High Park Hooded Hunt

With no luck on hooded mergansers the last time I was at Leslie St Spit, I decided to try another of their reliable haunts - High Park.

Spoiler: they eluded me once again. This time, it should have been no surprise. It was a bitingly cold day, and Grenadier Pond looked like this.

Wish I’d brought skates.

Not a crack of open water for ducks to congregate in. Plus the walking paths through the rest of the park were skating rinks, the result of a very slushy day of freezing rain followed immediately by a cold snap earlier in the week.

But all was not totally in vain. Birdseed on some concrete ledges was attracting chickadees. Cheating? Maybe. If I had been the one to put out the bird seed I think it’d qualify, but seeing as I just stumbled upon it, I was willing to take the win. And part of the gamble on High Park was hoping for birds that were more comfortable with people. That was a good bet - the chickadees put up with me being at the limit of my lens’s close focal range as long as I cared to be.

Practically posing.

The birdseed also attracted a red-bellied woodpecker who I summarily ignored. Sorry, red-bellied woodpecker. I don’t have a good episode hook for you yet.

Near the Humber River in early 2024

This is from a previous day when I wasn't being so picky. I know the name is a little weird. You can KINDA see the bit of red belly on this guy, but not exactly their most standout feature... so why not name him for something more obvious, like 'red-HEADED woodpecker'?

This one’s from way back on Point Pelee in 2023

Because that name belongs to THIS guy who I think we can agree deserves it more.

OK, woodpecker tangent over - back to High Park and the birdseed-covered ledge.

It was a great spot to plant and film BUT - I was on the edge of the open pond with a vicious wind whipping across it. My hands started going numb. I had not layered properly for the day. Psh, urban park, how bad could it be?

Very bad. I was finally driven away and didn’t even bother investigating the more wetland-y north end of the pond, which had been my initial target for mergansers. If the broad southern expanse was totally frozen over, no chance the sheltered inlets among the reeds would remain open.

Plus - this is a pretty accessible destination. I can go back to these exact same piles of birdseed and reedy expanses on a day that’s ten degrees warmer to get the same footage without suffering for it.

Instead I packed my gear up and hoofed it to the Grenadier cafe to warm up. It’s a good eavesdropping venue, a lot of the other groups out on a cold Sunday morning were birders in intense conversation about sightings, theories and hopes.

But I was ready to tap out. I took the main road to the north entrance since it was less iced over than the other paths. On the way I saw what I thought was a big bird of prey perched on a distant branch. I’ve got an episode in the works about red-tailed hawks and this may well have been one, but I was so fed up with the cold I couldn’t bring myself to unpack and rebuild everything. To be fair to myself, I have pretty ample footage of red tailed hawks just sitting motionless on branches so it was probably no great loss.

Exhibit A

Lesson learned: layer up. Better to be a little too warm and be able to sit in one spot as long as you have to than have it be a liability. Sitting in one spot is 90% of this job, after all.

The only other notable encounter at High Park was a crowd of robins under a tree.

I still remember the time when these guys really were a reliable harbinger of Spring, and seeing them was a ‘turning of the seasons’ moment. But as climate change creeps northward and we get milder winters with more available food, they’re staying put and cajoling with starlings more often.