Spring is definitely here, as demonstrated by the returning garden birds and the bird skeins across the skies, as each migratory bird returns to its nesting ground, either here or much further north. The water birds are in abundance at the moment and a birding enthusiast friend informed me of his sighting of a Red Breasted Merganser, taking a rest on the icebound shore of a nearby creek. I would have liked to see it too, but extenuating circumstances prevented this from happening! That’s a story for another day! He also got his first glimpse of a Hooded Merganser, a bird I was fortunate to see last year, but down on the St. Lawrence River, not the Rideau. However, my wife and I did get a rare sighting, in our garden last weekend, which was very exciting too. It was a beautiful little bird – a “Tufted Titmouse”
What a lucky sighting that was despite the distraction of all the other feeding birds, and I was actually able to get a couple of good pictures of it! A real bonus and, I think, quite a rare sighting in this neck of the woods. It landed in our pine trees and then came right onto our hanging feeders, for us to get a really close-up view of it. I hope that you also enjoy the picture of it and that you are also getting your share of bird sightings, as they return to your own gardens, to once again, provide you with an added post-winter interest and your own pleasant surprises too. Stay safe and well.
Cheers,
John Baldwin
