Another Northern Mockingbird at Marie Curtis Park / November 14, 2019

Northern Mockingbirds are gradually expanding their range northward and we were fortunate to have a good look at one this morning in -1 degree and light snow conditions.

I write “another” mockingbird because the title of our April 8, 2019 walk was “A Northern Mockingbird at Marie Curtis Park.

Northern Mockingbird
Northern Mockingbird
Northern Mockingbird
Northern Mockingbird
Northern Mockingbird

The bird was looking at us just as intensely as we were looking at it.

Species list:  great blue heron, Canada goose, mallard, American black duck, red-breasted merganser, herring gull, ring-billed gull, downy woodpecker, hairy woodpecker, red-bellied woodpecker,  blue jay, American crow, black-capped chickadee, brown creeper, golden-crowned kinglet, American robin, northern mockingbird, European starling, house sparrow, northern cardinal, dark-eyed junco, American goldfinch, white-throated sparrow. (24 species)

White-throated Sparrow (male)
Herring Gull (2nd winter plumage)
European Starlings
Ring-billed Gulls
American Black Duck
Mallard (female)
Mallards

Some botany:

Staghorn Sumac (Rhus typhina)
Sweetbrier (Rosa rubiginosa)
Sweetbrier (Rosa rubiginosa)
Norway Maple (Acer platanoides)
Red Ash (Fraxinus pennsylvanica)
Freeman Maple
Canada Goldenrod (Solidago canadensis)
Canada Goldenrod (Solidago canadensis)

Park scenes:

a book available for free:

This helpful free booklet is available at Toronto Public Libraries

Today’s group:

NATURE POETRY

To-night the winds begin to rise
And roar from yonder dropping day:
The last red leaf is whirl’d away,
The rooks are blown about the skies.     – Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–92)

Miles Hearn

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