A short trip to the Toronto Harbourfront at Sunnyside Park produced some interesting birds today. I'm going to be going for a walk in this location every day now before the TOC trip on Sunday so that I can get a good idea of what is in the area to help the leader, Glenn Coady, out if I can (gulls are not my strong suite just yet but I've been studying them). There are still quite a few ducks along the shore, this time a group of about 250 Redheads, which had been ensconced in an area that wasn't frozen yet between the break wall and the beach. Also in this flock were Greater Scaup, Bufflehead, 1 Hooded Merganser, 1 Common Goldeneye, Red-breasted Merganser, and Canada Goose. Farther west, I had some dabbling ducks including Mallard and Gadwall (7) as well as a few Long-tailed Duck farther out in the lake past the break wall. Oddly, only 1 Mute Swan was in the vicinity.
I only found one group of gulls (hardly enough to be considered a galaxy) that included Ring-billed and Herring Gulls. I also had a nonbreeding adult Glaucous Gull, which ended up flying east from its respite on the ice. I'm hoping for an Iceland Gull sometime in the next while but of course a Glaucous on Sunday would be a good bird for the trip.
I'm also currently trying to figure out how the compilation of sightings works in Toronto. In the Pelee Birding Circle, Alan Wormington compiles all sightings and there are no set guidelines but rather the sending along of sightings you find notable. Toronto has a set of guidelines with cutoff #'s, which means that if you see more than that number of a certain species in one area, you should report it. The last guideline update was 2000 however, and also, there are some species that have very low cutoff #'s as I see it. More on this when I chat with the Toronto compiler, Roy Smith.
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Not many gulls around here this winter either. I am going to check the St. Clair River Saturday or Sunday for ducks and other waterbirds. Stay tuned!
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