Birders,
I took a lunchtime drive over to Humber Bay Park today (was there from 12:45 to 2pm) and checked the mouth of Mimico Creek first. I immediately saw a KILLDEER on the mudflats about 50m south of the white pedestrian bridge that goes over the creek (which is located at the EAST end of the first parking lot at Humber Bay WEST. After viewing some of the gulls (100% Ring-billed), they all took off, scared by an immature BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT-HERON which was flying up the creek. Then through my binocular view, a smaller shorebird flew by. As it slowed to land I saw that it was a DUNLIN, once it landed it started actively feeding or at least "trying" to feed. The Dunlin seems to be hobbling a bit but spent it's time moving up and down the mudflats on both the east & west side of Mimico Creek between 10m and 100m south of the pedestrian bridge. I then headed west along the waterfront trail towards the bay which lies directly south of all the tall condos in the area, looking from the Gazebo that overhangs the bay. Here I found 24 American Wigeon, 200+ Redhead, 2 Hooded Mergansers, 2 Great Black-backed Gull, 20+ Gadwall and 1 Lesser Scaup with several Greaters. In the bay (where Mimico Creek flows into), inside the rock breakwalls, there were 6 Northern Shovelers and outside the breakwall on the lake I saw 1 Horned Grebe. On Thursday Dec 13 I checked the inner harbour along Unwin Avenue (in the Cherry Beach area of Toronto, basically straight south of the DVP) and had 1 Common Loon and 100+ Redhead amongst other common waterfowl. On Tuesday Dec 11 I had 2 Adult Glaucous Gulls flying around in the heavy wind, seen from my office window at 207 Queen's Quay West at the south end of York Street in downtown Toronto. Cheers & good winter birding, Frank Pinilla Richmond Hill, ON DIRECTIONS: Humber Bay Park - Lakeshore Road south of the QEW near the south end of Park Lawn Drive. There are 2 entrances, 1 to the east side of the park and 1 to the west side of the park, I was in the west side and parked in the first parking lot on the left. Driving further along there are more parking lots to look out at the lake. Cherry Beach is found along Cherry Street running south off Lakeshore Blvd near the south end of the Don Valley Parkway in downtown Toronto. Unwin Avenue runs east-west near the south end of Cherry Street - the Unwin bridge is closed to vehicular traffic, but if you drive east along Unwin from Cherry Street you can park and check the inner harbour, you can also check the lake from Cherry Beach. _______________________________________________ ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists - the provincial birding organization. Send bird reports to ONTBIRDS mailing list [email protected] For instructions to join or leave ONTBIRDS visit http://www.ofo.ca/information/ontbirdssetup.php ONTBIRDS Guidelines may be viewed at http://www.ofo.ca/information/ontbirdsguide.php
