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October 29^th. 2017. LaSalle Park, Burlington, ON. Whenever I keep field notes of birds seen, usually for our transect work, I habitually list the passerines on the left side of the page and non-passerines on the right. (Passerines are often thought of as songbirds, but are officially defined as birds distinguished from other orders of Aves by the arrangement of their toes, three pointing forward and one back, which facilitates perching.) I mention this because almost always, passerine species far outnumber non-passerines; today it was the other way around, literally a sign of the times.

The great autumnal purge of song birds is almost complete and things must be getting hostile to the north of us because large flotillas of migrant ducks are appearing on our lakes and waterways. Along the pathway that defines one of our transect routes I spotted a convoy of ten Common Mergansers, followed later by three Red–breasted Mergansers and much later one Hooded Merganser. There were Northern Shovelers, Gadwall, Mallards, Mute Swans and Green–winged Teal too; only Mallards are year round residents here.

On the way home I made a stop at a couple of parks along the shore of our large harbour and scanned a bobbing raft of Redheads, Gadwall and Lesser Scaup, I looked for Tundra Swans and Canvasbacks but saw neither, late October is when they start to appear.

But the bird that stood out, the bird that met my Bird of the Day test by prompting a wow response in me, was a solitary Great Black–backed Gull. They’re not rare, not common either, but wherever and whenever they occur they have presence; perhaps as the world’s largest gull species they could hardly fail. I think most gulls are omnivorous and opportunistic feeders, anything goes, but Great Black-backed Gulls are rapaciously omnivorous and opportunistic. This photo below was taken three of four years ago in a time of deep cold and the young Great Black-backed Gull, drifting along on a plate of ice, had either preyed upon a seriously weakened duck or scavenged a corpse. That’s the sort of thing they go in for, I’d advise against showing signs of weakness when Great Black-backed Gulls are at hand.

With reference to my comments in my previous post about the difficulty of photographing a Golden-crowned Kinglet, well I came close to success today with this one.

October 27^th. 2017. RBG Hendrie Valley, Burlington, ON. I have been anticipating the appearance of Fox Sparrows for a week or so and today I was rewarded with the sight of two of them. They popped up from somewhere deep in a thicket of Red Osier Dogwoods, surveyed me disapprovingly for half a minute and then left. Just the sight of them, the fulfillment of an expectation, made them Birds of the Day in a day full of interesting stuff.

Fox Sparrows pass through in spring and fall on their way to and from winter spent in the central southern U.S and summer in subarctic Alaska to Labrador. In spring we look for them picking through spilled seed around bird-feeders where they sometimes take a few minutes off to try out their melodious yet somehow secretive song. Spring or fall it’s their sturdy angular build and rich foxy red plumage that makes you stop and stare. This photo was taken on about this date a couple of years ago.

For a short while later I watched a posse of ten Golden–crowned Kinglets working over a patch of Periwinkle searching for the kind of microscopic food that keeps these engaging little mites alive. They were close enough and bold enough, and I optimistic enough, that I invested perhaps too much time trying to get a good photo of one. Goodness knows I’ve tried and tried but they rarely stay in one place for more than a moment and I always seem to get blurry, out of focus, or just-leaving-you-now shots or, if I’m lucky a well focused back-end portrait. I did no better today, here’s a gallery of today’s shots, just as I described.

They are in marked contrast to this shot of a stoic Great Blue Heron who stood watching me warily, but nevertheless chose to stay at the river’s edge where there was the chance of a meal.

October 21^st . 2017. RBG Hendrie Valley, Burlington, ON. With two companions I walked the transect route around this lovely valley. It was eight o-clock when we started and unusually warm for this time of year but it became dank and chilly as we headed down to where the cold airs of night had settled. This uncharacteristically warm fall has confused the natural world, daylight length tells you it’s late October but it still feels like mid-September. Trees and herbaceous plants know it’s time to close down for the winter but without frost and other low-temperature cues their leaves are reluctant to let go.

At a time of year when bird sounds are mostly chip notes, chatters and sibilant whispers, very few songs emerge; the likeliest to be heard are American Robins, Carolina Wrens and faint traces of White-throated Sparrows. Today as we followed the edge of the small creek I heard (or did I imagine?) the simple element parts of a vireo, the three-eight of maybe a Red-eyed Vireo. The idea, just the barest possibility floated around the recesses of my mind but was generally disregarded as impossible; until right in front of us a Blue-headed Vireo hopped into view. I ignored everything else and became quite vireo-absorbed in admiration and trying to get a photo lest anyone accuse me of distorting the truth. Here it is, Bird of the Day without equal.

A couple more surprises (to me anyway) came a little later as we made our way around a woodland-edged pond where I can reliably expect some loafing Mallards, Wood Ducks and a Great Blue Heron; they were there alright but so too were three each of Gadwall and Northern Shovelers. These must be newly arrived migrants and may not stay for long. I don’t expect to see shovelers until it’s a lot colder, usually mid-November. They’re all handsome birds: Mallard, Wood Duck, Gadwall and Shoveler and on a small woodland pond made a beautiful mental picture to go home with.

