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I spent yesterday in Toronto and nipped across to the Islands - a small group of now-stabilised sandbars a short ferry ride from downtown - looking for migrants. A combination of my jet-lag and the Islands’ slowly turning into a loud and brash amusement park contributed to the feeling that either most of North America’s [...]

Niagara Falls is a world-renowned tourist destination because of, well, the really freaking big waterfalls there. Because of the monstrous falls a host of tourist traps, from casinos to mini-golf, have sprung up, to say nothing of industrial projects (mostly on the American side) that take advantage of the hydro-electric power generated by the [...]

My day Saturday was spent gulling the Niagara River, a most gull-friendly spot, especially in early winter. Three species were plentiful: Bonaparte’s Gull, Herring Gull, and Ring-billed Gull. I hiked down to the floor of the gorge at “The Whirlpool” and was amazed by the sheer number of Bonaparte’s Gulls that circled ceaselessly [...]

Yellow Warbler Dendroica petechia
Toronto, Canada. May 18 2006.

A familiar species in wetland habitats over much of eastern North America Yellow Warblers actually have an extraordinarily broad distribution for a warbler species and show great geographical variation: according to the Cornell website more than 40 recognized subspecies form three general groups that range from the northern [...]

“Myrtle” Yellow-rumped Warblers Dendroica coronata coronata
15 May 2007, Mont Royal, Montreal, Canada

One of the commonest and most widespread of the dendroica, the Yellow-rumped Warbler Dendroica coronata has two distinct populations: the western “Audubon’s Warbler.” (D. c. audubonii) breeds from northern British Columbia and northern Manitoba, south to northern Mexico, and in the East the “Myrtle [...]

Mount Royal Park/Parc du Mont Royal, Montreal, Quebec (Canada)
14 May 2007
 

 
To quote from Easy Expat, “Montreal is located on Montreal Island in the Hochelaga Archipelago, where the Ottawa River flows into the St. Lawrence River. The archipelago has more than 320 islands and about one-third of it is occupied by the city proper, which covers [...]

Baltimore Orioles Icterus galbula
Canada

The familiar and very vocal Baltimore Oriole Icterus galbula breeds commonly across North America eastward of the Rocky Mountains (from Alberta to Newfoundland, the Dakotas to Maine, southward to eastern Texas, Louisiana, and Georgia) and winters in Florida, the Caribbean, central Mexico and Central America to northern South America.

The taxonomy of [...]

Non-adult Ring-billed Gulls Larus delawarensis
North America, various dates
 
THE gull most likely to be seen in urban settings across North America, the Ring-billed Gull is a widespread species that many people will be very familiar with. Increasingly identified in the UK (where it was first identified at Blackpill, Swansea Bay, in 1973) it is thought that [...]

Blackburnian Warbler Dendroica fusca
Point Pelee, Ontario May 2005.
 
The Blackburnian Warbler breeds in the northeastern United States, parts of eastern Canada and throughout the Appalachian Mountains and winters mainly in northern South America and south in the Andes to Peru, but also in southern Central America. Generally it is thought to migrate mostly at night, with [...]

Point Pelee, Ontario 18 May 2005
 
Situated to the east of Detroit and to the south-west of Toronto, Point Pelee, a 10-kilometre sandspit with its southern point equal in latitude to the northern border of California, contains one of Canada’s smallest but most unusual national parks. A thin triangle jutting into Lake Erie at the southernmost [...]