Outdoor Ontario
Birding Reports => Toronto Reports => Topic started by: Trillian Flummox on April 04, 2014, 11:09:01 AM
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Enjoyed a mini road trip with my friend Theresa yesterday in the hopes of finding Snow Geese. While we may have dipped on our target, we did enjoy a good variety of other birds. Staines Pond was still half frozen but had a large number of geese and ducks including two pair of Hooded Mergansers. We were treated to two pair of Red-tailed Hawks in the sky at the same time, with one pair engaged in courtship behavior, touching each other briefly in flight several times. Very cool.
Lower Reesor Pond is still completely frozen but there was a gorgeous male Northern Harrier giving us good views as he hunted low over the pond, also a Pileated Woodpecker flying over. Main Reesor Pond has some open water with lots of geese and ducks coming and going from both the pond and the cornfield across the road. We also enjoyed a mini kettle of 5 TV's, more Red-tails and a GBH flying over.
After the ponds we explored some of the side roads, finding more geese, hawks, herons and a fantastic Peregrine that flew right in front of the car while we were parked looking for Horned Larks. There are so many huge flocks of geese and ducks moving around this whole area, it may be worth continuing the search for Snow Geese another day.
-kris :D
p.s. Bonus sightings of two deer pairs were a great addition to the afternoon.
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Dropped by today at the Reesor Pond - besides various ducks and Canada geese at the pond, saw at least 6 Turkey Vultures flying overhead, one even came very close to Hwy 7 as I was driving back. May be they were looking for road kills. Another birder showed up looking for a Northern Pintail apparently reported seen at the pond. No luck.