Outdoor Ontario
Birding Reports => Toronto Reports => Topic started by: rickeckley on April 21, 2013, 10:50:16 PM
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Well, the accidentals – the White Eyed Vireo and the female Blue Grosbeak you’ve been hearing so much about – brought the crowds down to the Wet Woods today. But the show ended up being a Great Horned Owl having a very bad day. He was harassed throughout the morning – first by a gang of Red Winged Blackbirds, then by a very noisy Peregrine Falcon, and finally by a Coopers Hawk. In the end, he held his own, though, and ended up lounging in lower branches all afternoon, watching the throngs not catch their hoped for sightings of the aforementioned accidentals.
For those willing to look beyond the rarities, the day produced a stunning display of more predictable, but no less lovely, early to mid-season migrants. A nice group helped me see an Orange-Crowned Warbler, a lifer for me, and early on in my jaunt, I came across a Swainson’s Thrush and a Lincoln Sparrow that another friendly birder helped me ID. All in all, the biggest day of this year’s Spring Migration extravaganza. Birds I was especially happy to see included:
Cooper’s Hawk
Peregrine Falcon
Great Horned Owl
Sapsucker
Flicker
White Breasted Nuthatch
Creeper
House Wren
G.C., Kinglet (maybe the last of the season)
R.C. Kinglet
Swainson’s Thrush
Hermit Thrush
Thrasher
Orange-Crowned Warbler
Yellow-Rump
Pine (in the open shrubs, in plain sight, not hiding in the pines as usual)
Towhee
Tree Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow
Fox Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Lincoln’s Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
White Throated Sparrow
Junco
Cowbird
Goldfinch
Rusty
A Palm Warbler was also being reported, but darned if I could find him…