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Uganda January 26 2017. It’s been a long time since I can say I really enjoyed birding from the seat of my car. It can be productive, its true, and if there’s a team of birders crammed together the camaraderie helps a lot, but I’ve come to think that the fuel used is hard to justify and you certainly can’t make any claims to healthy exercise. Today however was different.,

With my guide Robert we crossed Uganda, almost side to side, east to west from Entebbe to Bundibugiyo, about 400 km. Robert is an accomplished birder and a professional tour guide, he is to be my lifeline for seven days, we drove (or rather he did) because we’re going into Semliki National Park tomorrow morning. Four hundred kilometres was bound to turn up some nice birds and bearing in mind that it’s pretty well all new to me, there was bound to be something to make my bird of the day.

Dedicated readers will recall my ode to a European Roller some weeks back, how its sapphire blue-ness and sheer improbability put it on my I- bet-I-never-see-one-of-those list. Then all was put to rights by seeing dozens, if not hundreds in Kazakhstan. it hadn’t registered with me then that there could be other rollers extant in this world; and that was the lesson for today, there’s more.

What I took at first to be a kestrel of some kind making a purposefully sweeping turn just above tree level and coming to a rest on utility lines, turned out to be a Broad– billed Roller. Setting aside the rather comic connotations of its name, (its not the only bird in creation that could stand a little bit of re-styling I’d say) this was bit of a show-stopper. In flight it had shown a rich chestnut back and wings and a dazzling blue rump and tail. From where we gazed at it, all we could see was its rusty chestnut coloured undersides, a hint of aquamarine beneath its tail and to be fair a very wide bill. I think though that you’ll understand that I was impressed.

Another roadside sighting was a Lilac-breasted Roller, an even more eye-catching beauty. I had to crane my neck a little for a good look and a photo.  How does it get away with dazzling blues like that? And then there’s the chestnut-turning cinnamon, a dashing black eye line and a few touches of cream around the head and neck. Now I have three roller species in my mental collection. I know there are places in the world where rollers are run of the mill and now I have three roller species in my mental display case but it will take a while for me to not be stopped in my tracks by them.

I’ll add for the record, that in order to provide material for this site, I spent this evening in Bundibugyo in an establishment known as Vanilla Hotel. It is reputed to be the best overnight accommodation available in this smallish market town. A little research ahead of time hadn’t helped, former guests who left comments on TripAdvisor were all withering in their reviews, so I knew not to expect too much. My room was acceptably clean which was nice and, to some extent, made up for lack of a shower or indeed running water for any purpose, or for a supposed beef stew ( the only thing on the dinner menu) which included a three large tangles of improbable bones tied together with something odd looking and certainly un-chewable. Still a cold beer was perfect and since my body was still trying to sort out what time of just which day it was I could overlook many imperfections.

p.s Somewhat alarmingly (but several weeks later)  while typing Bundibugyo into Google it auto-filled with “Bundibugyo ebolavirus’ Hmmm!  Apparently “Bundibugyo ebolavirus (BEBOV / BDBV)is one of the four ebolavirus that cause Ebola virus disease in humans.”  Just thought you’d be interested.

Friday January 13 2017. RBG Arboretum, Hamilton ON. In need of a good winter leg-stretch and an opportunity to blow the cobwebs away I took the longest and hilly-est route I could find around a wide expanse of woodland. The weather was cooperating, sunny at times but cold enough to be crunchy underfoot, and the day turned out to be quite productive bird-wise. I don’t think I saw another human soul for most of the five kilometers of trails I covered.

I was surprised and delighted by this Winter Wren who popped out of the fringes of a cattail marsh and was curious to see what the fuss was all about. The fuss, such as it was, came from a bunch of Black-capped Chickadees who seemed to expect that I had brought food for them, but I hadn’t and the chickadees were indignantly persistent. The chickadees also attracted the attention of a couple of American Tree Sparrows and a White-throated Sparrow. The rather unexpected Winter Wren was a treat and I had mentally tagged it as my Bird of the Day until just a little further up a trail I found myself almost face to face with this male Pileated Woodpecker. Step aside Winter Wren!

There are many things to celebrate about Pileateds . They’re big, showy and gloriously awesome (awesome in the literal, pre generation-x, sense of the word). They’re more often heard than seen; you’ll often catch a Pileated’s ringing call from perhaps half a kilometer away. Sometimes it’s not only their vocalization but their hammering that you pick up, in search of succulent grubs they bash away at soft old trees, loudly like the chiseling of a medieval shipbuilder; there’s nothing else quite like it. When you see Pileateds it’s often a fleeting, distant and sometimes shy glimpse; but today I was lucky.

This male (male’s have a red moustachial stripe, females black) seemed generally unconcerned about my presence. He didn’t want me too close but 20 feet away seemed to be okay. He was deeply engrossed excavating for food, but even so, as is so typical of Pileateds, he opted to maintain a practical and physical separation by prefering to stay on the opposite side of the tree from me. I stood watching and waiting for perhaps fifteen minutes, knowing he was there and just catching the odd photo when he’d venture around, but more often than not it was just a flash of his red head to one side or the other.

It rarely easy in my experience to get a good photo of a Pileated, and today, although I took the better part of eighty shots, his evasiveness, the foreground clutter and sharply contrasting light made it tricky. Still I did quite well and on one of my shots you can just make out his long, probing tongue. Here is a gallery of shots visible only on the website, not if you’re reading this as an email. Click on any photo to see it enlarged.

It was one of those birding experiences with everything working in my favour: I had the place to myself and there was no urgency on my part or the Pileated’s, a Red-bellied Woodpecker was just behind it (a nice counterpoint) and a White-breasted Nuthatch behind that (ditto).

