I spent a good part of the day today birding on Toronto Islands, covering Ward's Island, Snake Island and the patches of trees along the frisbee golf course.
By far the best bird of the day was a single FISH CROW calling along the breakwall to the Eastern Gap at the extreme east end of Ward's Island shortly after 10AM. I have field experience with the species on the east coast of the US and the Texas coast and more recently listened to recordings of the bird during a couple of failed attempts to track down birds at Pelee over the last few years, so I knew right away what I was hearing. The bird worked its way south along the breakwall from where the sidewalk that runs along the south edge of the cottage area meets the water, calling almost non-stop for several minutes but alternating between the two-note call Sibley calls "cah-ar" and a series of single notes. For those with a Stokes recording set these are the first two call types on the track; I was able to listen to the recording in the field while the bird was calling to confirm the ID. Unfortunately I never got a great look at the wing shape or proportions as the bird hopped from treetop to treetop along the breakwall. I lost it while trying to record its calls on my phone, something I sadly failed at. I heard it again briefly at 1025 and saw the backside of a crow flying across the Eastern Gap towards Cherry Beach and the base of the Leslie Spit. I checked the site again at 2PM and there were no crows to be found - indeed I did not see any American Crows on Ward's Island at all today, the closest being at Snake Island. Other than that highlight there were decent but not exceptional numbers and variety of migrants. Warblers were predominately Yellow-rumped but also Nashville, Northern Parula, Magnolia, Black-throated Blue, Palm, Yellow, Black-and-white, American Redstart and Ovenbird. Some of the other migrants included Least Flycatcher, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Hermit Thrush, Veery, White-crowned, Swamp and Field Sparrows and Dark-eyed Junco. Directions: Toronto Islands are accessed via a paid ferry ride ($6.50 return) from a terminal at Queen's Quay on the Toronto Waterfront, which in turn is accessible via any streetcar leaving from Union subway station. Ferry information is here: http://www.toronto.ca/parks/island/ferry-schedule.htm. The Fish Crow site is accessed by taking the ferry to Ward's Island. Upon exiting, walk south past the soccer fields towards the beach and turn left, walking east past the washrooms and continuing straight past the cottages on your left until the sidewalk eventually dead-ends at the breakwall. The habitat restoration area on your right is a good area for songbirds. Again, the crow seemed to have departed the area so the port lands may be a better bet! 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 [email protected] For information about ONTBIRDS visit http://www.ofo.ca/
