I have just returned from a super trip to Toronto. Friends and fun, the International Bowl, and some great birding made for a perfect little vacation. As usual, I combined my trip to cheer for my alma mater, Rutgers, with some local birding.

After numerous delays, I arrived in Toronto on Wednesday night, and met up with Hugh Currie (a friend of a friend of a friend), and after picking up Andrew Don, I began my first day of birding in the Greater Toronto area. Hugh had graciously offered to pick me up at my hotel, which was adjacent to the CN Tower . . .

And the Rogers Center, the site of the game.

First, we headed west along the Lake Ontario shoreline, birding the shoreline of Stoney Creek in Hamilton. Some light lake-effect snow showers added to the ambience, but did not help us detect offshore waterfowl. As the snow came to an end, and visibility improved, we spotted more ducks, including quite a few White-winged and Surf Scoters, and a hen King Eider off of the north end of Fruitland Road. Scoters – as well as other diving ducks, such as scaup – are becoming much more common in winter on the great lakes, thanks in large part to the proliferation of invasive Zebra Mussels. I was surprised to learn, however, that King Eiders – mostly females and/or immatures – were rare but regular visitors (in fact, a post to the Ontario birding listserve a few days later reported a total of 5! hen Kings in a thorough search of the waterfront). Unfortunately, Zebra Mussels are extremely effective filter-feeders, and they seem to be sending large toxin (especially heavy metal) loads up the food chains, and this has been fingered in some recent declines in the overall scaup populations, for example.

The next stop was the Dofasco Trail in Stoney Creek, and the 10 or so scopes and cameras lined up a short way down the tracks quickly indicated that our quarry was still present . . . a Northern Hawk-owl that has been frequenting the area for about three weeks, and has been attracting quite a few fans to the area - not quite as many as Rutgers football of course, but many hundreds of birders and photographers have been treated to this northern visitor. As mentioned repeatedly on this blog, the crash of the Red-backed Vole populations has sent boreal predators on the move this winter. Hopefully, we here in Maine will soon have a Hawk-Owl to enjoy!

While the temperatures were struggling to reach 20 (Fahrenheit, that is), a near-complete lack of wind made for a very pleasant day in the field. In fact, I was seriously overdressed, which was by no means a complaint. Hugh had planned the day’s outing around bitter wind chills, so we spent quite a bit of time in the car. Therefore, our final stop of the day was the Brantford Airport area, where Hugh and Andrew seemed to be on a mission to get me a lifer!

I didn’t know Gray Partridge could be found in the Greater Toronto area anymore, so when Hugh mentioned that there had been four hanging around the airport, we decided that was the place to go. They’re shy, secretive, and cryptic, and usually searching for these birds is searching for small, round needles in a very large, open, windswept haystack. However, snow cover makes them easier to find, and recent strong winds head sent the birds from the open fields into the shelter of buildings around the airport and adjacent industrial complex. It wasn’t the most aesthetically pleasing birding locale at times (it reminded me of birding the Raritan Center in Jersey!), and for a time, it looked like the closest I was going to come to a life bird on this trip were these fresh tracks:

And recent scratching:

The benign winds today, although making for more pleasant birding, had allowed the partridge to return to their favored opened locations. So, we walked around the airport, drove a loop around it – including a productive stop at a busy feeder that hosted a locally uncommon, but increasing, Red-bellied Woodpecker and a somewhat rare (in winter here) Song Sparrow among others. Hugh persisted, and on our second pass through the loop, he stops, and says, “What are those lumps out there!?”

Sure enough, 6 dark brown blobs, that I had passed off as dirt or meadow muffins were 6 Gray Partridge, hunkered down, and feeding in the center of a large, open field.

We had looked for three birds today, and successfully twitched all three. That’s a good day of birding! And, a short time after returning to my hotel, the first car load of my friends arrived. And now, the fun really began!

Thursday night was a relaxed outing to a local bar near the hotel. Unfortunately, a mild case of food poisoning-like-symptoms (I’ll leave it at that; And, no - for the record- I don't mean I drank too much - I really did get a minor case of something food-poisioning-like.) prevented me from getting a single second of sleep. But, by morning, I felt fine - albeit absolutely exhausted - and after breakfast, John, Mark, Scott, and I hit the Hockey Hall of Fame.

I, of course, was most anxious to pay homage to one of the Hall’s most recent inductees.

And, I was soon challenged to relive my glory (sort of) days between the pipes, where foam pucks came flying out of a wall featuring a VR video of NHL Hall of Famers. I got lit up by Gretzky, especially since I got cocky and chose a higher level of difficulty than my rusty reflexes could handle. Well, I did make 2 out of 5 saves (the ol’ glove hand was not nearly as quick – relatively speaking – as it used to be), and, at least I didn’t pull anything.

The highlight of a visit to the Hall, however, is the trophy room, which is situated in an old bank building, with a spectacular stained glass roof.

The centerpiece, of course, is Lord Stanley’s Cup. (Here, I’m pointing to '94-95).

John, Scott, Mark, and their road-trip mascot, Buttercup visit with the greatest trophy in sports as well.

