UK Birder Visiting Toronto

[4EyesPhoto]

Hi Everyone

I'm an Irishman living in London, England, with a passion for photography, birds in particular.  My girlfriend and I are coming to visit Toronto for a few days from 11th April (can't wait!) and as well as the usual tourist stuff, we'd really like to check out some of the city's wild birds if possible.  After a little research, two places that sound promising are the Toronto Island and High Park.  

Here in London, I live close to one of London's biggest parks, Hyde Park/Kensington Gardens.  It's very good for a variety of common species found in these parts, and being an inner city park, the birds are much tamer than normal.  I have no problem getting Great Tits, Blue Tits & European Robins to eat sunflower hearts from my hand.  As it's my local patch, I know exactly where the hotspots are.  This approachability also makes the photography much easier.  

If you had to recommend a couple of places within Toronto with the potential to see some of the local birds up close, what would you suggest?  Common local species would be great.  Are there feeding stations in any of the major parks?  What local resident species could I expect to possibly see in April?

Any suggestions for potential inner-city birding sites would be greatly appreciated.

All the best.

Clarke

[Kin Lau]

Hi Clarke,

High Park and Toronto Islands are indeed good for birding and photography.

Other spots easily reached are Humber Bay Park (just south of High Park) for waterfowl and passerines, Col Sam Smith Park, Leslie Spit/Tommy Thompson Park (open only on weekends).

Will you have a car? If not, then where are you staying and how will be getting about? There's a few spots also just outside of Toronto that are good for bird photography such as Lynde Shores/Cranberry Marsh/Hall's Road, Thickson's Woods and Oshawa's Second Marsh.

[4EyesPhoto]

Hi Kin

Many thanks for the response.  Sadly no, we won't have a car on this trip, so will be relying on public transport, and will only be in Toronto for 4 days, but of course we want to cram in as much as we can during our short visit.  Fingers crossed the sun will come out and it won't be freezing cold

We'll be staying at the Days Hotel, on Carlton St I think it is.  One of those days we'd like to go to the zoo too as we've heard it's a good one.

Thanks again for getting in touch, any and all advice is appreciated as we won't know the area at all and the more info we gleam before leaving the better

Clarke

[Kin Lau]

Sounds like the Days Inn on Cartlon http://www.daysinn.com/DaysInn/control/ ... andInfo=DI , which is at Carlton and Yonge.

That should put you quite close to the ferry to go over to Toronto Islands, and just a street car ride over to Humber or a subway ride over to High Park.

The Toronto Zoo though is about a 2 hour bus ride to pretty well the far north east corner of Toronto.

BTW, with spring weather in Toronto, keep in mind that a sunny day out may very well mean a cold north wind. Make sure you check the weather report for the whole day. Wild temperature swings of over 20 degrees are not uncommon.

Other than that.... welcome to Toronto

[Pat Hodgson]

We are working on improving the hot spots listing of our web site, but have quite a bit there already.
Toronto Ornithological Club hot spots
the islands and High Park are good bets for chickadees, nuthatches, woodpeckers, cardinals, goldfinches etc.
hardy, short-distance migrants like white-throated sparrow and possibly hermit thrush should be present then too
lots of ducks at this time of year in Lake Ontario - try the islands or Leslie St. spit

[4EyesPhoto]

Hi Again

Lots of great advice & info folks.  I'm really quite surprised by the potential 20 degree shifts in a day (oohhhh wait, i just realised, that's probably farenheit, not celcius lol!).  Being from northerly climates myself, I'm not bothered by a bit of cold blustery weather, though a little sunshine and not too much rain is always a benefit!  I can't say the same for my girlfriend though who detests the cold!  Forewarned is forearmed as they say

The mention of cardinals in particular has excited me, I'd love to see one of those, they are such a stunning bird.

Thanks again for all your help everyone, if we're lucky enough to get some pics in Toronto we'll be sure to share them with you.

Clarke

[Kin Lau]

That's Celsius, and a 20degree swing is exactly what we had yesterday, 15C during the day and -4C overnight.

As for Cardinals, they're a bit skittish, but we do have lots of them.

[4EyesPhoto]

Between day and night, 20 degrees I can live with in Celcius, so long as it's not 15 at noon and -4 by 2pm lol.  Actually I'd be really pleased if we get some 15 degree days, I'm not really expecting it to be that warm judging by the weather forecasts I've been actively watching on the buildup to the trip.

Also, plenty of cardinals sounds good to me coming from somewhere where there are zero  I can't wait.

Clarke

[Kin Lau]

Between day and night, 20 degrees I can live with in Celcius, so long as it's not 15 at noon and -4 by 2pm lol.

No... that would be Calgary