My parents and I decided to spend the morning investigating the Happy Valley forest; what a lovely piece of habitat which I am ashamed to say I was never aware of nor visited while growing up in Toronto. Well worth a walk regardless of the birds, even though to my disappointment I found none of the Red Efts seen by most posters.
We did find the Acadian Flycatcher along the small creekbed in the general location described by previous posters. Unlike most of the posted experiences, however, the bird was not particularly vocal at all. We only heard it once, singing relatively faintly for a couple of minutes where the trail crosses the creek, and it shut up when we started to try and track it down. Subsequently we found a silent bird flycatching consistently from the tops of some snags along the creekbed 50m back up the path. I am not certain whether this was the bird singing previously. On our way back we also heard a strongly singing Hooded Warbler on the opposite side of the path about halfway between the trailhead and the Acadian spot. This bird similarly decided to silence itself just as we were getting in position to try and view it and did not resume singing for the next 10 or 15 minutes that we waited. Other birds heard and sometimes seen included Hairy Woodpecker, Eastern Wood-Pewee, Wood Thrush (including juveniles), Ovenbird, Black-throated Green Warbler and Scarlet Tanager. A short drive along 16th Sideroad west of the forest yielded Wood Duck, Great Crested Flycatcher, and Eastern Bluebird. Directions (partially lifted from previous posts) - 400 Hwy N to King Sideroad, W to 7th Concession, N to where it stops at 16th Sideroad (Google Maps users note that the road does not continue straight through here as shown by that site). Turn right and follow this road for ~1km until it ends at a cul-de-sac where the well marked narrow trail starts behind the Nature Conservancy sign - pass through narrow fenced trail entrance and walk about 2-300 meters to where a very small creek bed runs parallel to the trail and look and listen. Good birding! Chris Kimber PhD Candidate Dept. of Biology Queen's University Kingston, ON [email protected] _______________________________________________ ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists - the provincial birding organization. Send bird reports to ONTBIRDS mailing list [email protected] For information about ONTBIRDS visit http://www.ofo.ca/