John, Scott, and I then had lunch at a restaurant that I found out about, The Beer Bistro. This was not just another sports pub by any means, this was fine-dining with nice atmosphere (our bright red Rutgers shirts stood out a bit among the suits of local business-people!). Much to my chagrin, city (or was it Province?) law prevented me from getting my burger rare, but I still enjoyed it immensely. This was not any old burger, as you may have guessed, but a burger seasoned with Belgian ale on a beer buttermilk bun with a hunk of this amazing Guinness cheddar on top. See, the Beer Bistro is a bit different from most pubs. In addition to “over 130 ales and lagers,” the kitchen “kitchen beer infuses, pitches, cures, marinates, poaches and (/or) stews in virtually every mouth watering dish.”

By nightfall, most of the gang had arrived, and we headed over to the official Scarlet Nation party at a local sports bar, Philthy McNasty’s.

The game on Saturday began at noon, which meant an early start to the pregame party. We had booked one of the hotel rooms that actually overlooked the Rogers Center field, which gave us a Sky-Box like view of practice.

Even Buttercup took advantage of my optics. “Finally, having a birder as a friend paid dividends,” my so-called friend Mark said. However, apparently the bins and spotting scope in the window even attracted the attention of RU’s coaching staff, which sent hotel security to our room to make sure they didn’t have Spy-Gate Junior on our hands! (Hey, just because I live in New England!)

Despite our great view, it’s impossible to beat the atmosphere of the stands during a big game, so most of us headed downstairs to our real seats among the Scarlet masses. Our room is the one with the big red "R's" in the window, just below the middle banner.

But, I preferred the atmosphere of the stands.

Including Buttercup.

I won’t recap the game here – this is supposed to be a birding blog afterall! – so I’ll leave that to the professionals at ESPN (game summary, stats, etc), and the Newark Star-Ledger and NJ.com. Also, be sure to take a look at more photos, reactions, and stories at Scarlet Nation.com.

But, here are a few of my photos from the game:

I did make sure to get photos of each of Ray Rice’s touchdowns – and/or post-play congratulations. Were these 4 touchdowns and a school record 280 yards his last in Scarlet? Personally, I think so, but we’ll know for sure in a few days. If he elects to enter the NFL draft early, I can’t really blame him. I mean, he only has so many more school records to crush! Plus, the career of an NFL running back is so short, and one awkward hit next year could be all it takes to end his dreams. For more thoughts from fellow rabid fans on such topics for those who are interested, you can take a look at the messageboard on Scarletnation.com if you so desire.

The 52-30 final score made the game sound (relatively) closer than it really was, but the record-setting performance by Rice and the offense (QB Mike Teel showed what he can do when he doesn’t have a bum thumb, and our receiving core showed the fireworks that they can and will continue to produce) overshadowed the fact that we did allow Ball State to score 30 points.

Ray Rice was clearly the game, and season, MVP, and was justly handed the trophy, bringing his offensive line, and his proud Mom onstage amid a thundering chorus of “One more year!”

The post game celebration at the Crocodile Rock sports bar was fantastic, and even featured an appearance by St. Louis Ram's running back - and RU hero - Brian Leonard. The atmosphere was great, as it was all weekend long. We had an estimated 8,000 fans in attendance, and RU fans were quite conspicous all around the city all weekend - very good for our future bowl bids, and the economy of Toronto!

Come Sunday morning, most of my friends packed up and left for their long drive home, but I was picked up once again by Hugh for a couple more hours of birding, on a warm (mid 40’s F), and therefore, foggy day.

Today, David Beadle, who I was quite honored to meet, as I am a huge fan of his artwork – and his sparrow books, joined us. The three of us joined the throngs of birders taking advantage of the weekend public access to Tommy Thompson Park (also called the Leslie Spit) that is a land-fill (dry construction waste, soil, etc, not municipal waste) jutting out into the lake. The geography and shelter concentrates migrants, in season, and in winter: ducks, gulls, and in some years – such as this one – hawks and owls. Quite a few American Kestrels were around, a couple of Red-tailed Hawks, and a single Rough-legged Hawk were spotted, along with a Northern Shrike. Gulls weren’t too abundant today, and the waterfowl were often obscured by fog. I did however, particularly enjoy sifting through rafts of Great Scaup, and I don’t usually get a chance to see that many Redheads.

Up to 5 species of owls have been seen in this urban oasis recently, and we soon saw the locally rare Barred Owl that had been staked out.

Unfortunately, I missed the Great-horned Owl that David spotted in flight, and the others (Long-eared, Short-eared, and perhaps Saw-whet) were beyond our reach in our limited time this morning, as I had an afternoon flight to catch.

Before we knew it, my time here was up, and Hugh dropped me off to board the Downtown Express bus back to the airport. Unfortunately, I soon found that my flight had been delayed for 2 ½ hours (guess we could have looked for those owls afterall!) thanks to the aforementioned fog. Amazingly, the flight took off a little sooner than planned, and I made my connections – thanks to great airspeed on a westerly tailwind and a “shortcut” – and made my connection at JFK by 20 minutes. But, despite a 45-minute delay after boarding, my bag did not make the trip home with me.

This morning, as I drove to the store, a bit groggy - but somehow not under the weather! – I was welcomed home by 15 Pine Grosbeaks in the crabapples at the Pine Tree Academy on Pownal Rd in Freeport. Now, I only need to welcome my bag back home!