Just a few days ago we saw an American Pipit at Col. Sam Smith Park:

Usually I am happy if I see one Pipit a year. It is almost always in November. The birding gods were with us and both groups today at the Scarborough Bluffs saw a Pipit.

Here is some information about them:

American Pipits nest in tundra in the far North, including grassy meadows and dwarf shrub habitat.

Pipits walk energetically through fields in search of food, strutting quickly forward with jerks of the head, almost chickenlike in their gait.

American Pipits eat mostly insects and their larvae. allaboutbirds.com

Today’s Pipit:

Other birds:

Some botany:

Bluff area scenes:

8am group:

11:30am group:

MAILBOX

Photos of a leucistic Robin spotted in the Don Valley recently – photographer: Barbara Burns

NATURE POETRY

When all aloud the wind do blow,
And coughing drowns the parson’s saw,
And birds sit brooding in the snow,
And Marian’s nose looks red and raw
When roasted crabs hiss in the bowl,
Then nightly sings the staring owl,
Tu-who! Tu-whit! Tu-who! – a merry note,
While greasy Joan doth keel the pot. – Shakespeare

Miles Hearn