2014 Spring Migration, Part 4: Whimbrels Bring Up the Rear

One of the highlights of spring migration in Toronto is the Whimbrel Watch at Col. Sam Smith Park in the west end of the city along the lake.  Every year from mid May until the end of the month, Whimbrels take off from their staging grounds in Virginia and fly through the night, passing over the aptly named Whimbrel Point, at the south end of the park.  How they knew to cross right by Whimbrel Point is a mystery only the birding gods know the secret of.  For two weeks hundreds of birders drop by the point to watch thousands of Whimbrels migrate to their nesting grounds in Arctic Canada and Alaska.

My first visit resulted in no Whimbrels to watch and my second I saw one fly by at a reasonably close distance, but the third time really was the charm as I discovered, along with Jean Iron, who loves to watch Whimbrels, a flock of 14 Whimbrels sitting on the rocks just north of the point.  A few of us hung out and watched them for a while and got great photos.

This is also a good time of year for other shore birds and I spent a morning at two great spots just outside Toronto, Reesor's Pond, which is not really a pond, and Nonquon Sewage Lagoons, which is really a sewage lagoon.  At Reesor's, along with local birder, Stan Long, I had nice looks at Semipalmated Plovers and Sandpipers, along with lots of Dunlin, which are much prettier in the spring up north than the boring gray they are down in Florida in the winter and early spring.  

At Nonquon I was able to watch dozens of Black Terns flying in and around the retention ponds, and with the help of another birder, whom I've met before but don't know the name of, I was able to locate a Wilson's Phalarope and White-rumped Sandpipers.  I finished off the morning at Thickson's Woods, where another nice birder, who's name I didn't bother to ask, alterted me to the presence of a Gray-cheeked Thrush, which I found hanging out along the main path.  Also found yet another Canada Warbler, having now seen over a dozen of them this year, including another at Tommy Thompson Park just the other day.

Yesterday, thanks to a tip from another birder I met a couple of weeks ago at Col. Sam, Ron Flemming, I went to a new park, Cawthra Mulock Nature Reserve, where I was promised Mourning Warblers.  Along with Cerulean, the Mourning Warbler is the only regularly migrating warbler I have missed this year.  Mourning Warblers are notoroiously difficult to see, and this was the case yesterday.  I heard at least three individuals over my 2 hour walk, but never really saw one.

I did, however, see and hear the bzzzzz-bzzz of a Clay-colored Sparrow and got great photos.  Migration is pretty much at its tail end, but I did enjoy a walk in Col. Sam this morning where I heard and photographed a Blackpoll Warlber, along with a nice Black-crowned Night Heron.