Lapland Longspur @ Sammy Smith

[misstheo]

Hi there!

I'm new to the forum and have been lurking for a while so I thought I'd post a report of my birding trip today at Sammy Smith park for my first post.

Down by the rocks on the western part of the park, I saw a male Lapland Longspur who was showing very well. Although within range for this time of the year, the last ebird report of this bird at the park was in 2003 so I think he's a good find for the park. From what I gather, these guys don't seem to show up too often in the Toronto area apart from around the TTP area (according to ebird data).



I also saw the following of note:
Snow Bunting
Long-tailed Duck
Redhead
Greater Scaup
American Coot
Horned Grebe
Red-necked Grebe

Plus 3 fat muskrats that have seemed to have found a home on an old Red-necked Grebe nest. They looked quite comfortable on there and thank goodness the grebes have finished nesting for the season!

[Kris Ito]

Welcome to the forums! Lapland Longspur is a great bird for Toronto and personally I have never had the pleasure of seeing one. Colonel Sam's has really been getting some great birds this season - just wish I wasn't on the opposite side of the city. Hope you don't mind that I have adjusted your photo so that it is a little easier for us to view. Since I had already seen your ebird report on my daily alerts, I was easily able to find your "Imgur" page. When you go to "embed codes", just switch to "large thumbnail" instead of "original" before you copy the BBC code. I like to use Flickr, which seems to offer more size options when sharing your photos, but of course if you're happy with Imgur, no need to switch.

Good birding,

Kris Ito

[misstheo]

Hi Kris

Many thanks for your welcome to the forum. Also thanks for resizing my image for me as I did try and do it and just couldn't get it to show smaller. I have started to use Imgur for ebird sightings as I also have a DSLR setup for bird photography for which I use flickr so I didn't want to dilute my nice pictures with ID pictures. I'll try the large thumbnail link next time or maybe I'll just give in and use flickr lol.
I have been birding in the Toronto area since August and have been to Sammy Smith a few times and have never discovered any unusual birds apart from the ones already discovered so it is pretty cool to find one. That's one of the things I love about birding is that you never know what you're going to find. Interestingly there was a Snow Bunting a few rocks down so maybe they are the start of a flock.