Outdoor Ontario
Birding Reports => Toronto Reports => Topic started by: Bird Brain on March 04, 2024, 04:38:52 PM
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Hi everyone. Seeing reports and photos online of a Bullock's Oriole at SW corner of Grenadier Pond at High Park. Apparently this bird has been here since late January and one of these birds hasn't been sighted here for over 41 years!
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Yes Jo-Anne, you are quite right. It's a west coast bird and therefore way off course. I was actually planning to visit High Park today but decided that I couldn't face the traffic trying to get there from Pickering. Just the thought of taking the 401 as far as Keele St. and then negotiate the twists and turns (Rogers Rd. to Weston Rd. - which then turns back into Keele St.) and then finding a place to park. Alternatively, taking the 401 to the Don Valley Parkway and then down to the Gardener Expressway is also scream-worthy. What about parking? I think there is free parking inside the park with a limit of 2 hrs, but the lot could easily be full ... and then what? I checked when I got back from Cranberry Marsh and there was no report of the oriole at that time. I just looked again and now there is a report of it visiting a feeder just outside the park - at the SW corner, across the street in a parkette beside what might be townhouses. That's the other thing ... with the notoriety that this bird has achieved that location may look like a stake-out ... a mob of birders and photographers. I encountered that scenario a couple of times in the past and I don't want to do it again. I used to take the subway to High Park but not anymore. With mutating respiratory viruses (Covid and the whole family of freak'in mutants) I'm not risking it. An N95 is fine for short confined exposure (buying groceries) but sitting in a train for an hour is not a good idea. Those days are over. I say, why don't you pop on down to ground zero and then tell me all about it. I can't wait. dot, dot, dot .... breaking news from our in-field reporter Jo-Anne about the circumstances surrounding the celebrity oriole visiting Toronto. Tell us, Jo-Anne, what's the mood at the site?
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Tell us, Jo-Anne, what's the mood at the site?
One day on the weekend there were 15 photographers at the location. One of the photographers wasn't happy about the crowd, left but then went back later to much quieter. I guess it's all in the timing! Perhaps go early to avoid crowds and get parking - unless everyone else has the same idea! :o
I haven't visited High Park for 5 years. Back in the mid-80's lived at Bloor/Islington, used to go for short subway ride to High Park station often then walk down the street to the park. One time I walked there from Islington Ave, another time roller skated there! ;D