Saturday, May 23rd, 2009
Rather than driving 300 kilometers and chasing half-way across Ontario, we declared that we would do our Birdathon, as “Celebrity Birders” for the Ontario Field Ornithologists, entirely within the deep dark depths of urban Toronto.
When we assessed the territory and planned our route, we told prospective sponsors that we would see between 100 and 130 species. When given a quoted range, most people remember only the low figure. At least we have observed that tendency when it comes to spending money. Thus we look at the bright side of only reaching 102 species on our Birdathon.
But let us give it context: Every bird we saw, from the humble House Sparrow to the mighty Peregrine Falcon to the diminutive Blue?gray Gnatcatcher was seen in a public urban space.
We know, as do many of you that the geography and vegetation of Toronto makes for a surprisingly rich variety of avifauna. Of course Birdathon is timed to take advantage of both migration and breeding season so our chances of seeing birds were maximized. So where did we go to see these birds? As we drove down our street at 6:45 a.m. we saw an American Robin, Chimney Swift, European Starling and Northern Cardinal on our way to the Leslie Street Spit where we put in quite few hours of serious birding. The “Baselands” wet woods, which are jeopardized by the planned Lake Ontario Park transect and “improvements”, were full of birds and bird watchers. Gnatcatchers nest there, so we heard the constant bizzing of their call as we looked and listened for warblers and thrushes. Further out the spit, in the bays and ponds, we saw fewer ducks than expected but did find several shorebirds as well as herons, terns, gulls, sandpipers and, of course, cormorants. When we felt we had seen about as much as we could see and were just getting back to the car, a mature male Eastern Bluebird perched on a post with the sun lighting up his delightful sky blue back and red breast. We lingered to enjoy the sight, even as we knew we were wasting valuable time!
From the Spit we went to the west side of the city and walked along the Humber River and into James Gardens and Lambton Woods. As we had expected, we saw Cliff Swallows but no amount of walking in circles produced either of our other “target species” for the woods, Pileated Woodpecker and Black-capped Chickadee; so slightly downhearted and stressed we went to the corner of Bloor and Islington and had a nice look at the Peregrine Falcons. We could have done this “naked eye” but did put up the scope for a close look. Again just wasting time on the beauty of the birds!
From there it was down to the western waterfront, with a short deviation to find a Northern Mockingbird in the industrial area beside the 427. Colonel Sam Smith Park produced the elusive Black-capped Chickadee and a Cooper’s Hawk as well as a flock of Brant and long lines of White-winged Scoters skimming the surface of Lake Ontario.
It was now getting towards dusk and we had to decide; the Humber River at Old Mill for the Red-tailed Hawk nest or Humber Bay Park for ducks. We had recorded Great Egret, Black-crowned Night-Heron and Belted Kingfisher, so the river was probably only a one species stop. The vote went for the waterfront again. We were desperate: we actually had not reached 100 species. Our performance was not going to impress anyone, in a positive way. Fortunately Humber Bay produced!! Trumpeter Swan got us to 99. Two Hooded Mergansers brought us to 100 and a Greater Scaup was 101. It was good to have one extra in case we had miscounted.
But we were not done yet. Our party, Garth Riley and Nancy McPherson who provided stalwart help and companionship all day and Raunie Ratcliffe who had kindly taken over the driving as we started to flag, returned to The Spit. We stood at the side of grotty Unwin Avenue with industrial land behind us, a chain link fence and the occasional dubious-looking car between us and the Baselands. As we peered into the desolate darkness, we heard it, beeep.. beeeep.. beeep..beeep. Woodcocks were calling and displaying!
So we made it to 102.
And we are honoured to have been the OFO Celebrity Birders for 2009. Thanks to all our sponsors!
John & Victoria Carley-
