Spring Birding Break May 2025

We are coming to the end of our first vacation for the year.  We always take at least one week off in early May and much of that time is spent birding.    It has been an exhausting but great week off.  And I just wanted to share some of our sightings from home and beyond.

A ruby-throated hummingbird spent a few days in our yard because it was still pretty cold much of the time and there was nothing in bloom yet, so he was depending on our nectar feeder for survival.  His behavior tells me that as he pretty much ignored us outside and would fly close to us to get to the feeder.  We gave him his space so he could feed but there was a few close run ins with the bird while doing things out back.  Once the blooms started in our golden current shrubs, he started spending a lot of time in there.  This provided a nice photo opportunity.

We also encountered a Cape May warbler one morning in some cherry blossoms.  It too had little care for anything as it tried to feed on a very chilly day.  We just stood in one spot and watched the bird, giving it space and not disturbing it.

A couple of Cape May warblers have been hanging around our neighbourhood the last few days.  We saw both at our water fountain one afternoon.  The moving water brought them to it but then also scared them off.  They have since braved up to the fountain as well as have discovered our other water sources in the yard like this small basin in a decorative chair.

We've had some other warbler species in and around the yard but they've all been high in the trees and there's been no photo opportunities.  But we have seen them in our travels this past week.  One of the species is this, a northern parula.

Another is the black and white warbler.  They're fun to watch as they go up and down the trees like nuthatches.

We were also blessed to see a number of blackburnian warblers; one was in the yard too!  What a stunning little bird.  They were difficult to photograph as they just kept moving and feeding.  The photo does it no justice.

Our highlight bird(s) were a hooded warbler which took us about an hour to finally see in some woods instead of just hear, and the other was 2 Canada warblers.  We hadn't seen a hooded warbler in 7 or so years just because they aren't one to come through Toronto.  Canada warblers are hit and miss for us each year.  So seeing both of these warblers while on vacation was great!

Hooded warbler.

Canada warbler.  It looks like it is wearing a necklace.

We have been enjoying a variety of sparrow species at home.  We had one off visits from both a fox sparrow and a Lincoln's sparrow.

Fox sparrow.

Lincoln's sparrow, seen with a white crowned sparrow (we still have 2 of these hanging around).

We have never had white crowned sparrows spending as many days in a row here with us.  I am assuming it is the same couple of birds.  The same goes for up to 4 white-throated sparrows on any given day.  They're one of my favorite sparrows.

During our week off we saw just over 100 species of birds.  Overall the birding was pretty leisurely but still exhausted us with a lot of early mornings and a lot of walking.  Hey, it is still better than being at work!  Here's just a few more highlights from the week off.

Scarlet tanager.  We saw 3 today!

Eastern towhee.  We saw a few and heard many more.  It's another bird we just don't see a lot of or every year.

Bald eagle.  We saw a nest near one of the birding area parking lots.  How convenient!

Killdeer on nest.

And one more, Angie spotted a screech owl in a tree cavity.  We were so busy looking for warblers and other migrants that screech owl was not on our radar, so it was a lovely surprise.

I'll end it here.  It was a great week off with lots of bird sightings.  I'm going to be a mess in the coming days as I adjust to my work schedule once again.  *sigh*  Wish me luck there.

Thanks for stopping in.  Cheers!

Nice Surprise

I haven't blogged since December of last year.  It was a real downer of a blog too.  I thought to re-read it as I am not sure if I wrote about the pigeons and how they disappeared.  If I didn't, well, they did disappear.  This happens with some of my pigeon buds during the winter and I always blame the increased hawk activity.  Not all disappear, just some; but this time they all disappeared.  I didn't have a pigeon visit me since before Christmas.  None in January.  None in February.  None in March.  Honestly I gave up hope on seeing any here again by mid-February.  I still made sure I had shelled sunflower chips on hand if I ever saw one again.  Thank goodness that I did as Friday morning when I was just getting settled at the kitchen window with my first coffee of the day in came a pigeon.  The bird landed on a flat roof bird house that I have set up not far from our back deck.  Instantly I thought of my last buddy that we named Piper.  He normally would land on this bird house as I often would place food up there for him when I was done playing with him...  hand feeding and taking photos of him.

I quickly got myself together to go outside and see if it was him, with a handful of seed.  As soon as I stepped out the door, the pigeon flew right to me.  I put my hand out and it landed on my finger tips without any hesitation.  I was shocked!  And very happy at his return.