October 14^th. 2017. RBG Hendrie Valley, Burlington, ON. I scrapped the first couple of attempts at writing this because I was struggling to frame the idea that some migrant species arrive in waves, or pulses. But that’s it, that’s what I wanted to say. It’s mid October, probably the majority of south-bound species have cleared out by now and birding these days features the arrival and passage of the hardier species passing through as if on a schedule.

What we’re seeing at this rather late date is the passage of migrants most of whom are quite winter-hardy. For them almost anywhere with the right habitat south of the Great Lakes is safe enough through the winter months and we are at the northern limit of that winter range. Some will stay with us especially in sheltered places like valleys with open water or around houses and thick hedges.

For a week or two we have been witness to hordes of White-throated Sparrows working through our woodlands, everywhere you focus your attention there would be a white-throat or two bouncing around. With them came Golden–crowned Kinglets, always on the move, picking, fluttering and searching especially around leaf stalks for insects, they’ve been followed closely by Ruby–crowned Kinglets who I think are now in the majority.

Barely a week ago the first Hermit Thrushes of the fall showed up, now they are almost common; although common may not be the best choice of word because you don’t see many, they’re so secretive. Today I happened upon two, but they are evasive and stay low, I’m certain there are many more around. While other members of the thrush family make their way into Central and South America, the Hermit Thrush manages to get though winter in the southern half of the United States and into Mexico; a few even linger as far north as this part of Ontario but I think they’re really pushing their luck.

In the last couple of days Winter Wrens have shown up, a very few will stay the winter but most will keep going. It’s often just a flicker of dark movement somewhere low and impossibly tangled that gives them away. But if you’re patient they usually re-emerge just a few feet away and jump around, flying low and fast, to get your measure.

Four Winter Wrens were my Birds of the Day but were among many interesting sightings. They were in a transect count that included a late Common Yellowthroat, nearly sixty White-throated Sparrows (it’s reasonable to assume that for every one I counted another ten were not far away.): Two Hermit Thrushes, Two Swamp Sparrows and, heard but not seen, an Eastern Towhee. I’ll be listening and watching for more signs of the Towhee, it just might stay in this sheltered valley.

October 9^th. 2017. RBG Arboretum, Hamilton, ON. Last night we were drenched with the aftermath of a late tropical storm, originally Hurricane Nate, as hurricane’s go it was a relatively lightweight number but it still managed to do a lot of damage to Costa Rica. I was scheduled to do one of our transects and had pretty well decided it would be a wash out, but then the rain stopped and radar showed the whole system had moved on. It was a good outing that delivered a handful of surprises.

First in rather gloomy light, a roosting flock of forty Turkey Vultures on the skeleton of a transmission line tower. These are birds who prefer to soar on warm rising air than flap too hard for a living so I’m sure they were waiting for the sun to come out.

Once on the trail I was almost shocked to find a Northern Mockingbird sharing the upper reaches of a leafless hawthorn with a flock of Red–winged Blackbirds. It really was a surprise, it’s been far too long since my last one. They have never been common here, we’re on the northern edge of their range, and I feel the local population has dwindled in the past half-dozen or so years, partly due, I suspect, to the aftermath of a couple of punishing winters, I don’t know. Anyway I was very pleased to see it and asterisked it in my field notes as probable Bird of the Day.

Rounding the corner to a grassy path that cuts through a wide expanse of waist high goldenrod and dogwood, I found myself among a nervous scattering of Myrtle Warblers, Song Sparrows, White–crowned Sparrows, a Common Yellowthroat and a Tennessee Warbler. The White-crowned Sparrows were also Bird of the Day-worthy and especially captivating; just like their White-throated Sparrow cousins. Both are just-passing-through birds, the White-throats show up first, and we can count on them for charm, then the White-crowneds follow a bit later as if to show how smart a sparrow can be. Here’s one photographed one spring morning some years ago.

The path leads through a tunnel of overgrown shrubs into a tract of tall mixed forest. In the too often bird-less tunnel I was happy to find several flitting Myrtle Warblers and a lone Eastern Phoebe, which always managed to stay several comfortable yards ahead of me. But a nice surprise came when a Hermit Thrush (the first of three this morning) popped up to take a quick look at me, trying to decide whether I was much of a threat I suppose. All of our thrush species have a discrete, almost shifty, way of moving from your approach, making you wonder whether you only imagined movement. Then if you do catch sight of one, it’s usually looking back over its shoulder, in a kind of better-safe-than-sorry stance.

This family of thrushes can be quite confusingly similar in appearance and making a quick identification takes some practice and experience. The Hermit Thrush is one of the easiest because its back, rump and tail show a rich rusty brown as this photo taken in my back yard a couple of years ago shows.

Much as I’d enjoyed the Northern Mockingbird and the White-throated Sparrows the Hermit Thrush really stopped me in my tracks and stood out as my Bird of the Day.

The two hours I spent on the trail produced well over thirty species, not bad at all, but among them were many very nice sightings: the vultures, mockingbird, sparrows and thrushes as described, but also a handful of discrete Tennessee Warblers, two Common Yellowthroats, twenty or so American Robins getting drunk on some ripe magnolia berries, a small flock of Chipping Sparrows and a Cooper’s Hawk in a leafless tree quietly watching over a wide park hoping for an easy kill.