Fall Migration Part Two: The Rarities Continue in CSSP

It has been a good year for rare birds showing up in Colonel Sam Smith Park.  I consider it my local patch since I bird in the park more than any other location, having seen over 160 species there this year.  And I will jump at any chance to add to my CSSP Life List.  I had already added 14 species this year, including the Dickcissel, a Northern Harrier, Surf Scoter and Merlin before heading off to New Jersey, only to hear of a Yellow-billed Cuckoo in the park on the day I returned.

#212 Yellow-billed Cuckoo:



Over the past couple of weeks, I have continued to add, not just park Lifers, but Ontario Lifers as well.  It's been another exciting late fall migration in the greater Toronto area.  A few days after the Cuckoo, I was informed of a Wilson's Snipe on the mudflats in the pond, just south of the observation deck.  Cool.  Another bird for my CSSP List.  I traded this one for the Northern Shrike I seen only minutes earlier.

Northern Shrike, a definite "early bird:"

#213 Wilson's Snipe:

The CSSP Lifers kept on coming.  Less than a week later after getting a good look at a White-rumped Sandpiper, I found a Pine Siskin and then another birder asked if I could help with an identification of a shorebird, right where the snipe had been and it turned out to be a Pectoral Sandpiper.

                                 White-rumped Sandpiper:

# 214 Pine Siskin:

#215 Pectoral Sandpiper:

The very next day we had a Parasitic Jaeger come close to shore and on land the mythical bird of CSSP, a Nelson's Sparrow.  Both are notoriously difficult to photograph.  Normally I don't "sea watch" from Whimbrel Point to see distant sea birds, but this jaeger came in so close I was able to snap a few photos and it was yet another new bird for my park list.  The Nelson's Sparrow was a bird I had always felt should be here in the fall, but have never seen.  Finally that same afternoon, I saw my first for the park, after hearing about it the previous day.

#216 Parasitic Jaeger:

#217 Nelson's Sparrow:

On the way out of the park I was treated to a Long-eared Owl:



The last bird of the month was a Bonapart's Gull, just after missing a bird that would have been another park first, a Little Gull.  It was also the last bird I would see out in the field for a week, as after I took the photo my phone rang and I was ordered to report to the hospital for yet another spinal surgery.