It began innocently. Denise Smith shot a photo of the bunting more than a week ago and emailed it to someone asking what it was<\/p>\n
Tom Spears
\nTom Spears
\nFebruary 6, 2019
\n8:33 AM EST<\/p>\n
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\nWhen Denise Smith spotted a songbird on her backyard feeder, she wasn\u2019t prepared for how rare it would turn out to be, or for having her home staked out by enthusiastic birders.<\/p>\n
The lazuli bunting is a little fluffball from the southwestern United States. It is the eleventh time the species has been spotted in Ontario, and its first time in winter anywhere in Canada. It should be in Mexico now.<\/p>\n
Now the power of listservs \u2014 an electronic mailing list for subscribers \u2014 has kicked in, bringing birders from all over Ottawa with cameras and binoculars.<\/p>\n
More are expected on the weekend, when they have time to drive up from Southwestern Ontario. Others are expected from southern Quebec and the northern United States for what birders call a \u201cmegatick,\u201d or very rare sighting.<\/p>\n
The situation has the Smith family on one side, saying they are tired of people pointing binoculars at their house, and birders on the other side, saying they are on public property and just innocently watching a bird.<\/p>\n
A Lazuli Bunting, photo by Bruce Di Labio on February 4, 2019. Bruce DiLabio \/ Postmedia
\nThe bunting, to make things worse, shows up for a couple of minutes and then disappears for hours. That means birders are staked out for hours at a time.<\/p>\n
It began innocently. Smith shot a photo of the bunting more than a week ago and emailed it to someone asking what it was. Turned out the little fellow was rare, and word got around in the ultra-connected online birding world where any rare sighting is posted and draws a crowd quickly.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy house is small and it is all windowed at the back, and they are focusing with binoculars right in my backyard towards my house, which is really uncomfortable,\u201d Smith said Tuesday. \u201cI understand they are not looking inside the house, but it\u2019s still uncomfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said she agreed to a deal; the birders would come for a week, and then stop.<\/p>\n
\u201cI tolerated it all week because I knew there was a timeline. But it didn\u2019t stop then.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want to keep (birders) from seeing the little guy. I understand he is special. But I don\u2019t want people looking into my backyard and my house. It\u2019s frustrating,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI respect them. I\u2019m just angry at the situation.\u201d She said she was also upset to see her full name and address on the birders\u2019 listserv as well, and regrets telling anyone about the bird in the first place. She and her husband were sick on the weekend, lying on the couch and just wishing everyone would go away.<\/p>\n
The birders are not trespassing. They are standing on National Capital Commission property.<\/p>\n
Jeff Skevington, a birder who is also a research biologist at the Central Experimental Farm, said birders have tried moving around to stay out of sight. They shifted to a spot behind the neighbouring house, but the owner said they were scaring squirrels away from his squirrel feeder.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe keep adapting. I suggested that we \u2026 put food on the ground on the NCC property so that it can be viewed from out of sight of the house. The trick is getting the bird to come to that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the interim, everyone wants to go and look in the yard, so that is going to be hard. You can\u2019t control people on public land. But hopefully that will work if it starts eating on the ground there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Buntings are ground feeders. This one has been dining on millet seeds and bark butter.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut everything causes problems, even parking,\u201d said Skevington. He has stopped to chat with local residents, showing photos of the bird and explaining what all the visitors are doing there. \u201cI think it\u2019s working out well.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said much of the time, landowners and birders can find ways to work together, as happened last fall when a rare calliope hummingbird (from Oregon) showed up in Goderich, Ont.<\/p>\n
Local bird expert Bruce Di Labio said it\u2019s fairly common for homeowners to welcome birders at first when there\u2019s a special sighting. But the welcome can wear out.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver my life of birding, this happened so many times,\u201d he said. \u201cIt always starts off that the (homeowner) is very happy to have people, but they don\u2019t realize how many people may come by, and how many will park themselves and not leave \u2026 Especially now: social media puts it out way beyond when I started out\u201d in the late 1960s, he said.<\/p>\n
This bunting is a young male with dull plumage now, but should turn bright blue for breeding season when spring arrives. The species weighs 13 to 18 grams, about half an ounce.<\/p>\n
Where it will go is anyone\u2019s guess.<\/p>\n
Di Labio said the bunting must have found a warm place to spend the nights, possibly where heat escapes from a house.<\/p>\n
Skevington said the feathers on its underside were standing up when he saw it on Sunday, which either means it had bathed itself or that it is dying.<\/p>\n
\u201cBuntings are tough little birds,\u201d and he suspects it will survive if it gets food.<\/p>\n
That means more human visitors will come, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t seen Friday and so a lot of people aborted their plans to come from Southwestern Ontario \u2026 and then I re-found it Sunday afternoon, so most people will be coming this weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n
tspears@postmedia.com<\/p>\n
twitter.com\/TomSpears1<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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