Today Margaret Liubavicius and I birded the Leslie Street Spit. The 2 King Eiders found by Ed O’Conner on Feb 19th are still out there. We found the first winter male and the female just off the end of Pipit Point with a partially spring plumaged Eared Grebe only about 20 feet away from them.
Some other nice birds we found were Pied-billed Grebes, Horned Grebes, Double-crested Cormorants, Black-crowned night-Heron, Tundra Swans (overhead), Northern Pintails (overhead), Canvasbacks, Ring-necked Ducks, White-winged Scoters, all 3 Mergansers, American Coots, Killdeer, Horned Lark, Northern Mockingbird and Northern Shrike. Except for Red-winged Blackbirds, Common Grackles, American Robins and Song Sparrows the Passerines were very scarce and we did not see any Raptors at all. The bays are quickly losing their ice cover and today we witnessed the almost total collapse and disappearance of ice in cell 3 as it collapsed under hundreds of Ring-billed Gulls (no gulls were hurt during this show) with a loud roar (kind of) – roar that is. Later as we passed the cell we noticed a 100% increase of waterfowl in the cell. Weather permitting waterfowl species and numbers should peak out there in the coming week. Norm Murr 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 p.m. 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 [email protected] For information about ONTBIRDS visit http://www.ofo.ca/
