Although it was encouragingly overcast as I looked out the window this morning, the forecast rain had failed to materialise. Nonetheless, I trundled off to Government House just to see if the southerlies and cloud cover had caused anything to drop. The cloud ceiling was a touch high, and my optimism waned somewhat as I walked through the gardens toward the bluffs.
It was eerily quiet, with few birds singing. Even the Bewick's wrens and towhees were reticent, and took a while to get revved up. In fact the noisiest birds were the Cooper's hawks - a juvenile bird was making a right racket and was being chased around the place by the adult male. In fact, this went on throughout the hour or so I was there, and every time the young bird approached the area of the park where the nest is located, the adult came out to see it off. Later, I located both adult birds near the nest; the female was pulling some hapless songbird apart while the male looked on, from several feet away. I'm assuming that it's too early for a fledged bird of this year, and that the youngster is one of last year's offspring?
As I slowly made my way around the trail I came across several orange-crowned warblers, a lone male yellow-rumped warbler, a couple of ruby-crowned kinglets and the other usual denizens of the area.
Just as I coming away, however I noticed a mourning dove sat up in the trees near the parking area. I think I'm right in saying that this is the first one that I've ever seen on the island, so that certainly made the walk worthwhile!
On my way back, I once again saw the flock of cedar waxwings on Joan Crescent - there were 16 present.
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