Andrew Keaveney lead our December 11th walk at Humber Bay East where we found a good variety of birds, including a few surprises. We found a good variety of waterfowl as we would expect here in December, but the highlight was not one, but two Merlins in the mouth of Mimico Creek.
This Merlin was digiscoped by Andrew from the opposite side of the creek. Other unusal sightings (for December) included a fly-over Northern Pintail, a pair of Ruddy Ducks in the bay, and a night-heron in the pines by the washrooms.
The full list:
Black-crowned Night Heron Mute Swan Canada Goose American Black Duck Mallard Northern Pintail Norther Shoveler Gadwall Redhead Greater Scaup Lesser Scaup Long-tailed Duck Common Goldeneye Bufflehead Hooded Merganser Common Merganser Red-breasted Merganser Ruddy Duck American Kestrel Merlin Ring-billed Gull Herring Gull Great Black-backed Gull Downy Woodpecker Blue Jay American Crow Black-capped Chickadee American Robin Northern Mockingbird European Starling American Tree Sparrow Song Sparrow Dark-eyed Junco House Finch Common Redpoll American Goldfinch House Sparrow
Many participants joined us for a post-walk warm-up at our walk sponsor, Birds & Beans, just down the street in Mimico. Here are two photo galleries this month: