Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Coniferous Woodland Trails – Ottawa West with Tony Beck

Nov 17, 7:30 am

We headed out for Kerwin Road trail. We made a quick stop on March Valley Road when we saw a pair of Hooded Mergansers. Then on Berry Side Road, Tony spotted a nice adult Red-tailed Hawk perched in a backlit situation, so we didn’t even try for a photo. We were hoping for a rare woodpecker or something else, but we were not rewarded. We hiked all the way to the pond and trailer, seeing only Black-capped Chickadees, a couple of White-breasted Nuthatches, a few Blue Jays, and an American Crow. We heard a Raven.

It was still below zero, so we decided to go to the Heart & Soul Café foe a hot beverage. Tony wanted to buy some Ecuadorian Free Trade coffee beans anyway. On the way, Tony spotted a group of about 15 Bohemian Waxwings on Thomas Dolan Parkway. They were real close at eye level, but flushed to a tree top when we parked.
After coffee, we returned to the city to Andrew Haydon Park. At first we didn’t see the photographers, but they were on the far side of the pond. After trading insults, we learned from Joe that the Blackpoll Warbler was still around and posing for great photos. So with nothing new in the ponds, we decided to head over to Dick Bell to check it out. Same result as Sunday when Barbara & I went. Zip. We got a fair chance to photograph some Red-breasted Mergansers, and saw big rafts of Common Goldeneye and a few Bufflehead on the river.
With the excellent light and no other prospects, we decided to return to Andrew Haydon Park to photograph the scaup and other ducks. From the car, Tony spotted something white on the river, which turned out to be a single Greater Snow Goose.We located the single Ring-necked Duck and got some good images. There were a few adult male Lesser Scaup, some juvenile males, and quite a few females. The Ring-billed Gulls posed for reflection shots too.




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