As he ate, I talked to him.  I asked him where he's been for the last 4 months.  I told him that I missed him and how happy I was that he returned.  Piper gobbled up the food and took brief moments to stop and look at me.

After a couple handfuls of seed he flew away.  I said something about not taking so long to come back.  I'd like to think that most of you reading this can relate to my ramblings to Piper.  Who doesn't talk to animals?  Whether Piper understood me or not, he came back about 3 hours later and had another feed.  He's also been back Saturday and Sunday a few times.  It is like no time had passed.

If only he could talk and tell me where he's been, why he left, what happened to all of his flock, etc.  A second bird showed up with him today.  Hmmm?  Will there be more soon?

I've been mingling with pigeons for over a decade now.  To suddenly not have any, and for so long, hit me hard, especially with how I already was mentally late last year.

I think it's very special when these birds come back to me after a number of months.  Sure they may be just pigeons to some people but for me, they are my friends.  If you aren't familiar with my friendship to pigeons, you can catch up in this blog here that I did a few years ago for Bird Canada.

Spring is finally here.  My pigeon has come back.  Life is good.

Hello Darkness

Over the last decade or so I have noticed that as November rolls along, the days get shorter, and overall everything is just darker...  unfortunately that also includes my mood.  I feel sad.  Maybe a little depressed?  It's odd because I do welcome the cooler, and then colder months.  I dread summer so much these days because of how hot and humid it gets here in Toronto nowadays, and my work is often unbearable with the hummidex in the mid-40's.  

With every season I look forward to things that nature has to offer.  The fall and winter brings us a wider variety of owls.  This time of year also brings us the return of Little Al, an eastern screech owl.  And like clock work, he returned this year on October 26th, the same day as the previous year.  I've spent so many hours over the last 4 winters watching this bird from the kitchen window.  A great distraction from the shit in life.  This owl was a blessing when Angie and I were sick AF with covid a few years ago, and during the lockdowns.  Having a backyard owl has been awesome and something I am proud to have attracted to our property.  I started with one box in a not so great spot 10 years ago and over the years eventually managed to perfect things, ensuring it had a safe place to roost where the squirrels could not get to him.

Then something happened just over a week ago.  I got a message on Facebook from a sort of neighbour who lives just up around the corner from us.  They said I've been a great influence through my community posts called Wildlife Wednesday.  Guess what happened.  They quickly got a screech owl to their box.  Guess what also happened.  We lost our screech owl visits.

It was a bitter sweet bit of news.  I mean it is nice to know there are others in the area who have an interest in our local wildlife; and are taking notice, and caring, because of my posts.  I've made a few friends through this, and at the very least some good acquaintances with others.

There's no denying that this news also stung.  Looking out to our yard and seeing the empty boxes.  If the bird shared visits between here and there, that wouldn't be so bad.  But for him to totally disappear.  OUCH!  I know I am being a bit dramatic since it's only been just over a week.  My sinking mood over the last month can be a big part of the blame.  Little Al may still come back, even if only for a day here and there.  His new roost is approximately 500 ft away.

I've told some about this.  I've not put it out to social media.  The reactions have varied with those who I talked to about this.  Silly anger which has been comical.  Positive support that I have influenced others.  The worst were those saying that I should never have posted about him visiting us in the first place.  I never bragged about him nor did I post constantly about him.  Having him find us and continue to visit was uplifting news.  It was a win win thing, providing him shelter, and having us be able to see one of the most elusive creatures in our neighbourhood right from our kitchen window.

So, yeah, what is turning into a normally dark time of the year sure has gotten even darker.  Insert sad face.

I've been trying to turn myself around but it is difficult.  Some other yucky stuff has been happening which I blog about soon.

We're on vacation this week and I look forward to all the fun and distractions that we have planned.

New Release Species

My tenth year of volunteering with the Toronto Wildlife Centre started off pretty good.  I had the opportunity to release a new bird species, that being a Wilson's Snipe.

A shout out was sent to the volunteer drivers about a need for someone to release some migratory songbirds.  I put my hand up and was the first to respond, so I got the gig.  As we were finishing up loading the car with the handful of birds that were in no wax paper bags and in a couple of boxes and I was about to leave, someone came out and asked if I could wait for one more bird.  I said "yes."  They said it will be a few minutes and mentioned the species being a Wilson's Snipe.  SAY WHAT?!?!  They gave me a release location which was very near where the spot where the song birds were going.

