Chill Magog, elderly moth

Marais de la Rivière aux Cerises

Chestnut-sided Warbler Setophaga pensylvanica (male coming out of breeding plumage)

Green Heron Butorides virescens

White-throated Sparrow Zonotrichia albicollis

  Yesterday saw Dan and I visit the “Penfield House” out by Magog, in the Eastern Townships. We mostly lazed in the sun, and nosed through the old field guides. I got a kick out of the multi-coloured Birds of America quadrilogy. There were lovely old records penciled in, and quaint and sometimes bizarre illustrations.
  The star was the 1909/1928 Land Birds East of the Rockies guide, owned and annotated by Wilder himself (https://snowyowllost.blogspot.com/2013/08/dr-wilder-penfields-field-giude.html). I wish some modern field guides featured prose ten percent as lively. I enjoyed this excerpt from the Ruby-throated Hummingbird entry (best read in the voice of Patrick Stewart):

  “This little gem is the only one found within the territory in this book. Owners of flower gardens have the best opportunity to study these winged jewels, on their many trips to and fro for honey, or the insects that are also attracted thereby. With whirring wings, they remain suspended before a blossom, then—buzz—and they are examining the next, with bill lost within the sweet depths. Their temper is all out of proportion to their size, for they will dash at an intruder about their moss-covered home as though they would pierce him like a bullet. Their angry twitters and squeaks are amusing and surprising, as are their excitable actions.”

  At Marais de la Rivière aux Cerises, recommended by George, we wandered for a 45-minute quarter circuit in a sluggish post-poutine miasma. Things were quiet until we reached ‘apple crossroads,’ where a modest warbler wave percolated through the edges.
  On the way out, a Green Heron was perched motionless over a patch of swamp. “Waiting for a big fat frog,” I muttered. I was unfortunately proven correct shortly thereafter, when the heron blurred into motion and flew up to a snag with its beak impaled through a huge frog. The slaughter and dismemberment that followed was a gruesome scene out of Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom, and I will not post the pictures here as it is not an image I especially want to remember. Ah well, it’s “naytcha’s way,” as they say in Australia.
  I do feel comfortable posting the image of the Chestnut-sided Warbler thrashing a moth to pieces in a cloud of wing-dust, however, as that was a different sort of case. We saw the moth clutch its chest and expire peacefully of old age, before gliding into the warbler’s bill with a smile. Dust to dust.

“Penfield House” on Lake Memphrémagog, (Marais de la Rivière aux Cerises, Memphrémagog County), August 31, 2018
Double-breasted Cormorant-1
Green Heron-(1)
Sandpiper sp.-1
Ring-billed Gull-1 (1)
Ruby-throated Hummingbird-1 subadult male
Hairy Woodpecker-1
Northern Flicker-(2)
Blue Jay-(2)
American Crow-(3)
Black-capped Chickadee-8 (10+)
Red-breasted Nuthatch-(2)
Veery-(1)
Grey Catbird-(2)
Tennessee Warbler-(1)
Yellow Warbler-(1 probable)
Chestnut-sided Warbler-(2-3)
Magnolia Warbler-(2)
American Redstart-(2 males)
Common Yellowthroat-(1 female)
Song Sparrow-(6)
Swamp Sparrow-(1)
White-throated Sparrow-(6+)
Common Grackle-(2)
American Goldfinch-(6+)