Tommy Thompson Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, is revered as a magnificent location for bird watching. During one visit to the park, Bob and I came upon a pair of Long-tailed Ducks.
The transformation of the man-made peninsula into a wilderness retreat was accomplished by the forces of nature with a little help from us humans. Today the end result is a protected wilderness known as Tommy Thompson Park. It is an amazing place to hike and bird.
The Leslie Street Spit, as the peninsula is known, juts out into Lake Ontario for a distance of 5 kilometers.
Looking in the opposite direction provides views of the Toronto’s skyline.
Tommy Thompson Park has grown into one of Toronto’s best-kept secrets and welcomes over 300 avian bird species during migration each year.
On the cold, windy, wet day that marked Mother’s Day, our family hiked out on the peninsula for 4 kilometers and even braved a driving shower of sharp hailstones.
Where a small footbridge spans the water between two sections of the park is where we caught sight of two Long-tailed Ducks.
These ducks have distinctive features in terms of plumage, foraging behaviours, vocalizations and moulting sequences.
We assume this pair was undoubtedly en route to its breeding grounds in the High Arctic.
A sequence of photos reveals the trademark long tail of the male duck as it dives in search of food.
The female has a relatively short, pointed tail, unlike the long central tail feathers of the male.
The male also is recognizable by the pink band near the tip of the dark grey bill. As we looked on, the pair of Long-tailed Ducks repeatedly dipped below the waves leaving us to wonder where they would pop up next.
Frame To Frame – Bob and Jean
In the western United States, they are known as oldsquaw, but that name may be phased out. They are the only member of the genus, Clangula. They are expert feeders of crustaceans and molluscs. I saw them at the Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuge in southern Oregon, and the staff there referred to them as oldsquaw.