Having failed to find King Eiders, in two locations in Nova Scotia, including an adult male, and after getting stuck in a ditch and locking my keys in the car, I returned to Toronto and the very next day saw a young male King Eider. Birding is like that sometimes. You lose some and you win some. Finally, the birds were with me. I flew into Toronto and arrived after dark, so drove home, got some sleep and drove right back to Toronto to search for the King Eider in Humber Bay East Park, where I had spent a lot of time during the first 10 years of my birding life.
The city is in the midst of a huge waterfront restoration project, which made it a bit tricky to get to the east side of Humber Bay, where the eider has been hanging out. I also picked a tough day for spotting ducks on the water. I had just missed, by mere minutes, seeing the King Eider in the pond, not 50 metres from the edge, and it flew out to the lake. Bruce, a birder I have known for nearly 10 years and usually only see at Colonel Sam Smith Park, was there and got a great look at it. Just my luck, I thought. I trudged, dejectedly, out through the mud and ice and construction fences to the east side beach and scanned the lake. I found the Kind Eider a couple of hundred metres on the lake. It was distant, the wind was blowing like a preverbal hurricane, and the water had more chop than a Japanese teppanyaki chef, causing the ducks to keep bobbing below the waves. The eider kept appearing and vanishing as though David Copperfield was performing magic on the lake, but I did eventually relocate it and got a couple of record photos. I called it a “success” and I decided to leave, before I got blown out to sea myself.
Here area some King Eider photos I’ve taken over the years, starting with the lousy ones from this year, and finishing with the adult male I saw back in 2013 at Port Weller, Ontairo.
Young Male King Eider, Toronto 2022:
Young Male, LaSalle Park Marina:
Adult male King Eider, Port Weller, 2013:
Female King Eider, Burlington Ship Yards, 2020:
After securing the King Eider I decided to spend another day at Algonquin Park, and was rewarded with nice weather, good birding and a male and female pair of Black-backed Woodpeckers. They are very similar to the American Three-toed Woodpecker I saw in Alberta, also having three toes, but an all black back, in contrast to the black and white barred back of the aptly named American three-toed Woodpecker.
Black-backed Woodpecker, Algonquin Park, 2022:
Returning home, it was time for another try for a Ross’s Goose. I had missed one at Professor’s Lake in Brampton, and another one right here in Brant County. I saw one was reported at the Port Stanley Sewage Lagoons, so headed down there Thursday morning in hopes of finding it. Seeing one now in Ontario would mean I don’t have to try and get one during migration in Saskatchewan. Unfortunately the goose wasn’t present when I arrived,(yes, another wild goose chased and not seen), but not long after arriving in Port Stanley, down by Lake Erie, another one was reported up in Sarnia, at a race track. I had already driven an hour and a half, so what was another 80 minuets to race up to Lake Huron?
This time I found my goose, hanging out with a bunch of Canada Geese, a few Cackling Geese and a Snow Goose, inside the race track at Hiawatha Horse Park. The crazy places you sometimes find birds. Local birder, Allanah Vokes found it, and another birder hung around until I arrived to help with spotting it. I also ran into a young fellow by the name of Ezra, who is trying an Ontario Big year. We both got our bird and went home happy. It was a good and ultimately satisfying chase!
Ross’s Goose:
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