Long Weekend Pictures
We just wrapped up a beautiful Canadian Thanksgiving weekend here in Toronto. With the extra time off, I went birding every morning to catch what I could of the fall migration. I was extremely fortunate to catch 4 new “lifers”, as well as plenty of other interesting birds. Here are my highlights.
Lapland Longspur: There’s a popular discord server in Toronto that alerts people to rare or hard to find birds. I wasn’t able to drop everything and head to Ashbridge’s Bay on Sunday when this bird was found, but I was the first person to find it again on Monday morning at dawn. The Lapland Longspur is an incredibly well-camouflaged bird, and this one was right on the edge of a beach trail frequented by off-leash dogs. Still, it seemed quite content to forage in a little patch of grass even with the occasional passing dog (and hordes of wildlife photographers), perhaps building up its strength to continue with its migration over lake Ontario.
American Pipit: On Sunday I took a different path than I normally do at Colonel Sam Smith Park, and true to Robert Frost, taking that path “has made all the difference”. I rounded Whimbrel Point and had a few sparrows flutter out from a bush, and then quickly realized they weren’t sparrows at all. I saw where they landed, and I was able to sneak along the rocky coastline of lake Ontario and carefully climb back up right where they were singing. My friend Matt described them as “Well named. looks like a Pipit”, and I noted that they were brave and didn’t run away… so definitely American.
Leucistic White-throated Sparrow: Leucism is a trait in birds where they fail to develop pigment in some of their plumage. Similar, but not the same as albinism, these birds still display some of their field marks (like the yellow on the brow in this bird). This bird had been reported on the Toronto birding discord server, but frankly I forgot about it and wasn’t looking for it when I stumbled on it. In a flock of 8 to 10 mostly brown White-throated Sparrows, this bird just jumped out at me. Some road cyclists came by and scared the bird into a bush, where I was able to capture this photo that looks like its natural habitat. Much better than the first photos where it was foraging next to a bunch of overflowing garbage cans.
Nashville Warbler: On Saturday I had two life list birds, and this Nashville Warbler was one of them. Not an uncommon bird, but just one I hadn’t seen personally. One of my favorite parts about bird photography is how you really get to appreciate the colors once you get home and get to take a closer look on a bigger screen. The Olive colors in its wings are absolutely beautiful.
Orange-crowned Warbler: My last lifer for the weekend was the Orange-crowned Warbler. Unfortunately I didn’t get a better picture, but at least I got enough bad pictures to properly identify this bird. I probably would have missed it entirely (or at least mis-identified it) had I not been with my friend Barry who told me before we started that this was his target bird for the day. A bit drab, and very quick, I’m glad we were both there to corroborate the sighting and add it to our respective life-lists.
Ring-billed Gull: These gulls are so pervasive that there’s probably one flying above you as you read this. However I really liked the way this photo came out. As my wife Cornelia tells me “A beautiful picture of a common bird in the hand, is better than two ugly pictures of rare birds in a bush”.