This morning, at the mouth of Highland Creek in Scarborough, from 0600 to 0800, I counted the above numbers of cormorants and Caspian Terns flying along the Lake Ontario shoreline all coming from the west, headed east. They were almost certainly all coming from Tommy Thompson Park (TTP) or Toronto Harbour where they roost at this time of the year. One interesting aspect of this situation is that Highland Creek is just over 21 km from TTP...and most of the above birds just kept flying farther to the east. This is a goodly distance for a foraging trip. There are probably over 20,000 cormorants that are resident at TTP now, so that means about 2% of the TTP birds were flying that far to feed during the first 2 hours of daylight. I don't know the size of the CATE roost...so the % of that speecies flying out that far is not known.
Anyone interested in making similar observations (morning or evening) along the shorelines of the Great Lakes, please contact me. Directions: Take the Morningside Ave. exit south off the Hwy 401 in Scarborough to Lawrence Ave. Turn left (east) and go until you approach the Highland Creek bridge (< 1 km), take the last right (south) before crossing the bridge...follow it all the way to its end...it makes a couple s-turns and crosses a set of RR tracks...at a parking lot. Follow the gravel roadway/path to the lakeshore (about a 2 minute walk). Cheers, Chip D.V. Chip Weseloh Canadian Wildlife Service Cell-416-518-4329 [EMAIL PROTECTED] A poor day in the field is better than a good day in the office ! _______________________________________________ ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists - the provincial birding organization. Send bird reports to ONTBIRDS mailing list [email protected] For instructions to join or leave ONTBIRDS visit http://www.ofo.ca/information/ontbirdssetup.php ONTBIRDS Guidelines may be viewed at http://www.ofo.ca/information/ontbirdsguide.php
