Sparrows and Open Country - Ottawa South/East with Tony Beck

Tuesday May 18, 7:30am

We met at Tim Horton’s on Hunt Club – Russell, Heather, Sally, Tony & me.

We drove to Bowesville Road. We saw a Baltimore Oriole from the parking area and also heard a Common Yellowthroat.

We started down the trail and I commented on the huge bunch of Lilacs. Tony said it was thrasher territory. No sooner had he said it than Sally spotted a Brown Thrasher. We heard a Song Sparrow and saw a Savannah Sparrow on a post. We heard a distant Field Sparrow and the buzzy Clay-colored Sparrow. We saw a Vesper Sparrow and a distant Eastern Kingbird.

I got some photos of the Vesper Sparrow before it got chased off by an American Goldfinch. We heard a Chipping Sparrow and a Grasshopper Sparrow, and then had a fly by from a Pileated Woodpecker.

We saw a Chestnut-sided Warbler. Then Sally played her tape and a Grasshopper Sparrow popped out. We also had good looks at a Clay-colored Sparrow.
Back at the cars, we saw a pair of Eastern Bluebirds on a wire.

We drove to Britannia to look for a reported Little Gull. We scanned the bottom of the rapids area, but could not spot it. We did see a Red-necked Grebe and several Double-crested Cormorants and some Common Terns.

Tony heard a Scarlet Tanager, so we went down the trail behind the Filtration Plant and were able to see it. We carried on to the end of Mud Lake where we met up with a OFNC group, which included Rick, Hedrik and some of the other regulars. We saw a couple of Black-crowned Night-herons and a Green Heron (scope views). We saw a pair of Wood Ducks, a Great-crested Flycatcher and a female Blackpoll Warbler in the corner as well.

Heading down towards the Parkway, we saw a Red-eyed Vireo and a Warbling Vireo and several Yellow Warblers. We also saw a Northern Cardinal and a Gray Catbird. Returning to the cars, we decided to check the river again. This time we did see the Little Gull and a couple of Bonaparte’s Gulls floating far off on the river.