Outdoor Ontario
Birding Reports => Toronto Reports => Topic started by: BC on April 19, 2010, 07:00:19 PM
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I made my first visit of the spring to Queen's Park today between 11:15 and 11:45 am. Among the usual urban birds I found:
• Turkey Vulture (flyover)
• Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
• Downy Woodpecker
• Ruby-crowned Kinglet
• Dark-eyed Junco
• Red-winged Blackbird
• House Finch
I passed through again about 4:45 pm and had a Peregrine Falcon (flyover).
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I work around Queens Park, I must go for a walk this week to see what I can see!
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During the middle of the day, many of the interesting birds hole up in a stand of pines just south of the equestrian monument. Last year, I had Hermit Thrush and Wood Thrush on the lawn on the east side of the park. Also, I had ten species of warblers last year in late April and early May. They are most reliable, when they turn up, east of the monument in the deciduous trees.
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I have a lunch meeting today, but I am most definitely going to check this out this week, it's practically across the street from me.
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@BC: Thanks for the tip. I'll try to make it out some morning this week.
@angieinto: I also work not too far from Queen's Park and I stopped by almost every morning during migration last year. It's a great spot.
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You can add Chipping Sparrow to the list; I saw at least 3 this morning. Also, plenty of Ruby-crowned Kinglets and Dark-eyed Juncos.
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I'm going tomorrow with a friend. I may even try to sneak over today....
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Ok, so I snuck over today, and I thought I saw a yellow-bellied sapsucker, but it wasn't....it had yellow on it's underbelly but no red.
It wasn't a downy or hairy, I know them. Any ideas? Going back tomorrow with my binoculars.
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I was there today between 11 and 11:30 am. Nothing new to add other than the vocal Chipping Sparrows, reported above.
I saw a male and female Yellow-bellied Sapsucker.
Also, I saw a pair of Downy Woodpeckers and, if their intimate behaviour is any indication, they are likely nesting in the park.
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I wish I knew what I saw. :(
I got there just after noon.
I'll be going over around 11:30am tomorrow for an hour, if you see a crazy lady walking around with binoculars looking up at the trees feel free to say hi!
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Is there an area where the Kinglets hang out?
I was over again this morning before work. Saw a few Chipping Sparrows and Juncos. I think I may of saw the pair of YBSS, but they flew off to quick for me to get a good look at, into a tree close to where a homeless guy was sleeping, and I didn;t want to bother him.
Also got to watch a raccoon climb a tree and bed down for the day.
Going back at 11:30am.
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@angieinto: You must have been there right before me; I was there from just after 8 until 9. Yesterday the Kinglets were mostly just south of the horse statue. Today, I saw a small flock of Ruby- and Golden-crowned Kiglets at the far SE corner of the park.
Other stuff I saw this AM:
-Goldfinch (2)
-Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker (2)
-Downy Woodpecker (1)
-Junco (a handful)
-Chipping Sparrow (a handful)
I also saw the cutest baby racoon ever in the fork of the silver maple just south of the horse statue. Seriously, this guy was probably the cutest thing I've ever seen.
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@strimackus: I was there just after 7am for about 15 minutes.
Went back at 11:10am for an hour. Very glad I did!!
Thanks to BC (Barry) I know for sure I saw a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. He also showed me and my friend where to see the Kinglets, and we saw both, Ruby-crowned and Golden-crowned. Nice meeting you Barry, and I'm sure I'll see you there again.
I also saw a Downy Woodpecker, Flicker, Chipping Sparrows, Juncos and a Goldfinch. And of course, Starlings, Robins and House Sparrows.
I think Queens Park will be my regular lunch time hang out for a while. :D
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Nothing to add to today's reports. Nice meeting you, Angie.
I find it interesting that the Ruby-crowned Kinglets weren't singing until the Golden-crowneds turned up. Both were very vocal this morning.
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I haven't been able to get to Queen's Park since Friday. This morning, the windy conditions weren't ideal for birding. Two Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers were seen. Common Grackles have arrived. Several Ruby-crowned Kinglets and Red-winged Blackbirds and a few Dark-eyed Juncos were present.
I'm looking forward to the first warblers.
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I probably won't get back over to next week. Busy with "year end" at work and now I've come down with a head cold. :(
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Argh!!
There was a lot of activity in the park this morning as I passed through on my way to work. Unfortuntately, this was the one morning that I didn't have the time to stop and look around. Very frustrating.
In the few minutes that I did look around I saw:
Pine Warbler (this ID was very rushed so I may be off)
Hermit Thrush
White-throated Sparrow
Also, I believe I saw a vireo that I couldn't identify and I'm sure there was other stuff going on because I heard a bunch of calls I wasn't familiar with.
I'll try to get back at lunch and post with more details.
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I saw a couple Baltimore Orioles and a Yellow-rumped Warbler in QP this morning. About 100 Blue Jays flew over while I was birding in the park. Also, the female Red-winged Blackbirds seem to be out in full force now.
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I love Orioles!! Saw my first pair for the year yesterday close to home.
I gotta get over to Queens Park this week.
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I couldn't wait til tomorrow, I took a quick walk through around 11am. I also saw about 30 Blue Jays fly over, and a hawk soaring around off in the distance, not sure what kind, but from a distance I would guess Red-tailed. On my way back to work I lucked out and saw the female Oriole and I watched her for awhile before I had to get back to the office.
