Ontbirds subscribers, Last night at about 7:25 p.m. I found a Eurasian Tree Sparrow (Passer montanus) on Toronto Islands at Hanlan's Point. It was found on the grass just to the east of the Billy Bishop Airport fence about 100 metres, near the southeast limit of the fence. It was approximately 60 metres south of the south end of the removable event perimeter fencing recently installed for this weekend's Electric Island music festival. The sparrow was incessantly seen feeding at patches of dandelions, both on the flowers and seeds. I watched it in my scope for about 15 minutes before one of the workers approached me to ask what I was looking at and strayed too close to the bird and flushed it to the west over toward the south end of the airport. I went over to the fence and re-found the bird in the distance on the grass at the south end of the airport, once again feeding in smaller patches of dandelions. I called a few others about it last night, but there really wasn't any time for anyone to make it over to check for the bird unless they were already on the island.
The purpose for my afternoon trip over to Toronto Islands was to try and read the band numbers on a pair of Piping Plovers that looked to be exhibiting breeding behaviour on the Hanlan's Point Beach this past Saturday to Tuesday. Despite two hours of searching up and down the beach, I was unable to locate the plovers at all, so it appears they may have decided to move on. Besides locally breeding Killdeer and Spotted Sandpipers, the only shorebirds I saw were a couple of Semipalmated Sandpipers and a flock of a dozen Dunlin. There was a loafing flock of about 600 gulls on the beach, almost entirely Ring-billed Gulls with a few Herring Gulls. The Toronto Islands are reached by ferry from the ferry terminal at the foot of Bay Street, with ferries leaving every 30 minutes for Ward's Island and then on to Hanlan's Point on their second stop. Alternatively, water taxis are available at the foot of Yonge Street and you can return on one of the scheduled ferries. Good luck to those who chase the sparrow, Glenn Coady Whitby _______________________________________________ ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists (OFO) - 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 Posting guidelines can be found at http://www.ofo.ca/site/page/view/information.ontbirdsguide Visit the OFO Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/OntarioFieldOrnithologists
