Today’s nature walk with Miles Hearn took place at Humber Bay East. This is the park just south from Parklawn, on the west side of Toronto. The entire park exists on landfill which has only been there since 1984. It’s a wonderful place to look at birds. The pair of parks are located on either side of Mimico Creek. The mouth of the Humber is a short way further east.

There were still quite a few winter ducks around, including Goldeneyes, Buffleheads, Long-tail Ducks, Red-breasted and Common Mergansers.

There were plenty of Red-necked Grebes around, and of note we saw some Horned Grebes in both winter plumage and summer plumage.

Mute swans are a common sight in our waterfront parks, but usually they’re in the water rather than on land. Today we had a swan step out of the water and waddle over to us in an unsuccessful effort to score a snack. They have remarkable feet which look as if they are made from rubber.

There were quite a few Golden-crowned Kinglets flitting around today, but I didn’t get any good photos, as these birds just don’t like to stand still and pose. The same goes for Winter Wrens. We saw a few of them today. These are tiny birds which you typically see right on the ground. Each time I saw one it was gone by the time I raised my camera.

We saw quite a number of Brown Creepers today. These little birds can usually be seen climbing around trees, often near the base. They have distinctive curved beaks.

We also saw – and heard – plenty of song sparrows. These birds say, “maid, maid, put the kettle on.”