Yes Jo-Anne, you are quite right. It's a west coast bird and therefore way off course. I was actually planning to visit High Park today but decided that I couldn't face the traffic trying to get there from Pickering. Just the thought of taking the 401 as far as Keele St. and then negotiate the twists and turns (Rogers Rd. to Weston Rd. - which then turns back into Keele St.) and then finding a place to park. Alternatively, taking the 401 to the Don Valley Parkway and then down to the Gardener Expressway is also scream-worthy. What about parking? I think there is free parking inside the park with a limit of 2 hrs, but the lot could easily be full ... and then what? I checked when I got back from Cranberry Marsh and there was no report of the oriole at that time. I just looked again and now there is a report of it visiting a feeder just outside the park - at the SW corner, across the street in a parkette beside what might be townhouses. That's the other thing ... with the notoriety that this bird has achieved that location may look like a stake-out ... a mob of birders and photographers. I encountered that scenario a couple of times in the past and I don't want to do it again. I used to take the subway to High Park but not anymore. With mutating respiratory viruses (Covid and the whole family of freak'in mutants) I'm not risking it. An N95 is fine for short confined exposure (buying groceries) but sitting in a train for an hour is not a good idea. Those days are over. I say, why don't you pop on down to ground zero and then tell me all about it. I can't wait. dot, dot, dot .... breaking news from our in-field reporter Jo-Anne about the circumstances surrounding the celebrity oriole visiting Toronto. Tell us, Jo-Anne, what's the mood at the site?
