It’s that time of year again already?

First proper birding session since … June?  Gads.  I bought a house during the summer, and between the hunting, closing, moving, painting, reflooring and furnishing, I’ve hardly had any free time at all.  I kept telling people yes when they asked me if I was excited to finally own my own place, but truth be told, I hated every stressful, time-consuming minute of it and just wanted the who process to be over and done with.

On Sunday I slipped out after the rain let up a bit and managed to track down a small flock of warblers.  Yellow-rumps, mostly, but a Nashville and a Black-throated Green foraged with them.

Guelph is not an area known for its stellar birding.  We get the odd fallout during migration, and a good rarity might turn up in the winter, but for the most part it’s, at best, pretty average.  Even during migration periods I seem to hit a lot of ‘quiet days’ with little going on in the woods.

But there are two spots in the region that I find to be stand out locations, and I’m rarely disappointed when I visit them.  One is Curry Tract, a well-hidden trail near Campbellville that teems with warblers, grosbeaks, towhees and tanagers.  The other is Grass Lake, a quiet section of Shouldice Road in North Dumfries that attracts uncommon species such as Sandhill Crane and Grasshopper Sparrow.  The roadway next to the marsh is a great place to watch the resident Common Moorhens tend to their chicks with little disturbance, and there’s a good sized colony of Bobolinks to be found in the surrounding fields (or at least until the hay is cut).

Horned Lark.

Bobolink and Savannah Sparrow.

Grasshopper Sparrow.

Juvenile Tree Swallow.

Preening swallows.

Common Moorhen.

Common Moorhen.

Long weekend at the cottage, getting some sketching in as the weather permitted.

I’m going to do my best to keep up with this.  Drawing is something I do almost every day anyway, so I think the bigger challenge for me will be to get something posted (as this oft neglected blog will attest to).  I’ve started a Tumblr account — which all of the cool kids seem to be doing these days — to host my sketches (and any other randomness I feel like throwing in there).

Let’s see how long I hang in there…

I’ve been waiting for years to get a crack at this species.  Varied Thrushes are western birds, but every winter a few turn up here in Ontario.  On Friday, an invitation went out on ONTBIRDS for birders to come have a look at a lone female visiting a feeder near Waterloo, and Saturday morning found me in Heidelberg.

The appearance of a Sharp-shinned Hawk cleared the feeders not long after I arrived, but once things settled down the thrush quickly turned up.  She was skittish, and never stayed longer than a minute or two per visit, but I managed a few sketches.  I love sketching plump birds like thrushes.

I met one of the property owners when his dog (a gorgeous little red shepherd that I wanted to scoop up and take home with me) escaped out the back door and started barking at my car.  Very friendly guy, and he seemed equally excited about both the bird and the opportunity to share this rarity with others.  Hopefully visiting birders and photographers will remain respectful of that hospitality — I’d hate to see that enthusiasm dampened.