Rare Arctic Visitor: King Eider at Tommy Thompson Park, Toronto

Early this February I was in Toronto for a few days. For the past month I had been seeing reports and photos online of people seeing a rare Arctic sea duck along the shore of Lake Ontario just outside of downtown Toronto - a male King Eider. This is a bird I had never seen and was keen to try and find for myself if the opportunity allowed.

Luckily, I had a few hours of free time on one of my days in the city so I packed up my camera to head to Tommy Thompson Park where the King Eider had last been reported on eBird a few days prior. I was hopeful but had my doubts about actually finding this one bird along the vast Lake Ontario shoreline where it could have been hiding anywhere. It was a beautiful and sunny day although it was very cold at around -30 degrees Celsius.

The park was pretty quiet with not many others out braving the cold. I parked at the north end of the park. According to the last eBird report, the King Eider had been seen nearly all the way out at the southern point where the lighthouse is. In the winter time, this meant a 5km trudge through the snow one-way from the parking lot to the lighthouse - I was determined to give it a try though.

The initial walk along the main trail down to the lighthouse was pretty quiet without many signs of life except for a few chickadees here and there. With the limited time I had and the distance I needed to cover to have a chance at seeing the King Eider I was focused on trucking down the trail - until I saw a flock of Redpolls.

One of the many Redpolls in the trees along the main trail.

These Redpolls were exciting to see because I only recently photographed my first one a few months ago while on a trip in Europe. These were my first Redpolls in Canada and my first real chance to watch them for a longer period of time. At Tommy Thompson Park, Redpolls are an irruptive winter visitor and can show up in large flocks when food further north is scarce. This winter has caused mass movements of Redpolls southwards - primarily driven by a scarcity of northern food sources, specifically poor crops of birch, alder, and spruce seeds in their typical boreal wintering grounds.

Eventually, I remembered that I was on a mission to find the King Eider and brought myself to continue down the trail. Along the way, I crossed paths with a fellow birder who was on his way back to the parking lot and told me that he saw the King Eider earlier that morning off of “Peninsula A”. This really got my hopes up and gave me a good target for the next place to look.

Just before reaching the lighthouse, I turned off on what looked like a side trail off to Peninsula A. Coming out of the trees and onto the exposed point I was greeted by a lovely view of downtown Toronto but also a raging cold head wind. It seemed inhospitable to any life but once I set up on the icy, windswept point and started searching the wavy waters I did begin to notice tons of ducks. I mostly saw Long-tailed ducks, which I love and don’t get to see often in my hometown even though they are abundant here in the winter along the shorelines of Lake Ontario.

Long-tailed duck off the shore.

Then, to my surprise, I saw my first two lifers of the day which were ones I was not expecting; Surf Scoters and White-winged Scoters! This made the trek down already feel more than worth it, and I knew I’d be leaving happy even if I didn’t find the King Eider.

White-winged Scoter off of Peninsula A.

The White-winged Scoter is such an unusual looking bird that I’ve been wanting to see for quite sometime now. Unfortunately, I didn’t get many great photos of the Surf Scoters as I didn’t even realize they were a different species until I later loaded them onto iNaturalist.

I continued searching the flock of ducks for quite some time before I finally spotted what I came for: the King Eider. The Eider was camouflaged amongst all the Long-tailed ducks but once I spotted him, he was significantly larger in size and sported one of the coolest beaks that I’ve seen on any bird.

The male King Eider at Tommy Thompson Park.

I was lucky enough to watch the King Eider for a long time and had the experience all to myself on the point. I was focused this day mainly on trying to get some video footage which I later put together into a video below. Improving my skills of shooting videos of wildlife is a goal of mine that I’d like to further improve and dive deeper into this year. It’s a new challenge for me and I think a great way to share some of my experiences in a meaningful way. If you’d like to see more from this day, I invite you to watch this video. Hope you enjoy!