The traffic getting to the park was absolute hell.  It is just shy of 30 km to the location and it took me 55 minutes.  There was an accident on the 401 in the centre lane near Weston Rd so that caused a lot of interference with the flow.

I finally arrive at my destination and set all the song birds free.  There was a nice mix of juncos, white-throated sparrows, a fox sparrow and a couple of warblers including yellow-rump and one parula.  I did them all first because they could be released close to where I parked the car.  The snipe was going for a walk further in.

We get to the spot and I open up his "carrier".  I wait behind so he doesn't see me or any other people/threats.  Five minutes pass and he still isn't leaving.  Animals are like people, all with different personalities and reactions to things.  Some birds jet off quite quickly upon release while others are rather pokey and cautious.  Now with that traffic delay, I am pressed for time as it's about a 25 minute trek to work if that route is in good shape.  I decide to intervene and lift the back end of the carrier up, slowly, little by little, and either spook him out or gravity takes over.  It was gravity that assisted in this release and out came the snipe.

He took a few steps and then paused, looking around at where he was.  I remained still where I was other than grabbing my camera which was at my feet and took a few photos.  The tall grass along the marsh was mere feet away.  I was not going to leave this bird until he went in there, safe and out of sight.

I'm sure it didn't take too long but it did feel like it.  Work was screaming in the back of my head and I was hoping I could stop somewhere to get a coffee before going in.  The bird finally went into the grassy stuff and disappeared.  

Believe me, I was pretty excited about this release and while there was some stress with traffic and time, I did get lost in the moment of this release.  What a neat bird species.  I rarely see these unless we go up to the Carden Alvar in the spring.  So having this one right in front of me.  WOW!

I made it to work on time but unfortunately I couldn't get that much desired and needed coffee.  The snipe release kept me pumped and happy for the first little bit of the shift and I got myself a bigger coffee when break hit.

Here is the bird.  I should name it "Pokey".

Popping In

Thank you Eva for the reminder that I haven't blogged in some time.  It has been in the back of my mind to do one but the reasons are many.  It has been a brutally long hot humid summer.  So many days it was in the 40's with the humidex at my work.  Having to spend so much time in that building 5 days a week really kicked my ass.  It made me not want to do much of anything else when work was done besides relax and keep cool.  I regularly post to Facebook and Instagram so I sometimes think "why bother blogging?"

A family of raccoons living under our shed this summer has kept me happy and quite distracted.  That's a good thing I suppose.  Well for us anyway.  So many dislike these animals but I always try to promote that we can coexist with them.  They stay out of our garbage and off our roof.  That's all I really care about.  Plus with them living here, they aren't making a bathroom (latrine) of our backyard.  Hooray!  I'll have to do a blog about this family.  There is something very unique to this tale but you'll have to wait for another blog to read about it.

As you may recall, I am a volunteer with the Toronto Wildlife Centre.  I recently celebrated my 800th bird release.  And then a few weeks after that I celebrated my 10th anniversary as being an official volunteer.  Here is my 800th bird release, a ruby-throated hummingbird.  I was sitting quite a distance away waiting for it to go.

I can't help but wonder if I will ever see my 1,000th bird release.  It may be a few years before I hit that number.  Spring releases don't happen any more as the birds are usually released right in Rouge Park at the TWC east location.  Summer releases are few.  Same with winter.  So it is all about the fall, because the birds need to go west of Toronto and I am happy to take them if the opportunity presents itself.  Please note that I am not the only one to have this gig.

I'm now going on a countdown to 1,000 instead of continuing going up.  As of today, 199 to go.  I recently released a pigeon in a neighbourhood not far from home.  This bird was hesitant to leave the box and after many minutes of waiting, I had to give him a little help.  I tilted the box slowly and enough that finally gravity took over and out he came.  This photo was obtained by a screen shot of the video I was taking of his release.

Our girls Merry and Molly are doing great.  They're going to be 10 next year.  Wow!  Time flies.  Kinda freaks me out.  An older shot of them for Halloween.  I'm going to have to break out their costumes for another photo session soon.  Merry loves the attention.  Molly hates the hats and any clothes.

Our rescue budgie Frankie just had his second "got'cha day" anniversary with us.  He's a happy little boy who loves his castle of a home and has absolutely zero desire to leave it.  As long as he is happy, that is all that matters.  He's got 3 food sources, 2 water dishes, a cuttle bone, a mineral block, lots of toys and perches, plus a couple of mirrors which are his girlfriends.  Who knows where he came from?  I suspect maybe from the same place that our other backyard rescues came from, a bird breeder in the area.  There was 5 budgies flying around over a span of about 8 weeks, Frankie was the fifth, and I was able to catch him.  Here is a shot of the day and how I caught him, plus an insert of him from a couple of weeks ago.  We have no idea how old he is.

Angie and I are also doing well.  It's hard to believe that we've been together for twenty years now.  Angie has gotten back into blogging after quite a break, feel free to pop over and see what she's got to say about this or that; animals, foodie blogs, or just random life stuff.  Angieinto

Okay, see you all again soon.  Thanks for stopping in and not giving up on me and this blog.

Merlin Release

Last week I was offered the opportunity to release a merlin not far from where I work.  I jumped at the chance.  I've released well over 70 species of birds and a merlin is not on that list.  I should add that I am not competing with myself, or anyone else, but it's cool if I can add to these lists that I keep.

I brought my camera but had the idea to set my phone up on the other end of the roof of my car and take some video too.  I'm glad that I did as the release was over in seconds and the bird flew fast, high and far across a fenced off field.  From the video I managed to take some screen shots that I am sharing here, along with a YouTube link to the video.

It is one of my most memorable releases, perhaps because it is the only merlin I've released.  Here are a few screen shots...

Cropped...

One more...

Here is the YouTube link.  You can see how bad that bird wanted out of there.

How's this for maybe my shortest blog ever?

Wild Moment

We were blessed last week with a couple visits from Little Al the eastern screech owl.  Give thanks to Mother Nature for this happening with some really rainy weather.

The one day the weather cleared up rather fast come day time and Little Al sat at the entry hole for over 6 hours, from 1 PM until about 7:50 PM when he flew out for the night.  It was fun to see him all day just hanging out, enjoying the warm sun.  It was also interesting how none of the birds bothered him at all.  Was it his being a master of camouflage that kept him going undetected?

Well, until he flew out at last light and then a couple robins went crazy on him (from a safe distance).  Little Al ignored the yelling and had a good preen up in the cedars down back, stretching his wings and cleaning up his feathers.

Then a few days later we had another good soaking which started overnight and continued through the day.  Little Al had his head out early on, which I saw when having my morning coffee.  He disappeared for a while and then reappeared a few hours later.  All was good and quiet when suddenly in came a pair of northern mockingbirds.  

They took notice to him up at the box and these birds went absolutely ballistic on the owl.

Now it's always nice when Little Al is here.  Who wouldn't enjoy having an owl hanging out in their backyard?  Then add these mockingbirds.  We haven't had a mockingbird in the yard since 2017.  Back then we enjoyed one visiting our yard through the fall and winter, feasting on the holly berries, and the bird did this 3 or 4 years in a row.  So, on this day, having a pair was pretty cool.  We never had 2 of them.  Awesome stuff for a nature lover!

It was loud and chaotic out there for about 20 minutes with the birds yelling and strafing Little Al.  I wondered why he did not retreat into the box just to get away from those birds?  Maybe holding the gate was his idea of a best defense?  There was no way he could get attacked except from the front where he could see the birds coming.  I doubt the mockers would go inside the box, but if they did, they could corner Little Al.  Was that his thinking?

Here is some of the action that I captured with my camera while standing on the deck.

Little Al would hiss at the approaching bird(s).

It was non-stop for quite a while.

The ruckus got some of the other bird species all riled up and joined in the shouting at the owl.

Little Al would look down to them all.

I decided to try and disperse the mob by stepping out onto the lawn.  It worked faster than I thought.  Both of the mockingbirds quickly flew to a yard 3 doors over and I did not see them while I was home for another 90 minutes before work.  The sparrows went about their business.  Little Al disappeared into the box about 20 minutes after I went back in the house.

Angie got home later in the afternoon and Little Al was at the entry hole again.  She also saw one mockingbird in the yard but it was doing other things (looking for food, etc) and did not bother the owl.

What a wild moment!  Who needs to turn on the nature channel, eh?