For the last three years, and along with 4-5 volunteers, I have been doing a study on the roosting habits of Double-crested Cormorants at Tommy Thompson Park (TTP, aka The Spit) before they start egg laying and before they are 24-hour residents at Tommy Thompson Park. The work is not hard but it comes at an hour when we have found it difficult to be in the field, i.e., dinner time and early evening family responsibilities…. So, we need more help! I am looking for bird-watcher volunteers who can scour the trees, rock jetties/breakwalls and shoreline of Lake Ontario, on the Toronto Islands and the shoreline areas to the west of them, looking for roosting cormorants. For the next 2-3 weeks, cormorants arrive at their TTP breeding areas, before sunrise, from the west/southwest---but I have no idea from exactly where. I am quite sure they do not roost on the water (but I am willing to be proven wrong) ---as they never do in the late summer/autumn. They may be roosting in trees on the south or west shore of the Toronto Islands, or on the extensive breakwalls of Sunnyside or in shoreline trees up the Humber River or along the shoreline out to Mimico or Long Branch. Right now, cormorants have just arrived back at their TTP breeding area this past week-end but in the next 2-3 weeks, thousands more will return and by mid-April they will be roosting overnight at their colony site. I would like to know where they roost between now and then. If you are interested in participating in this research, please email me ([email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>). Many thanks for your help, Chip -- Ontbirds and Birdnews are moderated email Listservs provided by the Ontario Field Ornithologists (OFO) as a service to all birders in Ontario.
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