Song Sparrow at Beechwood / Don Valley: September 28, 2021

I lived at the top of the Beechwood hill for over ten years. Needless to say, I spent countless hours exploring the valley either on my own or with my children.

Towards the end of the long winters, I would come down each day and hopefully search for the first arriving song sparrow of spring. It was always a thrill when I found it.

I thought of this today as both morning and afternoon groups saw song sparrows.

Song Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Song Sparrow

Here is a photo of an early arriver this spring:

Song Sparrow

Other birds:

American Robin
Great Blue Heron
Wood Duck
Great Blue Heron
Wood Duck
Great Blue Heron
Wood Duck
Great Blue Heron

Species list: great blue heron, wood duck, turkey vulture, red-tailed hawk, ring-billed gull, belted kingfisher, northern flicker, hairy woodpecker, downy woodpecker, white-breasted nuthatch, eastern phoebe, blue jay, black-capped chickadee, American robin, gray catbird, ruby-crowned kinglet, northern cardinal, American goldfinch, white-throated sparrow, song sparrow. (20 species)

10 am group:

1 pm group:

Don Valley views:

Red-eared Sliders
Woolly Bear
Mountain Bike jumps

Some botany:

Black Oak (Quercus velutina)
Shaggy Mane
Staghorn Sumac (Rhus typhina)
Highbush-cranberry (Viburnum opulus)
Hawthorn (Crataegus)
Panicled Aster (Symphyotrichum lanceolatum)
Japanese Knotweed (Fallopia japonica)
Teasle (Dipsacus fullonum)
Evening Primrose (Oenothera)
Gray Dogwood (Cornus foemina)
Mountain-ash (Sorbus aucuparia)
Tree-of-heaven (Ailanthus altissima)
European Pussy Willow (Salix caprea)
Xanthium strumarium (cocklebur also called clotbur)
Bur Oak acorn

NATURE POETRY

Just a friendly sunbeam’s flutter
Wishing all a night’s repose, 
Ere the stars swing back the curtain
Bringing twilight’s dewy close.                       – Joshua Henry Jones, Jr. (1872–1906)

Miles Hearn

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