1911] The Ottawa Naturalist. 27 



THE SPRING MIGRATION OF BIRDS AT FISHERMANS 

 ISLAND, TORONTO, 1910. 



By J. A. Munro. 



The eastern portion of the sandbar to the south of Toronto, 

 enclosing Ashbridges Bay, with its wide expanse of marsh and 

 weedy lagoons and called collectively Fishermans Island, has 

 been known for many years by the local ornithologists as one 

 of the best vantage points in the province from which to study 

 the ever interesting bird migration. The vast area of marsh now 

 rapidly being reclaimed for commercial purposes , the once clear 

 lagoons, poisoned by sewage, and the rows of cottages on the 

 former feeding ground of Godwit and Curlew, are indications 

 that the old order of things is fast giving way to a less beautiful 

 if more utilitarian industrial era, with its attendant ills of reeking 

 chimneys and crowded docks. As the locality is changing so 

 rapidly, a short topographical description will be necessary. 



There is a more or less authenticated tradition to the effect 

 that many years ago a ridge of pine and hardwood extended from 

 where the eastern channel is now cut through for several miles 

 eastward. Black squirrels, mink, foxes and hares were plentiful. 

 No trace of this ridge, said to have been twenty or thirty feet 

 high, now remains. 



The present beach, for the most part perfectly flat, has in 

 several places an elevation of about two feet above the surface 

 of the lake, and is sparsely covered with seedling poplars and 

 willows. Between the Eastern Gap on the west and Coatsworths 

 Cut on the east, the beach extends for about three miles, and is 

 about four hundred yards wide at the widest part. At both 

 the eastern and western ends of the beach many summer cottages 

 have been built. Between the two settlements there is a park 

 reservation about one mile long. This is the only portion of the 

 sandbar that retains its natural features. 



In the lake, in front of the cottages at the west end of the 

 beach and about fifty yards south of the beach proper, a long 

 narrow sandbar has recently been piled up by natural causes, 

 forming a wide pond, where several species of marsh weeds have 

 taken root. Many records were made beside this " Beach Pond", 

 and it was on the narrow sandbar that the Herring Gulls, of 

 which a record follows, congregated all summer. 



Near the western end of the sandbar there is a wooden 

 breakwater and a roadway running north and joining the island 

 to the city. The breakwater also serves to separate Ashbridges 

 Bay and Toronto Bay. Along the southern portion of the road- 

 way there is a considerable growth of willows and balm of gilead. 



