A total of 20 species of warblers in addition to a number of other birds were seen today at West Deane Park between 6:30-11:00am and 1:00-2:30pm.
A couple of interesting takeaways from today: (1) - There was certainly a wide variety of warblers, but there was NOT a lot of total numbers of birds. There were decent amounts of Chestnut-sided, Tennessee, Redstart, Blackburnian and Yellow, but the others were largely confined to ones, twos or handfuls of each. (2) For those familiar with the park, the warblers were generally not found in the areas that they've been seen (and where most people look) in years past. Today, most were found either hugging the ravine precipice along the treelines in the "upper park", or in the forested area and small rivulet that can be accessed by taking the south path (i.e., turning left instead of right) immediately after crossing the footbridge from the parking lot. There were decent numbers of birds in these areas although many of the warblers were staying together as loose flocks and gradually moving all the way along the treelines and then back again. The area of the park where many warblers have generally been seen in years past (crossing the footbridge and taking either of the north paths by turning right) was very, very quiet today. Warblers seen today included: Golden-winged; Blue-winged; Yellow, Yellow-Rumped; Magnolia; Black-Throated Blue; Black-Throated Green; Chestnut-Sided; Blackburnian; Tennessee; Palm; Black&White; Nashville; Ovenbird; Northern Parula; Blackpoll; Bay-Breasted; Mourning; Canada and Common Yellowthroat. Other birds seen today included: Baltimore and Orchard Orioles; Brown Thrasher; Indigo Bunting; Veery, Hermit and Swainson Thrushes; Flicker, Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers; Great Crested and Willow Flycatchers; Scarlet Tanager; Blue-headed, Warbling and Yellow-Throated Vireos; Eastern Phoebe; Eastern Kingbird; Rose-Breasted Grosbeak; Winter Wren; Blue-Grey Gnatcatcher and Spotted Sandpiper. The West Deane/Ravenscrest/Hampshire Heights/Echo Valley park system is located in Etobicoke. The park comprises the Mimico Creek Ravine and runs between Kipling/Burnhamthorpe streets in the south through to Eglinton Avenue & Hwy. 427 in the north. The nearest major intersection is Rathburn and Martingrove. Directions from downtown Toronto: Gardiner Expressway West, north on Hwy 427, Rathburn Road offramp east to Martingrove Road, left (north) on Martingrove to West Deane Park parking lot on left (west) side of road. Sent from my BlackBerry device on the Rogers Wireless Network _______________________________________________ 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/
