August 6, 2013
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Bird-brained

For years we lived in a neighbourhood with few birds. This sure changed when we moved down to Long Branch a few years ago. Sam Smith Park, just down the street, is well known as a migration trap, a respite for migrating birds coming north in the spring. It attracts birders from all over everywhere. You can see them gathered, often in packs. Birders are easy to identify by their markings (they can often be seen carrying cameras with very long lenses).

You might think with all the exposure I have to bird-life around our home that I might have more than a passing knowledge of bird identification but sadly it isn’t so. Sure, I have identified some of the birds I’ve seen in the neighbourhood, but mostly just the most common of them.

Here’s a list of the ones I can think of….

Pigeons. OK, anybody who lives in a city has pigeons.

Mute Swans. There are loads of these to be seen in the lake all around our area. I understand these lovely birds are very territorial.

Canada Geese. ‘Nuff said.

Red-tailed hawk. Saw one down by the marina earlier this year.

Cooper’s hawk. When I saw it, this bird was perched on the water treatment plant and then flew off. I remembered all the detail I could and then tried to ID it online. I also heard an independent report of a Cooper’s hawk at around the same time over in Sam Smith Park. I’m not positive on this ID but comfortable enough to include it.

American Goldfinch. I’ve see quite a few of these.

Baltimore Oriole. Fairly common around here.

Northern Cardinal. Lots of these around the house. They love the sunflower seeds I leave in the teacup bird feeder.

American robin. Among the most common birds around here.

House sparrow. I believe it was house sparrows that took up residence in the birdhouse in the backyard this year. Then again, if they were a different variety of sparrows, would I know the difference? I think not.

Red-winged blackbird. Plenty of them. I’ve seen these birds swoop at our cats in the back yard.

European starling. Again, plenty of them.

Common grackle. Lots of these too.

Mourning doves.

Northern flicker. OK, Tuffy P says she sees them. I’ll be honest, I don’t think I’d know a northern flicker from a southern one.

Black-capped chickadee

White-breasted nuthatch

Whimbrels. We saw a flock of these migrating. ID confirmed as we were on a bird walk at the time.

Great Blue Heron. I saw one flying over the Arsenal Lands the other day.

Turkey vulture

Killdeer. At least I’ve heard them. Are they the birds that pretend they’re injured on the ground to protect their nests?

Pileated woodpecker

Downey Woodpecker

Purple martins

Cliff swallows. Nesting on the water treatment plant. I know there are other varieties of swallows around, but I can’t yet identify them.

Herring gulls. For sure there are a variety of gulls and terns around, but again, I’m not there yet.

Red-necked grebes. Well known in Sam Smith Park

Yellow warbler.

Cormorants. We have some black ones in the harbour but I don’t know which variety.

Owls. Tuffy P and I have each independently seen an owl. The one I saw was a quick fly-by at dusk. I couldn’t identify based on that.

Ducks. Um, I can ID a mallard, but the rest are just ducks.

I know there are plenty of species I’ve seen that I just can’t identify or that I haven’t observed closely enough to identify. On the weekend, I bought a field guide – Stokes Field Guide to Birds – Eastern Region, by Donald and Lillian Stokes. The woman running the bird store in Port Dover suggested this one.

So now I have a new plan – when I see a bird I don’t know, I’m going to try to figure out what I’m looking at, and add it to the list.

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