Outdoor Ontario
Birding Reports => Toronto Reports => Topic started by: Molebird on April 11, 2015, 11:27:39 AM
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Counted 42 species yesterday (over 2 hours) - including hermit thrush, eastern towhee, ruby crowned kinglet, fox sparrow - all singly. Two merlins and two yellow-bellied sapsuckers. After that we were 'blown' out of the park !
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Great report; I hope to get there tomorrow. Are many of the winter ducks still there?
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I was there yesterday as well. Highlights for me were an early Lincoln's Sparrow, a Sharpie eating some sparrow, about a dozen Fox Sparrows, 2 Chipping Sparrows, and a partially leucistic Chickadee. I had 41 species in the dogwood area.
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It was good weather for migration Saturday night: The dogwoods were virtually deserted early Sunday morning. There is still a nice variety of waterfowl on the lake.
I don't want to think about how good today might be, because I'll be at work. :?
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It was good weather for migration Saturday night: The dogwoods were virtually deserted early Sunday morning....
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Brian, that's a great observation. It happened to me too. I went to Downsview on Saturday afternoon, the little wooded section was filled with a nice variety of spring migrants. I went there back on Sunday to take some photographs of them; alas, the section was all very quiet. I would like to take this a learning opportunity. What weather pattern favored the birds to move on Saturday night? If I have an idea of the effect of weather condition on migration movements I can then plan my birding activity accordingly. Thanks in advance.
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Well it's a topic of endless debate, particularly on birdless mornings during Spring migration. I have heard many conflicting theories. The easiest to explain is what makes a great day, a "fallout". Perfect for birding, but not necessarily the birds, is when the weather turns bad during the night. That forces them to land, and if the weather strikes while they are over the lake, they'll come down as soon as they see shore.
The birdless days aren't as simple to explain, but the basic idea is that if the weather is good, they won't stop at the lakeshore, but just carry on until dawn and be much more dispersed. I guess it depends on the weather on the preceding days too, and where the birds are setting out from. I'd think in good weather, there would still be lots of birds looking for land after crossing the lake, but it often doesn't seem to work that way.
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