Outdoor Ontario
Birding Reports => Toronto Reports => Topic started by: Ed O'Connor on October 02, 2011, 02:36:22 PM
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Friday afternoon I was down in Taylor Creek Park and found one of the resident Pileated woodpeckers. If you enter through the parking lot at the bottom of Haldon Ave. and head west, you'll cross two footbridges just beyond the overpass for O'Connor Blvd. About 70 meters past the second footbridge, the area to the left of the trail opens up, and you can see a tall dead tree on the bank of the creek. The woodpecker was right at the top of this tree, not feeding or doing much of anything, but just sitting there thinking things over. This is the second time in about 12 months that I've seen one of these birds in this particular tree. It stayed in place for a couple of minutes until a Flicker came by and chased it off. If there are any Flicker fanatics out there, you should hustle down to Taylor Creek sometime soon, since they seem to be the most common bird in the park at the moment--I saw dozens and heard dozens more.
I also checked out the wetland restoration area just west of the O'Connor overpass. This is still a work-in-progress, but looks like it will eventually resemble the similar project east of Dawes Rd that was completed a year or two ago. The habitat seems promising for shorebirds and rails, and sure enough on Friday afternoon there was a single Solitary sandpiper feeding along the edge of the pond. Other birds seen included a Swainson's Thrush, Black-Throated Green Warbler, Magnolia Warbler, and, down by the never-ending construction project at the western end of the park, a small flock of Rose-breasted grosbeaks.