A Birdy Affair
I’m a poor excuse for a birder the last couple of years, and I can notice it when I do manage to get out in the field. My audio identification skills are rusty; I hear bird calls, and know that I should be able to identify the species, but it doesn’t come to me like it would have four or five years ago when I birded more frequently. Having been a birder since the age of 7 however, it’s something that’s ingrained in me, and not easily lost.
Yesterday I did make it out to participate in the annual Christmas Bird Count, an event I’ve participated in for the last few years. As usual, I covered Downes Bowl and then joined up with some other birders to cover Willband Creek. Time issues limited me to only two hours or so in Downes, which produced around 21 species in total; this is a fairly typical total for me in Downes, and better than I’d expected with the deep snow everywhere. I believe it beats last year when I only had around fifteen.
Highlights included finding all five species of woodpeckers: Red Breasted Sapsucker, Hairy Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker, Northern Flicker (Red-shafted), and Pileated Woodpecker. Two large cedar trees sported a great find – three Flickers and my Pileated, all congregated in the same location. Finding a Pileated is always a thrill; they are such magnificent birds. This one was rather comical, as he made every effort to stay on the opposite side of the tree from me, so I would circle around, and the bird would look up in alarm and quickly rotate around the tree to disappear from sight once again.
In the marsh by the boardwalk were two Great Blue Herons, looking stiff and sluggish, as well as two Hooded Merganser, a few Mallard, and a Gadwall, not to mention a wooden looking beaver that I only noticed when I scanned the entire marsh with my binoculars.
I always hope for some owls in Downes, but rarely have any luck on count day. Today was no exception, but I did spot a Barred Owl very early the next morning while driving on Sunnyside Avenue. I stopped the car, got out and walked around right underneath the powerline it was perched, and it didn’t even fly, doing little more than swivelling its head around as I walked circles under it. Finding owls is always magical; it’s not uncommon for me to catch sight of a wraith-like barn owl swooping over the road late in the evening when I’m out driving around, for work or pleasure. Owls have such a strong presence, an aura, that surrounds them.
Later I stopped in at Stoney Creek, where I spotted a Ruby Crowned Kinglet and a Cooper’s Hawk, as well as two feeder birds, Pine Siskin and White Crowned Sparrow that would likely have been missed if not for the bird feeder. Then I joined David, Ted “The Goshhawk”, and Vincent at Willband, just west of Stoney Creek, where they were just finishing their tour of Willband. Willband was very dead, as the deep reservoirs of water that normally harbour thousands of waterfowl was iced and snowed over, and there was hardly a waterbird in sight. Highlights here were a Rough-legged Hawk, a very similar species to the common Red-tailed Hawk, but lacking the red tail and appearing darker overall. This bird tends to move north during the winter months, and isn’t around these parts at all at other times of the year, unlike the red-tail. The Rough-legged was a life bird for me. Also here was a Northern Harrier, skimming low over the fields, just as we were entering our vehicles to head off.
All in all, a good count and an even better excuse to spend a day tramping around the countryside. My aspirations, after all, don’t amount to very much more.
