Now I wish I'd recorded the date I first heard the cardinal singing this year--before the GBBC weekend, maybe a week. He started early in the morning too, when it was still too dark to see him.
On Friday (Feb 19) I saw 2 females in different neighbourhood bushes, both extremely vocal just like the males. I thought it was the males who staked out the territory, so what are these solitary females doing chirping up a storm this early? Seems to me it's too early for egg-laying, or are they driven by warm temperatures (instead of long days)? Or did I see immature floater males "practising" to be just like Dad when they grow up?
In the afternoon I saw a red-tailed hawk getting mobbed by pigeons as it tried to choose one of two churches (St Cecelia's & the former United, Victoria Royce I think) on Annette St. between Aziel & Medland (close to High Park). On the Sunday drive to McMaster the Passenger counted 4 hawks (& 3 coming home), probably red-tails, along the QEW (Oakville-Burlington, although I wasn't checking boundaries). Is this normal hawk behaviour for this time of year, or is it due to our lovely warm weather?
