Good evening
Today Ian Cannell and I birded the Leslie Street Spit and we had a pretty good day out there with relatively calm winds and good visibility on and over the lake.
We headed straight out to Pipit Point and there were rewarded with among other birds 3 Red-throated Loons together close to shore, a Red-necked Grebe, a passing Double-crested Cormorant that landed and is hanging around the Lighthouse, White-winged and Black Scoters, 13 Common Loons, 2 large flocks of A. Goldfinch, and a couple of N. Harriers.
On the way to Pipit Point along the Outer Arm we found Ring-necked Ducks, N. Shovelers, 7 Green-winged Teal, the first of 184 Hooded Mergansers on The Spit (another GTA record broken), American Pipits, Lapland Longspur, Snow Buntings and the first of 67 A. Tree Sparrows.
After leaving Pipit Point we headed for the Lighthouse area and on the way found a Northern Shrike on The Flats and 8 more Common Loons.
From the Lighthouse we headed back towards The Base finding A. Wigeons, Canvasback, Golden-crowned Kinglets, Brown Creepers, White-throated Sparrows, Song Sparrows, and Belted Kingfisher.
There were thousands of Long-tailed Ducks, hundreds of Common Goldeneyes and Greater Scaup, over 100 Bufflehead, 67 Common Mergansers, and Black Ducks.
