Saying Hello to an Old Familiar Face

Yesterday, my husband and I decided to go birding at High Park, Humber Bay East Park, and Col. Sam Smith Park.

The weather was fantastic for a change, and the sky was free of clouds. At High Park, we took a lot of pictures of the returning Wood Ducks. Both the male and female of the species are quite beautiful. We did not see much else, so we went to Humber Bay East Park.

We did not find the Harlequin Ducks from the previous day, we did see our first Pied Billed Grebe of the season.

From there, we went to Colonel Sam Smith Park. In one of the bays, we saw the King Eider juvenile male that we had seen in the winter. It got pretty close to shore, and it was in spring plumage. It looks like a second year male. We also managed to get close up shots of the male Common Merganser, which is difficult to do, normally. The female mergansers seem to look upon the King Eider as some kind of rock star, as they hung around him so closely, and they stared at him a lot. He would just chase them off, as did the male merganser.

Another big surprise was the sight of pair of Common Loons so close to shore. They were great to see; especially as it has been a long time since we have seen any.

Yesterday, of course, we saw the Harlequin Ducks at Humber Bay East. We also went to Col. Sam Smith, and saw Tree Swallows, Barn Swallows, and perhaps, a Bank Swallow, yesterday. The highlight of the day for me, was the sight of some Little Gulls flying close by us, on their way to who knows where.