Sweet! Carolina.

Carolina Wren Thryothorus ludovicianus

Carolina Wren Thryothorus ludovicianus

Cooper’s Hawk Accipiter cooperii
(An 'artistic' pic)

The best I could do with Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS
on October 16 in poor viewing conditions

NDG, November 2, 2024

November’s first Saturday morning saw ‘I can see my breath’-type glove weather in my local patch.

In a thin strip of woods, I thought I spied an American Tree Sparrow lurking on the edge of a band of foraging Dark-eyed Juncos. I sat on a log and hunkered down, then did a quick burst of pishing to see what popped up. Within ten seconds, I heard the unmistakable chatter of a Carolina Wren, seemingly circling me. What!? I turned around and was gobsmacked to see the bird perched right behind me, scolding aggressively. It stayed there for almost a minute, before ghosting back into the thick underbrush. Badass! I reckon this is the first time I’ve seen a Carolina Wren on the island of Montreal. This record has me questioning some strange but distant sounds I heard in the late summer from some nearby backyards. With those two new birds listed (there was an American Tree Sparrow there after all), my personal site list is at 70 species now.

What else?

-Several ragged chevrons of 40+ American Robins rippled overhead, heading somewhere with purpose.

-A cluster of grapes along a fence-line was teeming with low double-digit numbers of White-throated Sparrows and Dark-eyed Juncos, as well as several Song Sparrows.

-The local Cooper’s Hawk had the Black-capped Chickadees, White-breasted Nuthatches, and Northern Cardinals alarm-calling for a good 20 minutes.

-16 species in an hour.

-Oh, I saw a huge flock of European Starlings darken the skies of southern NDG last week - there had to have been 350-400 birds at least. I've only ever seen groups of 10-30 in NDG in the past, so this seemed notable.