Today I enjoyed a beautiful mild winter walk at Serena Gundy Park, using my new ice cleats! What a relief it is to stop worrying about the ice. From the parking lot, I crossed the pedestrian bridge over the creek and turned right up a small hill (instead of following the main trail). This smaller trail meanders around the top of the hill and then back down to the main trail just before the washroom building. It was at the top of this hill that I found a Hairy, a Downy and a Red-bellied, all within a short distance of each other. Returning to this area later, I walked along the edge overlooking the ravine and spotted a Pileated on the other side of the creek. This would have been quite close to the parking lot and the bridge. This was also within the same general area that I found a Pileated last winter. A resident perhaps??
Other notable birds included: Northern Shrike, Brown Creeper, White-breasted Nuthatch, Juncos, Coopers Hawk, Red-tailed Hawk and a Sharp-shinned Hawk. There are also dozens of Robins all over the park - more than I've ever seen in one small area, even in summer. No owls that I could find.
Serena Gundy Park is at the corner of Eglinton and Leslie. Enter off Leslie and follow the road as it curves to the right and then back again to the left where you'll find the parking lot. The bridge at the bottom left corner of the lot is the easiest access point. Here's a link to the google map:
https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Serena+Gundy+Park,+Toronto,+ON,+Canada&hl=en&ll=43.7189,-79.353787&spn=0.005265,0.012038&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=46.946584,98.613281&oq=Serena+gundy&hq=Serena+Gundy+Park,+Toronto,+ON,+Canada&t=m&z=17-kris ito
p.s. My visit was between 11-12 today and the birds all seemed very active. I wondered if that had a lot to do with today's milder temperatures.