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I managed to get to Queen's Park today for a late afternoon stroll. The windy conditions weren't great but I saw a single female Yellow-rumped Warbler, two male Baltimore Orioles (having a singing contest), a male Rose-breasted Grosbeak and three Chimney Swifts (overhead).
The usual suspects were present including the Downy Woodpeckers.
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A quick tour of the park around 6 pm was notable for the number of noisy Red-winged Blackbirds. I might have been in a wetland.
Wind and new foliage made viewing tricky but I noticed a bird lift off of the ground and land on a limb about 15 feet high. It was my first Ovenbird of the year and my first ever for Queen's Park.
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I've been home sick most of the week and haven't been able to get over. :(
Hopefully some of these beauty's are still around next week.
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This morning was pretty productive. Between 8 and 9 AM I saw:
Yellow Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Blackburnian Warbler
Northern Parula
Nashville Warbler
Swainson's Thrush
Baltimore Oriole
American Goldfinch
As well as the usual suspects.
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Holy crap!! I so need to get over there, I had an early meeting this morning and couldn't.
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The migrants weren't in as great abundance today compared to last week, but I still saw 8 warbler species and my first Least Flycatcher of the year. The park was dominated by Magnolia and Yellow-Rumped Warblers. Full list:
X Rock Pigeon
1 Downy Woodpecker
1 Least Flycatcher
2 Red-eyed Vireo
1 Golden-crowned Kinglet
2 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
2 Swainson's Thrush (a lot of other thrushes heard but not seen)
X European Starling
5 Chestnut-sided Warbler
13 Magnolia Warbler
2 Black-throated Blue Warbler
9 Yellow-rumped Warbler
2 Blackburnian Warbler
3 Bay-breasted Warbler
5 Black-and-white Warbler
1 American Redstart
1 Scarlet Tanager
X Red-winged Blackbird
1 Baltimore Oriole
X House Sparrow
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Still a great list!
Warblers are really new to us, we really want to see a Blackburnian Warbler, I am bringing my binoculars with me tomorrow morning.
I did see an Oven Bird outside my office when I came back over, first time, so that was nice.
Nice to meet you this morning.
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I have heard in the past that there is an active red-tailed hawk nest at Queens Park - is anyone aware of this nest ?
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@ostrich: I haven't seen it myself. It's south of the legislature buildings and I usually bird north of the buildings. Here's something I saw in another post (http://outdoorontario.net/birds/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=5442) from May 11 that you might find interesting:
i saw the red-tailed hawk nest on the south lawn (there are 3 pines on the east part of the lawn close to QP's front doors. you can see the nest in the tallest of pines). didn't have time to go to the north lawn.
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I'm around Queen's Park often and I'm kind of new to birding, but how often do the birds stick around in the park? Are they only here until May?
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@shorebird: I'm also fairly new to birding so I can't say exactly how long the birds stick around. I imagine it's not much longer than a few more weeks at best though. It's great there right now, you should definitely check it out. I'm in Queen's Park most week day mornings between 8-9am.
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@ostrich: The Red-tails used to nest on the roof of the parliament building (south-west corner), but I don't know about this year.
@shorebird: The warbler migration is quite short. After the first week of June it will mostly be over.
These are data from ebird.com for Toronto (the green bars indicate that the species has been observed):
(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/590795/ebird-warbler-data.png)
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I had an Eastern Peewee in the park at lunchtime.
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I think I heard a winter wren's song in the Park these couple of days, if I'm not mistaken.
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I only had about 15 minutes in the park this morning. There's certainly less action than last week, but there's still a few migrants to be seen:
1 Eastern Wood-Pewee
1 Warbling Vireo
2 Red-eyed Vireo
1 Veery
1 Swainson's Thrush
1 Chestnut-sided Warbler
5 Magnolia Warbler
2 American Redstart
1 Ovenbird
3 Baltimore Oriole
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I was there about an hour and a half later and things had picked up though I missed a few of your birds. I had several personal firsts for Queen's Park. Many of these birds were singing. A lot of Canadas, Tennessees and Blackpolls came through Pelee when I was there on the weekend so it was nice of them to stop in Toronto.
• Black-throated Green Warbler
• Tennessee Warbler - singing helpfully
• Blackburnian Warbler
• Blackpoll Warbler
• American Redstart
• Canada Warbler
• Magnolia Warbler
• Blue-headed Vireo
• Warbling Vireo
• Red-eyed Vireo
• Least Flycatcher
• Eastern Wood-Pewee
• Hermit Thrush
• Swainson's Thrush
• Baltimore Oriole
• American Goldfinch
• Chimney Swift
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Nice list. I guess I wasn't looking hard enough. I'm going to try to get out for longer tomorrow morning.
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A lot of the warblers were in the N/E corner between the war memorial and the traffic light. They were up pretty high.
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Most of the action was on the west side of the park this morning.
3 Warbling Vireo
1 Red-eyed Vireo
4 Swainson's Thrush
1 Nashville Warbler
1 Chestnut-sided Warbler
6 Magnolia Warbler
2 American Redstart
1 Common Yellowthroat
4 Canada Warbler
1 Unidentified Empidonax flycatcher
Also, the squirrels were going crazy this morning: running around, chasing eachother, chattering non-stop. Much more than normal. I saw one squirrel fall at least 15 metres onto the hard pavement and run away unscathed.