Good Evening. Today I birded the Leslie Street Spit with Peter McParland, Bill Smith and Margaret Liubavicius and like Friday it was a good day to be birding.
We started the day with the first 6 of 12 Cave Swallows (Cell 1 and base of Pipit Point) and ended with 3 Golden Eagles (1 juv. and 2 adults) over Leslie St. at Commissioner St. These birds were seen drifting towards The Spit at 4:45 pm and are probably the same 3 that Andrew Keaveney spotted over The Spit at 4:50 pm, nice spotting Andrew. Some of the other nice birds we found out there were Red-necked Grebe, 2 Red-throated Loons overhead, Common Loons, D-C Cormorants, Wood Ducks, Black Ducks, N. Shovelers, Redheads, Greater Scaup, C. Goldeneye, Bufflehead, all 3 Mergansers, Great Blue Heron, N. Harriers, Sharp-shinned, Cooper’s, Red-tailed and Rough-legged Hawks, N. Goshawk, Peregrine Falcon, A. Coot, a Short-eared Owl overhead, E. Phoebe, Cedar Waxwings, Hermit Thrushes, Brown Creepers, Golden-crowned Kinglets, many B-C Chickadees (no Boreal yet #...@*++%$), A. Pipits, Purple Finch, 25 Pine Siskins, Yellow-rumped Warblers, Snow Buntings, Fox, Song, A. Tree, White-crowned, White-throated and Swamp Sparrows. Directions:- LESLIE STREET SPIT (TOMMY THOMPSON PARK) IN TORONTO - Now on it’s Winter schedule for the gates and Van. To get to "The Spit" from Queen and Yonge Streets. Take the Queen Street Car #501 to Leslie St. and walk south (about 2 km) or as far as you can go on Leslie St. at Unwin Ave. and you will see the gate and signage. You may also catch the Jones Bus #83 at the Donlands Subway Station and take it to Leslie St. and Commissioner St. ( Saturday and Sunday as well as week days ). By automobile you can drive to Lakeshore Blvd and Leslie St. then south on Leslie St. to The Spit. You can park either on Leslie St. or Unwin Ave. You may also park in the parking lot inside the main gate after 9 am. Be sure to observe the parking lot closing time as if you are not out by then your auto will be locked in until the following day. — THE PARKING LOT AND ALL GATES WILL BE LOCKED AT 4:30 pm and there is NO Van in the winter. The van will not resume again until next Easter. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NOTE:- The official hours for The Spit are 9 am to 4:30 pm ( weekends and holidays and after 5pm Monday to Friday ) but the unofficial hours are sunup to sundown. To date no one has questioned any birder, jogger, cyclist, etc. about the use of The Spit from sunup to sundown. This area is extensive, 5 km to the tip, but be prepared to walk more than that if you want to view most of the productive areas. The only facilities out there are 4 outdoor toilets along the main road. One at the parking lot, 1 at the next gate, one just past the Quonset hut at the Embayment D overlook and one past the foot bridge near the Triangle Pond. The Spit is only open at the above times because they are still building it. At least that is what their story is. For those in need of a coffee fix there is a Tim Horton’s on the Northwest corner of Leslie St. and Lakeshore Blvd and a Burger King directly across Leslie St. From Tim’s. _______________________________________________ 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/
