Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Gatineau Park with Jane Burgess

August 11, 2010 6:30 am

Jane picked me up right at 6:30 and we headed up the Gatineau Parkway to Gamelin Blvd. The fog was miraculously gone as we turned into the parking lot.

Our first bird, other than the American Crows seen from the car, was an American Goldfinch at the back of the parking area. (There were also unidentified diving ducks at the Champlain Bridge). The Northern Parula gave us trouble to identify, and Jane went back to the car to get her Sibley.

I only got a glimpse of the Scarlet Tanager, but those dark wings on a bright red bird make it hard to misidentify. There were both male and female Redstarts, and the Chestnut-sided Warbler was in the same bush. American Crow
American Goldfinch
Black-capped Chickadee
Gray Catbird
Song Sparrow
Northern Parula
Northern Cardinal
Scarlet Tanager
Blue-headed Vireo
American Redstart
Common Grackle
Chestnut-sided Warbler
House Finch

We moved on to the Champlain Lookout, and hiked the trail towards Western. It wasn’t real busy, but we did get the three species of warbler. We weren’t absolutely certain about the female Cerulean.

White-breasted Nuthatch
Downy Woodpecker
Red-eyed Vireo
Hairy Woodpecker
Blue Jay
Black and White Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Cerulean Warbler (f) or Blackpoll Warbler

With time running short, we decided to abandon the trail before reaching the lodge, so that we would have time to go to Cross Loop Road. We had our lunch at the covered bridge, while watching the Barn Swallows. We went up the hill by the old cemetery to look for Bobolinks and Brown Thrashers. We saw neither, but Jane spotted a family of American Kestrels and the back of the field. Then, to our surprise, a pair of Merlins swooped across in front of the kestrels. We tried to sneak up on the raptors without luck, but came upon a bonus pair of Eastern Meadowlarks in the field. We finished at noon, as we both had to get back to town.

American Robin
Turkey Vulture
Barn Swallow
Osprey
American Kestrel
Merlin
Eastern Meadowlark
Ring-billed Gull
Cedar Waxwing
Canada Goose

No comments:

Post a Comment