This morning I visited a couple of spots on the Oakville/Mississauga border, and had a number of good sightings.
At the Arkendo water treatment plant I had 5 male Brown-headed Cowbirds with a group of starlings and robins. No Wilson's Warbler but I didn't stay long. It was seen on the 27th so is probably still alive.
At Lakeside Park there were impressive numbers of geese along the shore, and I came up with about 1250. No other geese mixed in, but 4 American Coot are notable for this area in winter.
Just east of the east boundary of the park (looking through the chain-link fence) there is a lot of washed up algae, and here there was a very large mass of dabbling ducks. My estimates were 450 Gadwall (possibly the largest group I've ever seen), 250 Mallard, 20 American Wigeon, 10 American Black Duck and 1 Northern Shoveler (it appeared to be the same male that was at Richards Memorial Park earlier this month). While scoping through them I noticed three American Pipits foraging in the algae. You may have a hard time observing this area without a scope.
Good birding,
Reuven Martin
