Went down to the Dundas Marsh with sharp-eyed Owen and his helpful dad Brad and we had a great morning even with the soggy boots. We found by the pond 2 Nelson's sharp tailed sparrows and at the point was at least 1 Little gull in with some Bonaparte gulls. Also seen in the 65 species were 2 immature Bald eagles soaring and a broad-winged hawk as we left by our car. Other sparrows were field, swamp, white-throated, lincolns and song. Saw both kinglets, many yellow-rumped warblers and common yellowthroats, both nuthatches, yellow-bellied sapsuckers, eastern phoebe, marsh and carolina wrens. on the edge of the pond was a virginia rail and in the pond was a great egret ,american coot ,trumpeter swan, both teal and northern shoveler. Flying over the pond had a few northern rough-winged swallows, rusty blackbirds, northern harrier and osprey. The only shorebirds we found at the point were both yellowlegs and a solitary sandpiper. Also a white barnyard goose which almost got us thinking snow goose :) too bad.
The Willows of Dundas marsh are located off of Cootes drive just at the bottom of the hill, there is a trail that follows the creek that takes you out to the point. Just keep along the trail that follows the southside of the creek towards the bay( Cootes Paradise). The northside trail has a sign posted it is closed now. If coming from highway 403 take the Main street east exit to Cootes drive and drive down the hill till see the little bridge over the creek ,can park on either side of the bridge along the road. It is quite wet still in places so expect to get a bit muddy. From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sun Oct 1 16:29:19 2006 Return-Path: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Delivered-To: [email protected] Received: from mailreader.com (mailreader.com [87.52.132.132]) by king.hwcn.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D874663B66 for <[email protected]>; Sun, 1 Oct 2006 16:29:18 -0400 (EDT) Received: from CPE00b0d0a22684-CM0011ae908996.cpe.net.cable.rogers.com (mailreader.com [127.0.0.1]) by mailreader.com (8.13.4/8.13.4) with ESMTP id k91KTEC2002286 for <[email protected]>; Sun, 1 Oct 2006 22:29:17 +0200 To: [email protected] From: Seabrooke <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Sun, 1 Oct 2006 16:21:27 -0400 X-Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED]@postoffice.symbiotic.ca X-Originating-Host: CPE00b0d0a22684-CM0011ae908996.cpe.net.cable.rogers.com [74.98.135.70]; Sun, 1 Oct 2006 20:29:14 GMT X-Mailer: Mailreader.com v2.3.36 (2005-03-14) X-Browser: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.2) Gecko/20040804 Netscape/7.2 (ax), JavaScript: On Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Subject: [Ontbirds] N. Sharp-tailed Sparrow, Milne Hollow, Don Valley, Toronto X-BeenThere: [email protected] X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 01 Oct 2006 20:29:19 -0000 Hi birders, This morning I discovered a Nelson's Sharp-tailed Sparrow at Milne Hollow Park at Lawrence/DVP in Toronto. The bird was foraging with a mixed group of sparrows, and flew up from the weeds upon my approach and perched in a small sapling long enough to give me decent looks. After a short period the bird flew down into the grass again and could not be relocated. Milne Hollow Park is at the corner of Lawrence Ave and the DVP. Access is from the south side of Lawrence, on the east side of the DVP. Note that you cannot turn left into the park from westbound Lawrence. The park is signed at the entrance with "Charles Sauriol Conservation Area" (the park is part of the CS system which runs along the valley in the Lawrence-Eglinton area). The bird was spotted at the south end of the park. Park in the parking lot at the bottom of the road, and follow the gravel path to its point furthest south, where it begins to curve north again. The bird was in the weedy bit just south of the gravel path. Happy birding! --Seabrooke Leckie Toronto, ON =================================================================êSY and FREE access to your email anywhere: http://Mailreader.com/ =================================================================
