Sad Ending for a Scarlet Tanager: Sept. 24, 2022

Scarlet Tanagers often appear in southern Ontario in mid-May. The males are spectacular.

Scarlet Tanager
Scarlet Tanager

Females are greenish yellow.

Scarlet Tanager (female)

This morning, before our walk near the Guild Inn, a walker brought me a paper bag with this within:

Scarlet Tanager (female)

Sad. Such a beautiful bird. This is a female which is indicated by the gray underside of the tail. At this time of year, the scarlet males have moulted and look like the females but lack the underside gray tail.

Scarlet Tanager (female)

It is difficult to know what caused the death – perhaps natural causes, perhaps flying into a window.

Scarlet Tanager (female)

Something good may come of this death. The bird is now in my freezer and I will contact bird artist Barry Kent MacKay to see if he would like it as a model for a future artwork.

I have made many posts of Barry’s fine work in the Friends of Miles section of this website.

Other birds:

Canada Geese
White-throated Sparrow
Canada Geese
Northern Flicker
Blue Jays and a Mourning Dove
Northern Flickers
Blue Jays
White-throated Sparrow
American Robin
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
House Finch (female)

Some botany:

Turtlehead (Chelone glabra)
Virgin’s-bower (Clematis virginiana)
Black-eyed Suzy
White Snakeroot (Ageratina altissima)
Bottlebrush Grass (Elymus hystrix)
Coltsfoot (Tussilago farfara)
Large-leaved Aster (Eurybia macrophylla)
Hog-peanut (Amphicarpaea bracteata)

Raccoon:

Raccoon
Raccoon
Raccoon
Raccoon

Today’s groups:

8am:

11:30:

MAILBOX

Talk about your knotty pine …

NATURE QUOTE

“It is the unknown we fear when we look upon death and darkness, nothing more.” — J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Miles Hearn

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