West Flamboro, ON. I was one of a fairly large group that explored a wide expanse of farmland, wetlands and forest edge this morning looking for spring arrivals. It was a magnificent day: sunny, warm and dry, the sort of weather we count on to bring us our birds of summer.
Our group wandered far and wide. We started with a lone Horned Lark, a bird synonymous with mid-late winter, scratching for food at a roadside and three hours later came face to face with a Barn Swallow, synonymous with mid-summer; the two a metaphor for our continental climate, which can swing from cool and wretched to warm and magnificent in the space of a very few days.
Those two sightings were bookends for a many good encounters. A couple of high overhead Broad-winged Hawks, a small flock of Sandhill Cranes, a territorial, male Eastern Bluebird, a lone Common Loon and a singing Brown Thrasher may have been highlights. Hard to say because many of our group were just as thrilled by a Pileated Woodpecker, Caspian Tern and Common Raven. We also had a few heard-but-not-seens: Pine Warbler, Ruffed Grouse, Eastern Towhee and Rusty Blackbird.
For me the prize was the Barn Swallow. It was picture perfect, alighting on a wire just a few feet in front of me, it was as if it came to say relax, winter’s over.