Shorebirds and Wetlands - Ottawa West with Tony Beck

Tuesday Sep 7 – 7:30 am

Just Heather, Nina, Tony & me today met at Andrew Haydon Park. We scanned the beach and did not see much of interest. So we hiked over to the ponds and saw a very wet miserable-looking female Hooded Merganser, sitting on a rock. I guess we were hard up, because we got excited about a Muskrat that swam by close. On the mudflats, we saw both Teals, Great Blue Herons and Mallards. Surprisingly, the little apple tree beside the pond was full of Palm Warblers.

We also found lots of warblers in the willow tree by the corral – Northern Parulas, Black and White, Nashville, Wilson’s, Common Yellowthroat and Magnolia. We also had an Eastern Wood Pewee.

We abandoned the original plan in order to chase a rarity that had been reported at the Mountainview Sod Farms in Quyon – a Buff-breasted Sandpiper. On the way, I spotted an adult Red-tailed Hawk, uncharacteristically perched on a wire. We turned down 5th Concession, and saw another Red-tailed Hawk, and then a Kestrel also perched on a wire.

We stopped along the 5th Concession and scoped dozens of Killdeers on the sod, and Tony also saw a Semi-palmated Plover. We moved down to Hammond Rd and found the dirt road and pile of gravel (which turned out to be organic – maybe mashed up paper). Here after much searching, Tony did spot our target, but it was far off. So we hiked across the sod to the pile of stuff and scoped the Buff-breasted Sandpiper from there. It was a lifer for Nina &me.

We saw Roy John and a couple of other guys up on the overpass, so we joined them there and saw a Pectoral Sandpiper down below.