During the Toronto CBC day, I bumped into a member of the Toronto Ornithological Club who I spoke with along the trail where there were flocks of goldeneye and long-tailed ducks. He mentioned that a king eider had been spotted nearby recently. Interestingly, the king eider has been flocking with the long-tailed ducks in an area normally closed-off to the public, because it is a cormorant and breeding bird nesting space. Fortunately, at the exact time I also happened to visit an Ontario Field Ornithologists tour group led by ornithologist Mark Peck also happened to be visiting the site, so I had the chance to go into an area normally not accessible to the public and saw a king eider in Lake Ontario’s open waters.
This king eider, is normally a far north specialist, and like it would eat in its typical habitat, I had the chance to see it diving for and eating mussels. Albeit, I think it was likely eating zebra and quagga mussels and I wondered how much additional botulism it was consuming here, compared to the healthier and diverse range of mussels native to its habitat.
As I arrived at TTP two other hikers with spotting scopes on tripods and tele-zoom mounted cameras began the 4 km trek to the site, where the cormorants nest in warmer seasons, and where a king eider has been spotted for several consecutive weeks. One was from Guelph, the other Alberta. They seemed to know other birders on the trek too. 4 kms later about 24 people, total about 40 were gathered by a trail nearby the now-well-known king eider.
So, the two hikers followed the group and I soon followed the same trail where the hikers and the group went in and soon I joined in as the group was watching a flock of horned larks ground feeding on seeds in the snow. I asked a group member if this was also where the eider is sighted as I had come independently. She said yes, it was somewhere here nearby in the bay. So, I soon also followed the two young visitors who had arrived just ahead of myself to the shore where I saw quite a few long-tailed ducks. I asked another birder if the eider was showing, and he pointed out the king eider on the right-hand side of a raft of long-tailed ducks. I marveled and watched the magnificent and mighty king eider for fifteen minutes. I watched it calmly floating amidst the flock, diving for and eating numerous mussels, bobbing and floating atop three-foot waves and frigid swells. Also, before the incoming snowstorm, I saw white-winged scoters and many dead cormorants on the ground near microplastics that had floated ashore or that they had ingested. It was an amazing day and I got some great footage
Here are links to 3 further blogs I have written recently;