I returned to a Scarborough park yesterday morning, somewhat later than usual because I wanted to visit a Polish deli on the way home and they don't open until 10 o'clock, and even then the big pretzels may not yet have arrived. When I exited the car I could hear myriad faint twitters and therefore I thought 'this sounds encouraging' without actually having seen anything of interest. I didn't figure the twitter and wheezing was from warblers, at least not at this late stage of the migration, but more likely WT sparrows and kinglets. As I walked toward the nearby path and even once on the path I looked all around me and up into the canopy to see where the bird sounds were coming from. Nothing was moving. That's strange. As I proceeded down the path the twitter abated and all was quiet. Any sound at all to be heard was either man-made, or a squirrel. Falling leaves and falling nuts (mostly acorns and some walnuts) and fruits everywhere. No birds. I walked around the park for about an hour and mostly ... no birds. Not even sparrows feeding on the grass. It suddenly occurred to me that I hadn't even heard a blue jay screech. I heard a single jay 10 seconds later and that was it. Finally I spotted movement beside me and noticed a Downy WP. Then there were two. One on each side of me. They followed me around while continuing to flank me. What's this? An intervention? They flew on my hat, and wanted to sit on my lens until they realized the lens was covered by a sock that hasn't been washed since the last American call for impeachment. I beseech you, what does any of that nonsense have to do with peaches? You know it's a crime ... the price of Canadian peaches. Maybe those woodpeckers were checking to see if I had any peaches. They wouldn't leave me alone. Then I had an idea. I would take a picture cuz that usually pisses-off birds real good. It worked! A couple of shots later I was free of harassment. Anyway, I've never seen a park so quiet, so still, so calm, so humid, so unappealing. I headed off for pretzels which always makes me feel better. I wonder, do woodpeckers eat pretzels?
