Humber Bay and Area Birding

I spent a couple of days in the Mississauga area birding and spending time with my very special friend Jo-Anne. There are many parks in the city and along the waterfront in which one can spend days visiting.
On Monday afternoon, we walked around Rattray Marsh. It was a nice afternoon but not many landbirds were found. I did hear some White-winged Crossbils flying over. In fact, almost every park we stopped at I heard crossbills flying over. Swans and ducks were on the lake.
In the distance, I could see the Ridgetown breakwater at Port Credit. This is an old lake freighter (built in 1905) that was purposely sunk there in the late 1960's for use as a breakwater. It is getting very rusted out now, and looks very sad. It used to be maintained with a frequent coat of paint, but that has not been kept up. I remember in March 2000 I went there to observe two Great Cormorants roosting on the forward mast. I had forgotten to take my cameral along for this walk, otherwise I would have taken a photo of the breakwater.



On Tuesday, we headed over to Humber Bay first thing. It was cold and windy, but we did see lots of things, especially waterfowl. It is a great spot for almost all the usual types of waterfowl. Trumpeter Swans are here, and we had some come right up to us looking for handouts.


All kinds of ducks were around including a pair of Northern Pintail, some Ruddy Ducks, Northern Shoveller, Gadwall and many divers.
Here too I noted crossbills flying over. There were a few landbirds, including one that flew into phragmites. I know it was something good, but it never came back out!
A beaver was swimming around, chopping off small shrubs for its lodge.

A local photographer informed us of a Long-eared Owl in the pines by the parking lot. We looked for it, but it must have moved on to another location.

By the way, just across Lakeshore Road from here, there is a Mr. Christies outlet store that sells cookies, crackers, and other goodies very cheap! We both loaded up on supplies!!
Next stop was Col. Samuel Smith Park at the foot of Kipling Ave. We heard there was a Snowy Owl at the marina, and sure enough, one was on the dock. A group from the Toronto Field Naturalists was just leaving after having a look at the owl.
We walked around a bit and I caught sight of a Northern Shrike. It set down briefly before moving on. Here I noted a flock of Common Redpolls flying through--the first I had seen in a long time.
Later on we visited another park within the city called Riverdale. I pished in a large flock of Chickadees, both nuthatches, Brown Creeper, Juncos, and Goldfinches. Crossbills were flying over here as well.
By this time it was clouding up and it was getting late in the afternoon.