October's birds

Winter Wren Troglodytes hiemalis

Blue-headed Vireo Vireo solitarius

  Went for a lazy wander through the cemeteries with Dan, in an effort to get him on a Winter Wren – he ended up getting on a few, mostly in the woods on the northern edge of Mountain View.
  On the way out, a large wader flew straight at the windscreen of Dan’s car, blooping inches over the car at the last second. Based on the bulky size, colour, and clumsy flight, it couldn’t have been anything other than an American Woodcock. Crazy! The odd sighting occurred quite close to the bushy area where I spotted the first of two American Woodcocks on May 2nd: https://snowyowllost.blogspot.ca/2017/05/woodcock-woodcock.html.

Mount-Royal Cemetery, (Notre-Dame-des-Neiges Cemetery), October 1, 2017
Turkey Vulture-4
Cooper’s Hawk-3
American Woodcock-1 flyover on the road between A4 and L6
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker-1
Downy Woodpecker-2
Hairy Woodpecker-2
Northern Flicker-4
Blue-headed Vireo-(1)
Blue Jay-2
American Crow-12+
Common Raven-1 heard
Black-capped Chickadee-12+ (15+)
Brown Creeper-1
Red-breasted Nuthatch-1
Winter Wren-4-5
Golden-crowned Kinglet-10+ (4)
Ruby-crowned Kinglet-12+ (8+)
Swainson’s Thrush-1
Hermit Thrush-1
Grey Catbird-1 heard on Pine Hill Side
Tennessee Warbler-(1)
Northern Parula-1 at Mountain View
Black-throated Blue Warbler-2-3 at the northern edge of Mountain View
Yellow-rumped Warbler-4
Northern Cardinal-3
Chipping Sparrow-20+ (10+)
White-throated Sparrow-50+ (30+)
Dark-eyed Junco-45+ (20+)

Orange-crowned Warbler Vermivora celata

Orange-crowned Warbler Vermivora celata

Eastern Bluebird Sialia sialis hounded by Chipping Sparrows Spizella passerina 

European Common Blue Polyommatus icarus

Found someone's art project or geocache or whatever

  Birds were thin on the ground, tail-end of the bell curve. Winter Wrens were notably numerous, while warblers were few and far between. The Orange-crowned Warbler was a nice surprise, mixed in with kinglets in a high bush. 
  As has been the case for several weeks, I witnessed Eastern Bluebirds being harried by masses of Chipping Sparrows. It doesn’t seem like aggressive mobbing (no noisy mobbing calls), so much as ‘extreme worship’. I watched a group of sparrows silently surround a bluebird in a tree, moving ever closer, until finally the bluebird flew off, closely followed by the dozen or so sparrows. Do the sparrows see the bluebirds as ‘super-parents’ that will protect and feed them? When I first witnessed the behaviour a few weeks ago, it felt like young sparrows were begging for food from adult bluebirds, but since then I’ve seen many variations on the theme, with adult sparrows following juvenile bluebirds around.

Mount-Royal Cemetery, (Notre-Dame-des-Neiges Cemetery), October 3, 2017
Canada Goose-some heard overhead
Turkey Vulture-2
Sharp-shinned Hawk-1 (1)
Cooper’s Hawk-1
Ring-billed Gull-9 (5)
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker-1
Downy Woodpecker-2 (2)
Hairy Woodpecker-2 (1)
Northern Flicker-4+
Blue Jay-1 heard
American Crow-17
Common Raven-(2)
Black-capped Chickadee-12+ (8+)
Red-breasted Nuthatch-1
Winter Wren-9+ scattered throughout both forest edges and isolated bushes, (2)
Golden-crowned Kinglet-3 (2)
Ruby-crowned Kinglet-15+ (10+)
Eastern Bluebird-2 (2)
Swainson’s Thrush-2 (1)
Hermit Thrush-2 (2)
Tennessee Warbler-1 on the northern edge of Mountain View
Nashville Warbler-1 near the Tennessee Warbler
Orange-crowned Warbler-1 in the very south of L5
Yellow-rumped Warbler-9 (3)
Northern Cardinal-2 (1)
Chipping Sparrow-25+ (15+)
Song Sparrow-1 at the top of Mountain View
White-throated Sparrow-25+ (12)
Dark-eyed Junco-30+ (20+)
American Goldfinch-(1 heard near Decelles entrance)