Towhee or not Towhee…

Green-tailed Towhee Pipilo chlorurus

Green-tailed Towhee Pipilo chlorurus

Yellow-rumped Warbler Setophaga coronata

Black-and-white Warbler Mniotilta varia

Yellow Warbler Setophaga petechia

Black-throated Green Warbler Setophaga virens

Cape May Warbler Setophaga tigrina

Chestnut-sided Warbler Setophaga pensylvanica

Bay-breasted Warbler Setophaga castanea

Gray Catbird Dumetella carolinensis

Northern House Wren Troglodytes aedon

Common Tern Sterna hirundo

Black-crowned Night Heron Nycticorax nycticorax

Canada Goose Branta canadensis

L’attroupement

…that is the question. Towhee is the answer! I was about to head out with Dan on a spring warbler hunt on Monday when I got a text from George about a Green-tailed Towhee that was discovered in relatively nearby Frayère. This bird should be skulking in the Utah sagebrush. So we went.

The spot (Parc de la Frayère) was a nice little spot on the water, wooded paths and pondy bits. Very birdy overall, with 13 species of warbler encountered with little effort.

The rare itself was easy enough to find – it was hopping around on and next to the trails. It had gathered a crowd of 20+ folks, who were on the whole well behaved.

Learned a new French word: ‘l’attroupement.’ I like it. One thing I noticed while amongst the photog clot was that my DSLR camera shutter is crazy noisy compared to others. Ka-CHONK Ka-CHONK! Or maybe it isn’t, and it’s like when you’re eating chips and they sound loud only inside your skull.

We got our looks at the bird, which was fossicking in the leaf litter, then did a lazy tour of the trails, and ended up with 55 species. The trip ended with a surprise adult male Northern Harrier floating over one of the curved on-ramps for the Champlain Bridge.

I heard the bird ended up being a one-day wonder. The fickle winds of migration taketh away!

Notes from a quiet place in NDG, May 3, 2025

Baltimore Oriole Icterus galbula

Blue-headed Vireo Vireo solitarius

Palm Warbler Setophaga palmarum
(I swear)

Chipping Sparrow Spizella passerina

Brown Creeper Certhia americana

Ruby-crowned Kinglet Regulus calendula

Woodchuck/Groundhog/Siffleur Marmota monax

Wren City, USA

-Dreary flat light, 11 and overcast, on an early morning circuit of my local patch.

-One of the first birds encountered was a Baltimore Oriole (species # 75 for the site). It vocalized for a few minutes, before heading in the direction of Mount Royal.

-Three Palm Warblers (Warbler #17 for the site) on the way in.

-Cooper’s Hawks still on and around their nest (was worried about them after an intense wind storm last week).

-An American Tree Sparrow mixed in with the more common sparrows.

-A pair of treetop-flitting Blue-headed Vireos on the way out.

-25 species in just over two hours.

Notre-Dame-de-Thrash

Brown Thrasher Toxostoma rufum

Hermit Thrush Catharus guttatus

Northern Cardinal Cardinalis cardinalis

Eastern Phoebe Sayornis phoebe

Northern Flicker Colaptes auratus

White-throated Sparrow Zonotrichia albicollis

American Tree Sparrow Spizella arborea

Rain cover thingy - it works!

Strap quick release thingy

Quiet Spot in NDG, April 26

Very steady rain in the morning, yet it ended up being quite birdy, with 29 species encountered in 90 minutes.

I finally got to try out a waterproof camera cover I picked up last year. After some fiddling, it worked a treat, although the rain made it tricky to see through the plastic window bit at times (I had to install quick release strap attachments to get the strap mounted through the cover). I’m sort of shocked I got any images at all through the thing, if I’m honest, ha ha.

I used my ‘old’ birding gear, as testing my new light travel rig for water resistance is not something that interests me (but the trials continue).

Looking at the mix of birds, it really felt like late April.

-High single-digit numbers of White-throated Sparrow, Dark-eyed Junco, and Chipping Sparrow cluttered up every bit of weedy edge.

-Several Song Sparrow, Hermit Thrush, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Yellow-shafted Flicker, Eastern Phoebe, and an American Tree Sparrow, only my second for the site.