Funny how, in the depths of winter, woodlands and their fringes can be very quiet one day, and then at other times, like today, quite rewarding, it makes you wonder where the birds go to on the quiet days. By the time I completed my walk I had added a Carolina Wren, three Hairy Woodpeckers, a Northern Mockingbird, Northern Cardinals and a couple of soaring Red-tailed Hawks to my day.

 

Saturday January 7 2017. Royal Botanical Gardens Arboretum, Hamilton ON. A young friend, an enthusiastic and personable staff member at Royal Botanical Gardens, is offering a series of monthly Introduction to Birding walks. Registration is limited, people love it and he’s a little overwhelmed. He asked for help and I’m always happy to share my enjoyment of birds even though I’m a fair weather birder and today was cold like old stone.

Still, our happy group was captivated and eagerly absorbed the instruction on effective use of binoculars. (A side note here; the eyecups on most modern binoculars can be adjusted by a quick turn between extended or flat-down. If you’re not wearing glasses extend them up, if you are wearing glasses the cups should be down. The distance from the surface of your eye to the lens of the binoculars makes a ton of difference.)

Frankly we didn’t see many birds but the group enjoyed learning about the characteristic flight style of an American Crow (Straight ahead, flap flap flap.). We watched a group of House Sparrows finding some food and maybe warmth in the crevices of an old wall and enjoyed the hungry attention of Black-capped Chickadees.

The highlight was undoubtedly the appearance fairly low overhead of an adult Bald Eagle. Against the blue sky it was a classic, its stark white head and tail set against the all-black wings and body had everyone’s full attention. We were in a small, tree-sheltered valley and instead of the eagle crossing from one side to the other – in view for a moment and then out of view – it hesitated half way, made an abrupt acrobatic turn and changed course. It was unquestionably our Bird of the Day.

January 1 2017. Downtown Burlington, ON. My morning routine is usually,  make coffee, glance at newspaper, then check for emails. But it was pretty slim e-mail pickings on the first day of the year although there are those emailers who dispatch something every day, come what may. Today 10,000 Birds asked, “What was your first bird of 2016?” A bit early I thought, it’s still dark out – but I’ll watch for it, and thereupon resolved that whatever I saw first would be my Bird of the Day, despite the fact that a few years ago my first of the year was a Ring-billed Gull; how dreary. Would 2017 be any better?

It wasn’t until around mid-day that I left the house. It was surprisingly warm, around 4 deg. C, and I was looking forward to leading a nature hike. As I approached my car I could hear the wheezy little notes of a couple of American Goldfinches high above in an old Ash tree. Heard but not seen I acknowledge, but they have equivalency to me; not everyone agrees. But there you have it, American Goldfinch My Bird of the Day to start 2017.  Here are a couple of goldfinch shots from warmer days.

Perhaps more interesting is a note for January 1^st in my everlasting nature diary. In 1988 I wrote. “With Geo, M thought we should work on our ’88 list. In its exhaustiveness the list thus far is Canada Goose, Mallard, Black Duck, N Pintail, Gadwall, Green-winged Teal, Canvasback, Greater Scaup, Lesser Scaup, Bufflehead, Red-breasted Merganser, Common Merganser, Black Vulture, Rough-legged. Hawk, American Kestrel, Great Blue Heron, Great Black-backed Gull, Herring Gull, Ring-billed Gull, Bonaparte’s Gull, Rock Dove, Mourning Dove, Downy Woodpecker, Blue Jay, Starling, House Sparrow, House Finch, Crow, Chickadee, Junco (31). “ I don’t compile year lists any more, really I never did with any enthusiasm, so I’m not attuned to what’s in town and what’s not but I think it’s an impressive start to 1988.

Of special note is that Black Vulture, I clearly remember that bird seen as a big black lump in the top of a large Eastern Hemlock, I could lead you to the very tree today. Black Vultures, while common throughout most of U.S states to the south of us, have been essentially absent from Ontario except for the odd one now and then. But things are changing and Black Vultures are poised to expand their range northwards. Perhaps, in the vulture community, word is spreading that Turkey Vultures are doing too well in Ontario to have it all to themselves. Over perhaps the last five years it’s almost become a sport to stand on the banks of the Niagara River and watch and wait for one of a pair of resident New York State Black Vultures to stray across international border.

And for what it’s worth, by the end of today I could have legitimately compiled a list with: Black-capped Chickadee, House Sparrow, White-breasted Nuthatch, Ring-billed Gull, Mallard, American Black Duck, Trumpeter Swan, Bufflehead, Orange-crowned Warbler, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Red-tailed Hawk and Canada Goose.

December 25 2016. LaSalle Marina, Burlington, ON. On Christmas Day 2013 I wrote about Canvasbacks as my Birds of the Day.  It’s worth taking a look if only for the rather wintery photos that accompany the post. December 2013 saw the start of the now infamous Polar Vortex winter that seized North America by the throat for the best part of five months, only finally letting up in mid-May.

Now, Christmas Day three years later, and once again the Canvasbacks are in town. I walked the length of a sheltered waterfront trail knowing that many winter ducks should be close. But this Christmas Day is considerably warmer, the waters of the harbour carry no ice so ducks, wherever they are, have no compulsion to hug the shoreline. Still, it was pleasant watching Canada Geese getting together and it kept my camera busy trying to capture their skillful splash landings.

A family of Trumpeter Swans drifted around some algae-draped rocks and I was struck by how dependent the young seem to be on their parents. In two or three months, as winter draws to a close, the cygnets of 2016 will probably be told to get lost and to make their own way in the world; the adults will have the next round of breeding in mind.

And once again, just as in 2013, Birds of the Day were Canvasbacks, large rafts of them were anchored just off shore. Here’s a couple of the best shot from today – but no snow in the air this time.