by Fiona Reid – President

Our party of two had a great outing to this urban park. It is closer than Leslie Street Spit, with a lot less walking and some really good wetland and lakeshore habitats. Our first bird of interest was a Gray Catbird near a small pond. On the pond shore we also saw a young Black-crowned Night Heron and some Shoveler and Gadwall. Up ahead a Hooded Merganser caught our eye. On the lake were many ducks and grebes, and we had excellent views of a nice male Harlequin Duck! On our way back we saw many signs of Beaver (we had already seen a Muskrat swimming) and then we saw a Northern Mockingbird that has been residing in the area for some time, according to local birders. I hope we can return with more club members in future.

Our species list for the day is below:

• Black-crowned Night-Heron
• Northern Cardinal
• Blue Jay
• American Black Duck
• Bufflehead
• Common Goldeneye
• Gadwall
• Harlequin Duck
• Hooded Merganser
• Lesser Scaup
• Long-tailed Duck
• Mallard
• Mute Swan
• Red-breasted Merganser
• Black-capped Chickadee
• Redhead
• Horned Grebe
• Gray Catbird
• Northern Mockingbird
• Downy Woodpecker
• Red-necked Grebe
• Tree Sparrow
• American Goldfinch
• American Robin
• Mourning Dove
• Northern Shoveler
• Red-tailed Hawk (on way back)