Hello Ontbirders, I tried to get this out earlier but unfortunately my folks are not adept with the Ontbirds world so I'm sending this out again. I found what is presumably an adult male Yellow Warbler (from what I know, this is a GREAT winter bird) in Marie Curtis Park this afternoon around 2:00pm and viewed it for approx. 10-15 minutes before I carried on birding. I found the bird along the east side of a small creek on the far, far west of Marie Curtis Park. Access to this creek is somewhat limited (there are no tresspassing signs here and there but they are old, no one who used the park on a regular basis employs them, and frankly I don't think anyone could tell you who actually owns most of the land around this park - it's a really funny situation). Anyhow there are huge gaps in the fence here that people have opened up over the 15+ years i've been birding here and one of these gaps is best suited for access to the creek. The bird was skulking low in the brush, leaves, dead grass, etc. obviously frantically looking for any inverts it could stirr up. I first found the bird by hearing a call that was obviously warbler-like to me and I almost gave up looking thinking I had heard wrong, when the bird finally popped up in front of me. Most views were within 15 feet, so it was VERY close. More on Access: Parking is on the East side of Marie Curtis. Walk across the small bridge to the west side, follow the road/walking trail west past the parking lot on the west side (which is closed for the winter?). Keep following the walking path (parking lot on your left, wooded area on the right) and the path turns northward cutting through a small wooded area. The path then opens up into an area with very few trees but lots of brush and several large wooden walls that the army used to train men on for scaling over them. Anyhow as soon as you hit this open area there is a large break in the fence on your left which leads to the creek about 30? meters away and the bird was foraging low in this area. Alternatively... the creek does open into Lake Ontario so it is possible to just walk the beach west on the west side of Marie Curtis Park until you hit the mouth of this small creek then walk north up it, but you MAY need rubber/winter boots at one spot... Directions: Marie Curtis Park is found along Lakeshore Rd. From Hwy 427 exit at Brown's Line and continue south to Lakeshore. Go west on Lakeshore about 2 blocks and turn left just before bridge. Parking area is south of Lakeshore, again on east side of Etobicoke Creek. Those are incredible directions... good luck people! Andrew Keaveney _________________________________________________________________
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