Waterfowl, Gulls and Assorted Songbirds - Ottawa West with Tony Beck

Tuesday Apr 19, 7:30am:

Today I came to the right place at the right time.  We had Tony, Nina, Janet, Peter, Helena, Michael, Bob and me.  Tony spotted a Cooper's Hawk right from the Coliseum parking lot.

We went first to P2 which is right across from the former Nortel campus on Carling.  We got Canada Goode and White-throated Sparrow right away.  Tony saw a couple of Snowshoe Hares from the lot.  Then Tony pished and a Blue Jay came in.  As we headed down the trail, we briefly saw a Fox Sparrow and heard Dark-eyed Juncos. 

We saw many Song Sparrows and heard a Field Sparrow singing. Tony saw it, but it was back lit.

We heard a Mourning Dove and Northern Flicker singing.  We could hear a Ruffed Grouse drumming, but we could not get it to show.  We made our way down to the Ottawa River, where we saw some Wood Ducks in the flooded timber, which immediately took off.

We decided to turn back, and Tony heard a Brown Thrasher singing, although I could not hear it.  We took off bushwhacking in the direction of the call and Janet spotted it perched. 

We tried to stalk it, but it went down to ground.  Tony briefly saw a Rusty Blackbird, but it left before we could photograph it.  But we did see a Northern Flicker. 

We saw about 30 Bohemian Waxwings as we neared the parking lot, but they vanished as we went around for a better view.

On Rifle Road we saw the Osprey at the nest on the communication tower.  We saw a Northern Cardinal with a Brown-headed Cowbird keeping an eye on it.  There were a number of White-tailed Deer in the field opposite.

At Shirley's Bay,   we saw a Hairy Woodpecker nearby, and a bunch of Lesser Scaup over in the corner by the dyke, then some much closer.  

Helena saw a distant Common Loon and Tony saw an Osprey even further away.  We were watching a distant Bufflehead, when a male flew in really close.  A pair of Common Mergansers did a fly past.  We saw Common Goldeneye as well.  We saw a Wood Duck, and a Double-crested Cormorant flew past.

We then moved over to Hilda feeder.  We saw a Fox Sparrow on the ground, but it quickly departed.  There were still lots of American Tree Sparrows still around.  There were White-throated Sparrows, Dark-eyed Juncos, Red-winged Blackbirds, Brown-headed Cowbirds, a Downy Woodpecker and a White-breasted Nuthatch in the feeder area.  A Pileated Woodpecker flew by.

We walked around the roads, and Tony heard Golden-crowned Kinglets, but we could not get on them.  A city truck stopped right where we were, so we gave up.  We did see a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker.

We saw a couple of Turkey Vultures and a Osprey high in the sky.  Tree swallows were flitting all around.  We headed back to the feeder area and were surprised to se the famous melanistic Eastern Chipmunk.  As we were getting in the car, we saw a couple more Fox Sparrows and a male Northern Harrier.

We drove  to March Valley Road via Carling Ave, where we stopped for a Red-tailed Hawk on the ground.  It took off and we tried to shoot photos through the open car windows. 

On March Valley, we got a Killdeer and a couple of Great Blue Herons.  We picked up a Red-breasted Nuthatch at the Ottawa Duck Club feeders.

Tony called it a day, but Janet, Bob and I decided to drive around the corner to Riddell Road to check out the Osprey platform.  Thet were home, so Janet shot some photos through the pen car window.  We decided to carry on to the Constance Creek platform.   here we saw one Osprey on the nest and two others flying around. 

Bob spotted three River Otters at the back of the creek, and also a pair of Ring-necked Ducks.  We also saw Bufflehead, Common Goldeneye  and Lesser Scaup.  We heard our first Leopard Frogs calling.