-Finally got a Brown Thrasher for this spot…personal species #73 for the site – a silent individual perched at the top of a muddy sumac slope. I must have walked right past it on the way in, and only caught it on the way out with one of those ‘one last look’ 360 twirls birders do.

-Other birds of note: Merlin, Cooper’s Hawk still on the nest, Winter Wren, Carolina Wren (Back!), Golden- and Ruby-crowned Kinglets.

-Warblers? On the way.

Part of the charm of this spot is that it looks much as it did 130 years ago, I imagine. Unfortunately, the property is soon changing hands, and in the next few years, I fear that domino rows of condos will stand in this quiet place. But that’s OK, because one fine day in the future, all those condos will crumble back into the weeds, and the last people that remember the folks that built them will be long dead.

Woodcocking at dusk

Call of the American Woodcock Scolopax minor

Pied-billed Grebe Podilymbus podiceps

Belted Kingfisher Megaceryle alcyon

Eastern Cottontail Sylvilagus floridanus

Popped over to the Technoparc with George for some crepuscular Scolopacidae-ing. Several target American Woodcocks were heard peenting, as well as seen overhead on their bat-like display flights. Other birds of note included Wilson’s Snipe, Pied-billed Grebe, Belted Kingfisher, and Great Egret. Logged 24 species total.

Boring NDG bird notes, March 29-April 12

Song Sparrow Melospiza melodia

Downy Woodpecker Picoides pubescens

-->March 29

-Song Sparrows are back at my ‘quiet spot in NDG.’

-Still some snow around, the winter doesn’t want to surrender.

-Merlins and Turkey Vultures are back in town, spotted earlier in the week in and over NDG.

-11 species in 90 minutes.

Black-capped Chickadee Poecile atricapillus
(taken with the Lumix Fz200…with the auto white balance way out of whack)

'Featherweight birding bag'
(My back will thank me)

-->April 5

-9 species in 90 minutes

-0 degrees

Finally saved enough pennies (remember those?) to complete a project I’ve had in the works for a long while – putting together a small, ‘travel birding bag.’ For my next few birding excursions, I will be putting the new gear through its paces, to get used to it. The resulting bag is shockingly small and light. My back will thank me...

The camera is a Lumix Fz200. Released in 2012, you can find them at a reasonable price on the used market.

The bins are Nikon Travelites. They worked a treat, after some calibrating of the separate barrels - they really punch above their weight...a lot of bang for the buck. They almost felt too light and tiny in my hands, after a decade of lugging around Swaros.

This ‘go bag’ is not intended to replace my old birding rig. But it will certainly come in handy when traveling, climbing mountains, going on long walks, and for being prepared for bird-mergencies on ‘non-birding’ excursions.

My first field trial with the new setup was fun, if a bit disorienting – I kept reaching for optics that were not hanging in their usual spots.

The Lumix was working fairly well until the old battery died in a hurry. Got some new ones in the mail since, but the camera sure lives up to its reputation as a battery hog.

Before setting out, I had only done a preliminary muck-through of the settings, and I clearly need to do a little studying! The pics I did take were all blued out...an issue with the auto white balance. Also, the focus is gonna take some practice.

Cooper’s Hawk Accipiter cooperii
(taken with the Lumix Fz200)

Song Sparrow Melospiza melodia
(taken with the Lumix Fz200)

Woodchuck/Groundhog/Siffleur Marmota monax
(taken with the Lumix Fz200)

The very last bit of snow

-->April 12

-4 degrees and cloudy.

-12 species in 90 minutes.

-About 6 Song Sparrows now, all quite vocal.

-A last blast of snow on April 8 - snow all but gone on the 12th, and it’s baseball cap weather.

-A pair of Cooper’s Hawks was seen nest-building.

-Got more used to the Lumix settings. The auto white balance is under control (sort of, ha ha), but I still need to tweak my focus skills. Been doing some research on that front. The resolution is obviously not as rich as the old ‘hand Canon,’ but again, this is only meant for backup situations and for getting record shots, and it is proving to be quite a competent tool for that.