bangs heard from my binoculars and camera.

I had decided to take a mid-winter birding walk along a lightly used and rough but nevertheless favourite valley trail; in fact its name, Creekside Walk, pretty much describes it. The problem, if you can call it that, is that within the past week or so: we’ve had a sudden and complete thaw followed by a day of heavy rain, a quick and hard freeze and finally last night a few inches of light fluffy snow. So while this riverbank trail looked clean, white and inviting, under the snow were scattered and randomly tilted (!) slabs of ice. Thick ice groaning under your weight can be fun especially if every now and then you feel the ice give a little (being generally sensible of course). The ice along the trail didn’t need to give to alarm me, it was just plain treacherous. But although the fun went out of the slipping and sliding, against my better judgment I kept going; this was supposed to be a birding walk.

Well the truth of the matter is that I saw maybe four birds, two Black-capped Chickadees looking for a handout, a Carolina Wren dashing for cover and a soaring Red-tailed Hawk. This is in the valley where I have spent so many rewarding birding hours, where I’ve almost seen enough Blue-headed Vireos, Ospreys and Green Herons to last a lifetime; yet today just four birds.

So Bird of the Day? I’d like to think it was the Carolina Wren, but the birds that really made me think wow were twenty Bald Eagles hanging around on the wide ice of our industrial harbour, waiting for duck dinner. A congregation, which this cosseted Canadian was able to view from his heated car.

Last year I spent a month in south-western Uganda.  It has taken me a while I’ll admit but after much organizing of thoughts I have finished telling the story about birding in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park.  You’ll find it by following this link. Oh and there are gorillas there too.