Chasing Lifers is a blog series where I’ll write about my personal experiences seeing and capturing photos of species for the first time.

*Redhead - Sony a6700 & Sigma 150-600*
*Focal Length 600mm // 1/800 sec // f8.0 // ISO 1600*

It’s not every day that you’re able to check off multiple lifers in a single outing, especially during the winters here in Canada. Lucky for me, I just happened to have one of these days along the shore of Lake Ontario.

Tommy Thompson Park - Toronto, ON

This past weekend (early March) I was in Toronto for a water polo competition and had a few hours to kill on the Friday afternoon. Having never been birding in Toronto before I did a quick search on eBird to explore hotspots in the area. Given the time of year and the fact that many waterfowl have been overwintering along Lake Ontario and are also now beginning to gather prior to their spring migration northwards to their breeding grounds in the arctic, I figured sticking to the shoreline of Lake Ontario would be my best bet in seeing some interesting wildlife.
Tommy Thompson Park seemed to be the most interesting location to check out close to where I was staying. I was mostly intrigued by the location because of the large groups of long-tailed ducks that have been overwintering there (common along the shores of the Great Lakes in the winter but rare pretty much everywhere else in this part of Canada). Long-tailed ducks have become one of my favorite duck species - I had only seen one once before this trip in the Ottawa River while out with my dad (definitely a story for another blog!). I was keen to see a few more of these and focus on taking pictures of them.

After a surprisingly short drive on the Don Valley Parkway (aka the “Don Valley parking lot” as referred to by the locals owing to the typical traffic conditions) I arrived at the Tommy Thompson Parking lot at the very north end of the park. Parking here is free which is great and gets you immediate access to the car-free trail that goes 5km all the way down to the south point of the peninsula.

*Trail map of Tommy Thompson Park at the entrance.*

Within just a few minutes of walking down the trail I got eyes on my first long-tailed ducks of the day - most of which were too far out to get a decent photo but it was nice to see so many out on the water hanging out in groups and diving down underwater. Although not a lifer, it was the first time that I also saw some female long-tailed ducks.

*Long-tailed duck - Sony a6700 & Sigma 150-600. Shot at 600mm and heavily cropped.*

*Long-tailed ducks out on the deep water of Lake Ontario.*

American Mink

While standing and taking photos of the long-tailed ducks, I noticed a small mammal crawling through the debris along the shoreline. After about a minute, I managed to snap a quick photo of it poking its head up before crawling away. Although not a bird, this was my first time taking a photo of an American Mink and therefore my first and most unexpected lifer of the day.

Trumpeter & Tundra Swans

The further south I walked down the peninsula, the more I started to see the groups of swans as well in some of the open patches of water that weren’t frozen over. Among these swans were many Mute Swans (introduced from Europe which I have photographed in the past) but there were also many Trumpeter and Tundra Swans - both native species to Canada and both new species for me to photograph.

I heard the Trumpeter Swans before I saw them. Their loud calls really do sound like trumpets and fill the air long before you even see them. These birds are massive and truly have an epic presence, especially when they fly over with their 6 foot wingspan and 25 pound bodies that require a 100 yard runway for take off.

Something interesting I noticed was that many of the Trumpeter Swans were tagged with a number. I found out later through iNaturalist that this is part of a tracking project that you can actually participate in by uploading observations of Trumpeter Swans onto iNaturalist and take note of their tag number.

*Trumpeter Swans - Sony a6700 & Sigma 150-600*
*Focal Length 150mm // 1/640 sec // f5.0 // ISO 250*

*Trumpeter Swans - Sony a6700 & Sigma 150-600*
*Focal Length 600mm // 1/500 sec // f8.0 // ISO 500*

*Trumpeter Swan - Sony a6700 & Sigma 150-600*
*Focal Length 165mm // 1/500 sec // f8.0 // ISO 400*

*“See anything down there?”*
*Trumpeter Swans - Sony a6700 & Sigma 150-600*
*Focal Length 600mm // 1/1600sec // f6.3 // ISO 640*

The Tundra Swans were more subtle and a little smaller - I didn’t notice until IDing them afterwards that the key difference from the Trumpeter Swans is the yellow around the Tundra Swans’ eyes. Another beautiful bird and one I was happy to observe for the first time. Soon, these guys will be off to the remote parts of the high arctic for breeding and won’t be seen down this far south until the fall.

*Tundra Swan - Sony a6700 & Sigma 150-600*
*Focal Length 600mm // 1/1000sec // f6.3 // ISO 500*

Northern Harrier

Another unexpected lifer for me was a Northern Harrier that I caught a quick glimpse of while it soared over me - hovering for a few moments before flying away. These birds are known for their low and slow flight. They rely on their amazing hearing to help them find prey while soaring low over fields.

Redhead

Probably my favorite lifer from the day was this Redhead duck. A common duck here along the shores of Lake Ontario but not one that I’ve seen before around Ottawa (at least not since starting photography fairly recently - they do come around Ottawa as well but are less common in the winter especially). These diving ducks overwinter and live year-round in large groups on Lake Ontario and also breed in the summer out west and can be found in prairie ponds.

The cinnamon-red heads of the males are beautiful and this one particular redhead got real close to me right at sunset while I was on the pedestrian bridge about halfway down the peninsula. The golden sunlight looked amazing reflecting off of his colorful head and I had a great time photographing this guy.

*Redhead - Sony a6700 & Sigma 150-600*
*Focal Length 600mm // 1/800sec // f6.3 // ISO 1250*

*Redhead - Sony a6700 & Sigma 150-600*
*Focal Length 600mm // 1/800sec // f8 // ISO 1600*

Other Species

In addition to my lifers listed above I saw countless other birds such as goldeneyes, red-breasted mergansers (I did see my first male red-breasted mergansers), scaups, gadwalls, and even red-winged blackbirds (spring is in the air!). I’ll add some additional photos below of some of these.

This park is truly a nature paradise and oasis for wildlife within the sprawling city of Toronto and definitely somewhere I look forward to going back to next time I’m in the area. I highly recommend checking this park out for any nature lover.

Chasing Lifers - Birding at Tommy Thompson Park in Toronto, Canada