Outdoor Ontario
Birding Reports => Toronto Reports => Topic started by: judith on February 28, 2007, 07:19:58 PM
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Yesterday I walked along Grenadier pond at about 11:30 am and at the southern end I saw a bird that I later identified as "brown thrasher" - I wonder if anyone else had seen him.
There are a lot of cardinals around there and a northern mocking bird as well.
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yes... we were walking in the sunlight and saw it too. Definitely a brown thrasher and the mockingbird that's been there all winter. The mockingbird "followed" us all along the path like a pet-bird! Cardinals out in full spring colour and they have begun the springtime wolf-whistles too.
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Thanks David, I just returned from High Park again, but no luck today, I waited around for about 20 minutes in the same area but I only disrupted a loud meating of sparrows. I heard and saw a blue jay - which I haven't seen all winter since blue jays moved somewhere else from our neigbourhood. I saw a few chickadees and a chipmunk that hid in that big fallen hollow tree by the path.
I usually enter High Park from Ellis Avenue and today I noticed an upside down floating dead male mallard in the stream - feet and belly sticking out.
I am new to this posting and it is great!
Cheers
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Hi Dave you sead that " The mockingbird "followed" us all along the path like a pet-bird!" did it tack seed from your hand ?? or did you try to feed it ??
thars a bird I wood like to try to hand feed !!!
Craig
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I saw the brown thrasher this morning around 9:00, 03-02-07 it was with the cardinals and came vary close , it went right at the seed I put down , its one hungry bird !!
But no luck with the mocking bird..
Craig
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Yes, it was tempting! but except for a few times a year playing with the chickadees I'm not that big on taming the birds. BUT I'm sure that mockingbird is just waiting for us to figure out he wants snacks. Great bird with an obvious "brain".... we had been tossing some peanuts to the squirrels so it went along with us for most of the walk. :)
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Two out of three eastern mimids in one day ...in March! the catbird is the most infrequent of the three to stick around and survive, but two out of three species is pretty good stuff. I won't mention the grey-and-white one ... she's sleeping, and I'm understandably nervous (see other posts).
Where did you last see the streaky rufous tough-guy?
Many thanks,
norman
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Brown thrasher has been seen twice near the stone wall that runs along the edge of the pond. The mockingbird is often there and further south near Queensway. no catbirds yet!
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HI Judith, in which area of Hyde Park did oyu see the thrasher?
thanks
dee
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Hi David, how do I get there? I am not familiar with the park, so could you please give me directions to it ? :)
Thanks :D
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It's HIGH PARK. Toronto's biggest downtown park and a great birding hot-spot for raptors and warblers in migration. for those of us who live downtown it, along with Humber Bay [nearby], the Toronto Islands and Leslie Street Spit are a touch of paradise, on the transit line! From Hamilton take the QEW until you get to the Exit at Lake Shore Blvd and then go a few blocks after the off-ramp until you see COLBORNE LODGE RD. TO THE LEFT. You can park on top of the hill by Colborne lodge and then walk down the hill to the little asphalt path, go to your right to Grenadier Pond.
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Thank you David, I will head there tomorrow :) :oops:
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Dee why don’t you go down to Lasalle marina in Hamilton to look for the Brown thrasher that has bin their all winter ?? just walk east along the path to the end look for seed , it wont be long before it will show up .. also look for the E, tohee right at the start of the path
Craig
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:D I got a picture of that tohee , but never saw the thrasher. On Saturday I got a pictures of The Pintail, Tundra swan, Horned Lark at LaSalle, it was a good day :)
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I was at Lasalle on Saturday too. The Towhee was at the end of the trail, and I saw the Tundra, but no Thrasher or Pintail. I've been to see the trasher 3 or 4 times now with no luck.
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And one of my favourite trips is to the RBG and cootes for bird-watching. more reasons to go to Hamilton!
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David (the strolling David), thanks for the directions to the brown guy. I'll be down that way in a few days. I just like them.
On the odd behaviour of his relative, I've never heard of wild mockers plucking fruit (or, say, mealworms -- go with rose hips, if you can find them). Maybe if it's a first-year bird, and maybe it's possible, but they're famously anit-social (e.g., other birds, some of us humans, and a lot more!) Please post if anyone's successful, and especially if they require hospitalzation, to reduce further carnage.
First killdeer wins a Value Village trophy! I usually hear one or two at night before visual contact, but that certainly counts. Hand-delivered, perhaps with my aunt in tow (she's mobile again, but sedated, so don't worry. She's harmless).
