Today, Sunday 5 January 2014, John Carley, Carl Hills, Garth Riley and I participated in the Lake Ontario Waterfowl Inventory (also known as The Duck Count). Our area was on the Toronto waterfront from Cherry Beach to the Leslie Street Spit - Tommy Thompson Park. Temperatures were mild around 0 C. We saw 17 species of waterfowl, 3380 individuals - preliminary results:
Mute Swan 12 Trumpeter Swan 7 Wood Duck 1 Gadwall 358 American Black Duck 39 Mallard 800 Redhead 51 Greater Scaup 451 White-winged Scoter 45 Long-tailed Duck 1293 Bufflehead 20 Common Goldeneye 143 Common Merganser 41 Red-breasted Merganser 111 Hooded Merganser 2 Horned Grebe 2 Red-necked Grebe 4 Remarkably there were no Canada Geese. Other Birds A Purple Sandpiper landed in front of us at Cherry Beach early this morning, quickly sized up the ice-laden rocks, and flew across to the Spit. Later while on the Spit, we spotted a Purple Sandpiper flying down the east side of the Spit and located it on the rocks at Pipit Point, the farthest southeasterly point where there are exposed algae-covered rocks. This is probably the same bird moving around. European Goldfinch (escapee) with American Tree Sparrows Northern Mockingbird at Unwin and the road to Outer Harbour Marina 4 Snowy Owls - all appeared to be first year females Please Note - Leslie Street Spit (Tommy Thompson Park) is closed to the public during the week and will be open again next Saturday. Directions: Cherry Beach and Clarke Beach are at the foot of Cherry Street in east Toronto. Leslie Street Spit is at Unwin Avenue and Leslie Street. Good birding, Jean Iron Toronto ON _______________________________________________ ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists - the provincial birding organization. Send bird reports to [email protected] For information about ONTBIRDS including how to unsubscribe visit http://www.ofo.ca/site/page/view/information.ontbirdssetup
