by Bob Yukich.
The annual High Park Christmas Bird Count was held on Sunday, Dec. 20, 2020 (a mild cloudy day with no snow-cover). Our route ended up with 51 species including some great finds, making it one of our more exceptional counts ever:
- 2 Orange-crowned Warblers on the Tablelands,
- a Brown-headed Cowbird near the Children’s Garden,
- 3 Common Grackles and a Hermit Thrush in the marsh at the north end of Grenadier Pond (plus one more Hermit Thrush in the neighbourhood), and
- a Belted Kingfisher, a Common Loon and – the best bird of the Toronto CBC – a Slaty-backed Gull, all at Sunnyside.
The Common Loon, Brown-headed Cowbird and Slaty-backed Gull were all firsts for this route since at least 1990, bringing our running total to 106 species.
See High Park Christmas Bird Count 2020 and previous years’ results (Excel, 54 Kb).
The High Park count area includes High Park and vicinity. The boundaries are Parkside Drive-Keele St. on the east, Eglinton Ave. on the north, South Kingsway-Jane St. on the west, and Lake Ontario on the south. The count is coordinated through the Toronto Ornithological Club and Bird Studies Canada.
Find a Christmas Count group near you:
- In Ontario, on Ontario Nature.
- In Canada, on Bird Studies CANADA.
