Good afternoon.
Today I decided to start my early fall birding with a trip to the Toronto
Islands. I only did 2 islands today (Wards & Snake) because of the rain but
I did come up with 50 species. I only had 1 shorebird and 4 waterfowl
species but that was to be expected this early down there.
I spent a lot of time going from the cover of 1 tree to the next one to try
and keep dry (I lost that one) and the following are some of the high
lights.
Great Egret 1 flying over from the Leslie Street Spit, 11 Downy Woodpeckers
*, 22 Eastern Kingbirds, 10 Warbling Vireos *, 5 Philadelphia Vireos, 1
Blue-headed Vireo, 200+ Cedar Waxwings, only 2 Brown Thrashers *, 3 Carolina
Wrens *, 6 Blue-gray Gnatcatchers *, 96 Purple Martins, 1 Chestnut-sided
Warbler, 16 Yellow Warblers *, 3 Yellow-rumped Warblers, 3 Northern
Waterthrush, 23 Song Sparrows *, 41 Baltimore Orioles *, and 140+ Red-winged
Blackbirds.
The birds with an asterisk * are breeding birds on the islands. 10 of the
Kingbirds and 29 of the Orioles were in one small area together beside the
eastern gap. 150+ of the Waxwings were on Snake Island, 5 Gnatcatchers were
in the same area as the Kingbirds and Orioles on Wards, 96 of the Martins
were lined up on the branches of one tree on Snake Island just waiting for
me to count them and put them in my note book and most of the Red-winged
Blackbirds were overhead flying west early in the morning.
All in all a nice start to the coming migration season and I can't wait to
get back down there next week as well as to the Leslie Street Spit as both
places start to pick up after the 15th.
Directions
TORONTO ISLANDS
To get to the Toronto Islands from Queen and Yonge Streets on the TTC. If
your on the subway southbound stay on it and get off at Union Station, walk
south about 1 km to the ferry docks at the foot of Bay Street and Queens
Quay and you are there. If in an auto on the Gardener Expressway or on
Lakeshore Blvd, then exit at Bay Street and drive south to Queens Quay,
there are lots of parking lots nearby (fee). There is a fee for using the
island ferries ($6.50 adult / $3.50 for seniors)(yes they raised the adult
price AGAIN) and to find out the sailing times you can phone (416) 392-8193
and there are washrooms on the islands as well as the city side at the ferry
docks.
The 1st boat to Wards Island (my preferred starting point) is 6:35 am and
the 2nd is 7:00 am Monday to Friday, Saturday 6:35 am, then 7:15 am and the
1st is at 8:00 am on Sunday.
Snake Island is 1 1/4 miles (2km) west of the Wards Island ferry dock, walk
to the second bridge, 1st one is over to Algonquin Island.
Norm Murr
Richmond Hill, ON
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