April 5 2026. Hendrie Valley Burlington ON. Our winter months of almost unrelenting cold made me think an above-freezing 6ﾟC. transect would feel comfortable. But it wasn’t at all, a steady, cold west wind sweeping the valley took much of the fun out of it. Still, the birding was interesting. This was my second transect of spring and maybe a quick refresher about transects might be helpful.
I am one of a team of capable birders who gather data on bird populations on the natural lands of Canada’s Royal Botanical Gardens, (RBG). Our task, April, May, September and October, is to walk the length of one of four defined routes recording all birds seen and heard; simple, a transect. When completed we upload a report to a compiler.
Today’s route, Hendrie Valley, takes us along trails in a loop through hardwood forest, across a narrow river valley, skirts three woodland-enclosed ponds and follows a lightly treed riverbank. It is a very beautiful walk any day and the habitat is so varied that the birding is about as good as it gets. Hendrie is one of four such routes, all different but just as varied and interesting.
It’s always notable, sometimes exciting, to see a first-of-the-year (FOY) migrant and this morning a couple of Eastern Phoebes, an Osprey, two Tree Swallows and a smartly plumaged, male Yellow–rumped–Warbler were those firsts. There will be more each transect as spring progresses.
But there’s more to life than FOYs. Our cold morning included a fast-moving Merlin, making flying look easy, swept high overhead and vanished beyond the skyline. In contrast a Bald Eagle seemed to lumber by, giving us long enough to see that it was all dark below so probably a one-year-old bird, and to wrap up our day we loved a Cooper’s Hawk carrying twigs to the same nest site it has used for the past two years.
The acid test for My Bird of the Day is the bird who makes me think, wow! Today that was the Yellow–rumped–Warbler. Suddenly right in front of us, low and searching slowly for insect food that was probably scarce. We absorbed its brilliant and crisp spring dress, rather like this one below, but succeeding in showing off the yellow patch on its rump from which it gets its name.
