Friday, November 15, 2013

Humber Bay Park East, Toronto, ON

Humber Pay Park East
Toronto, ON
15 November 2013

    Where the mouth of the Humber River spills into Lake Ontario, a spit of land juts out and it is divided into Humber Bay Park East and Humber Bay Park West. In reality it is the same location, but the bird life can sometimes be quite different from one side to the other. From late fall onwards, it is a great location to view numerous species of waterfowl, often quite close inshore. 
    Today I observed a couple of Red-necked Grebes Podiceps grisegena, now clad in their relatively muted basic plumage, still occupying the area close to land. It seems to me that this species can be observed for most of the year, and I am given to wondering whether they just move farther out into Lake Ontario as the water closest to land freezes during the winter.





    Bufflehead Bucephala albeola is very common at this time of the year and there were many individuals present today.


Male

Female

Pair

    This female Common Merganser Mergus merganser was swimming out into 
Lake Ontario at a leisurely pace


        Mute Swans Cygnus olor are a common sight year round.


    Ring-billed Gulls Larus delawarensis are still the most common larids and fill the air with their raucous cries. Once on the water they are like jewels in a collection of precious gems.


    This handsome male Gadwall Anas Anas strepera was one of several present, hanging out with the local Mallards Anas platyrynchos.



Taking a Bath



David M. Gascoigne,
David M. Gascoigne,

I'm a life long birder. My interests are birds, nature, reading, books, outdoors, travel, food and wine.

2 comments:

  1. This is really a series to enjoy David. Beautiful birds and beautiful colors! My compliments.

    Question: How many blogs put you down one day? I sometimes see multiple blogs on a day and I'm not sure I can keep up with all that :-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Helma: First of all thanks for all your comments. I don't really have any target for the number of posts I do in one day, but if I have an interesting day out in the field I try to cover whatever I have found interesting.

    ReplyDelete

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