Memories of Lake Ontario’s Northern Shore

2023-05-13 Ontario’s Bronte Harbour

Red-Necked Grebe - Podiceps grisegena — Near the home of my Canadian friend Judy, and along the shore of Lake Ontario, is a park and marina called Bronte Harbour, where Red-Necked Grebes have nested for over 15 years in floating tires provided by thoughtful local citizens.

Ring-Billed Gull - Larus delawarensis — My friend Judy gave me a tour of a few of her favorite nearby birding locations. We found nesting Ring-Billed Gulls at the Burlington Canal under the Queen Elizabeth Bridge near Hamilton Beach Ontario.

After enjoying breakfast at a local diner last Thursday, we visited Bronte Harbour. My friend Judy wanted to show me the nesting Red-Necked Grebes at the marina. Fifteen or twenty years ago, the grebes showed up in the harbor. Some thoughtful and creative folks had the brilliant idea to anchor some truck tires in the marina’s sheltered waters, and the grebes soon adopted them as a foundation to build their nests, and they have returned every year since. I believe there are several pairs nesting in the harbor. When we arrived on Saturday, the sun was low in the western sky, but we took pictures until we lost the sun.

2023-05-27 Ontario, West of Oakville

Our first stop was at the Burlington Canal under the Queen Elizabeth Bridge near Hamilton Beach Ontario. There, we found a colony of hundreds of Ring-Billed Gulls nesting on a rocky breakwater at the entrance to the canal. There may have been some birds on eggs. But there were plenty of fuzzy babies about a third the size of their parents begging for food from each adult flying back to the colony.

Our next stop was at Paletta Lakefront Park, on the shores of Lake Ontario. This was one of the most delightfully peaceful places imaginable. Most of the shoreline along Lake Ontario is privately owned, and has very limited public access to the lakeshore. When the family that owned this property no longer wanted to live there, they struck a deal with the city, and the property was converted to a public park. Most of the property is wooded, and under a high canopy. Even if there were no birds on the site, the serenity of walking the trails would be worth the trip. In such a place, birds were inevitable. Collecting images in the dense woods was no simple proposition. But that did not stop me from trying.

Our third and final stop of the day was a second visit with the nesting Red-Necked Grebes at nearby Bronte Harbour. Two weeks earlier, we spent time with these birds when they seemed to be just beginning with their nest building on their floating truck tires. We thought it possible that there might be eggs on our second visit, but it was not to be.

When I walked up to the sidewalk near the nest, I met another birder studying the nearby pair. We struck up a conversation, and I learned his experience with these birds stretched back 25 years. Sadly, he reported that for the past five years or more, no babies survived to adult-hood. There are several potential villains in this drama, but minks rank high on the list of suspects. The sun was at a different angle from my earlier visit, and I captured a new series of images of these attractive grebes.

This would be my last hurrah with the Oakville birds. Soon I would continue my drive east, with Nova Scotia in my sights.