Before the snow

I was out birding with Sebastien Castagnier today, we went to Stanbridge Station to look for a Varied Thrush which had been attending the feeders of a house there. The day’s plan was quite ambitious and depended on the thrush showing quickly, it didn’t! The area was very birdy, three Pileated Woodpeckers were around including one that took a liking to a fallen stump and lost it’s natural waryness. The thrush was said to be with American Robins and when we found a flock we thought we were in, but no! One garden had a nice flock of 46 Bohemian Waxwings in, my first of the winter. After about three hours or so a couple of Tufted Titmice dropped in but didn’t stay long. Eventually I picked up the Varied Thrush on the top of a bush, we had a good look but it was distant so I legged it the 50m to the car for the scope, as I focussed, off it went, poot!

Decision time and the next option was to look for Collared Doves at Ste-Brigide then on to a Harris’s Sparrow near Iberville. As we went east the snow began to get the idea that it would visit us en-masse. The Collared Doves did not show but I quickly got over it, Seb needed it for his Big Year. A few minutes further on and we were peering into the garden that has hosted the Harris’s Sparrow for a few weeks now. The snow snowed and the sparrow nipped into a bush briefly. It showed again through a hedge in installments but the snow had done for us and we crawled home in crappy weather.

The day species total was 30, the Tufted Titmice were very nice to see well.