She claims to have tried to register here, but no reply ... I know she's a wee bit "chatty" at times, and her stories can be both erudite and mildly disturbing (rarely -- but she's been all over the world, "ringed" birds in Ireland for 12 years and her song ID is humbling,as well as her knowledge of the literature. Perhaps if I could convince her to post her adventures (sixty years' worth --here's a bit of trivia-- the Veery had a different English name way back when -- any takers?) in one of the more general categories unless she spots/hears something your readers may find of interest. No books on the thrush challenge, now. The hermits are certainly packing their travel bags ... I wouldn't have known, but our 'fireside chats' are mesmerizing, as long as she's wearing flame-retardant.
Sorry about any errors of spelling / usage -- I'm really tired. This is a great site, and March twentieth is almost tomorrow!
Regards,
--NB
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Can some one verify that this is a Brown Thrasher?
(http://www.pbase.com/gb_eh/image/76074096/medium.jpg)
More Thrasher Pics available at: http://www.pbase.com/gb_eh (http://www.pbase.com/gb_eh)
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I'm no expert but that's for sure a brown thrasher.
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That is a lovely shot of the thrasher, where was it taken gb-eh? I wonder if it is the one from High Park.
Has anyone seen it lately?
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Judith... yes this is the Thrasher (now that i know for sure what i was looking at... sorry new to birding) from High Park. Photo taken just this past Sunday.
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My wife and I took a short stroll in High Park on Sunday and had some very close views of a sharp shinned hawk in an apple tree right by the main roadway (it was only about 5-6 feet up). It stayed around for at least 10 minutes before flying off. A short bit later, we saw a beautiful adult Cooper's hawk in another tree. It hopped around from branch to branch, primarily it seemed to get the best sunbathing perch. The chickadees and robins were not too impressed, and gave lots of alarm calls. A few white breasted nuthatches also approached within a couple of feet, presumably wondering if we had snacks to offer.
-John
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Nice photo ... seven hours till spring!
I don't know too much about new "listing" rules [it's been about 30 years since we drove from Pelee to Lakefield (800 km?) to get a peek at a spotted redshank hanging around an artificial pond full of human waste, and put on quite the mileage for extralimitals ("accidentals")l-- it's a young man's/;woman's game, really ...], but the unfortunate (inverted) mallard noted earlier in this thread raises an interesting question re "the rules." Who makes 'em up these days? I think the American Birding Association called the shots for a while, but has the OBRC been the Ontario reference these days?
So, if you were new to this wonderful obsession, and you spotted this, erm, "eternal dabbler," could you put it on your life-list? I need some sleep.
The killdeer offer still stands -- any minute now ...
Cheers,
NB
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Hi all,
I'm only visiting Toronto - working ove here for a short while - but I had the time on Saturday morning to head to High Park, after reading that it was a good place to go and see some birds and nature in general.
Firstly, I'd like to say, everyone is so friendly and helpful - and willing to tell me what all the birds are!
Anyway, thought you might like some pictures, and also hoped you might help me out too!
Firstly - is this the bird in question in this thread - the Brown Thrasher? If so, I feel very lucky to have caught it on camera!!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v396/worthy_m/Torontojan07/P1020325.jpg)
Next are some of the other birds I was kindly shown by another photographer, who explained what they were to me...
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v396/worthy_m/Torontojan07/P1020330.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v396/worthy_m/Torontojan07/P1020337.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v396/worthy_m/Torontojan07/P1020303.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v396/worthy_m/Torontojan07/P1020314.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v396/worthy_m/Torontojan07/P1020295.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v396/worthy_m/Torontojan07/P1020289.jpg)
This downy woodpecker landed on my arm whilst I was taking pictures!!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v396/worthy_m/Torontojan07/P1020340.jpg)
And finally - can someone tell me what this one is? Unfortunately the kind man who was helping me earlier had gone by this point so I never figured out what it was!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v396/worthy_m/Torontojan07/P1020354.jpg)
Hope you enjoy the photos! And thanks for introducing me to such a wonderful place as High Park - only wish I could be here into the summer to see the whole range of wildlife!!
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Looks like the Northern mockingbird to me.
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It is a Northern Mockingbird....You had an excellent variety there. good looking pics.
From top to bottom
Brown Trasher
Female Mourning Dove
Male Red-wing Blackbird
Male Northern Cardinal
Female Northern Cardinal
Female House Sparrow
American Robin
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Mockingbird
If you had seen a Grey Catbird you woulda had a trifecta of Mimic Thrushes in a single day. Something I've been trying to do for a while now.