Recent arrivals at Ashbridge's Bay

[dclark32]

Hi all,

First time posting, but a long time birder who moved to Toronto from Newfoundland last June after finishing my undergrad.  Anyways, I have been birding Ashbridge's Bay quite a bit in recent days and have been enjoying monitoring the arrivals of many new species.  Today brought with it several new, and somewhat early arrivals from what I've gathered from ebird:

Bank Swallow - two in a mixed flock of Tree and Barn Swallows by the marina.
Field Sparrow - feeding in the grass just before the parking lot, adjacent to the two green electrical boxes
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher - dividing the park into a sort of 3-leaf clover, I found this one on the most Easterly clove, if you will. It's been in this location since Monday, but until I got visual confirmation today I thought I was hearing things.

Other arrivals this week included Eastern Towhee, Yellow-rumped Warbler (one on Monday and several today) and Brown Thrasher.  Also of note is a raft (?) of Red-necked Grebes numbering by my estimate about 300 that has been sitting offshore for a week or so, but only today were in binocular range.

That's it for me though, so good birding all, and I look forward to many more posts in the future.

Doug Clark

[Trillian Flummox]

Welcome to the forums Doug! I was at Ashbridge's with a friend in the afternoon today and saw many of the same birds. We loved finding our FOY Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, but ours was at the opposite side of the park near the mouth of the marina, so must be more than one around. Although probably not new arrivals today, I will add to the list a pair of Kingfishers, White-throated Sparrow, Ruby-crowned Kinglets, Hermit Thrush, Black-crowned Night Heron, Horned Grebes and Pied-billed Grebe. I'm also curious about the Bank Swallows. We were watching two brown swallows zooming around with the Tree Swallows over the water, but we thought they were Northern Rough-winged. Given how fast they fly it was tough to make out wether or not they had that distinctive brown band or just a brown wash on their breasts. If you have a photo it would be great if you could post it somewhere - either here, the id forum, or photo forum. I'd like to correct my ebird report if I've made a mistake.

Anyways, if you get tired of Ashbridges, you should pop over to the Leslie Spit Wet Woods - it's just a short drive away. At this time of year there are usually a few birders in there every day.

-Kris Ito

[mc]

doug.....so good to see you here!

i was at (in??) the wet woods today.....got a brown thrasher.....oh and at rosetta mcclains too......rafts of red neck grebes.....

fyi..when reporting in ebird, i included you in my "party size".

thanks so much for the help on the lesser scaup.

mc²

[dclark32]

Hi Kris,

Sad I missed out on the Black-crowned Night Heron.  That remains on the missing list for me for the year.  As for the Bank Swallows, I do in fact have a picture from my junky Wal-Mart camera, which shows the diagnostic breast band quite well, as I caught one perched on a branch at close range, face on (and admittedly assumed the other individual was the same).  That being said, coming from Newfoundland, that would be a lifer for me, and I certainly do not preclude the possibility that I made a mistake given my inexperience with the species, and the inordinate amount of difficulty I have in identifying swallows generally for the fairly modest identification problem they pose.  Only problem:  I'm not sure how to upload it here.  Please let me know how to do so (or I can PM you, if desired) and we can consult.  EDIT:  Just noticed the stickied thread about posting images.  Will attempt that later.

Also, MC, glad I could help!  I actually spent 20 minutes or so today studying some of the less commonly used field marks today on a couple of individuals hanging about the marina, as I have much to learn too.  Hope we can get out birding again soon some day!

All the best,

Doug Clark

[dclark32]

Okay, never used Flickr before or uploaded a picture to this forum, so apologies if this doesn't work, but here's a link to a picture of what I'm fairly confident is a Bank Swallow, among others.  You'll see it to the left of the picture, facing the camera.  Apologies also for the poor quality, but I try to make the most of my $120 dollar Wal-Mart camera.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/123411569 ... 888341202/

[thouc]

Yes, it's a Bank Swallow. Nice find.

[Brown-headed Birder]

Hi Doug,

I was with Kris yesterday at Ashbridges and from a distance I thought I saw one or more Bank Swallows among the Tree and Barn Swallows.  However, as we got right beside them, including watching three perched on the wooden blocks along the shoreline we had clear views of three Rough-winged Swallows, with no bands at all, which explains Kris' query.  Your pic clearly shows a Bank Swallow and is quite different from the swallows we saw up close.  So it would seem that both types were there yesterday, making four different swallows altogether.  It was greating having them zip all around us.

Cheers,
Theresa

[nana]

today there were Cliff Swallows as well - with their white headlights and pumpkin rumps. Also, Tree, Bank, NRW and Barn. Dozens and dozens of them in the marina area feasting on all that the wild winds stirred up.

[dclark32]

Good to know!  I'll be heading out there tomorrow so hopefully all that colour sticks around.  As for our mystery swallow, I'm happy to know that everybody was right.  Great team effort here.