Thursday November 10, 7:30am
Today there were only Paul, Rick S, Tony, Nina and me. We started scoping the Ottawa River at Ottawa Beach, where hundreds of Canada Geese were taking of into the rising sun. Tony pointed out a couple of Cackling Geese flying with the Canadas.
There was a single American Black Duck on the spit. A flock of scoters flew past as we were watching some rafts of Common Goldeneye. Other than that, there were the usual Mallards, Ring-billed Gulls and Herring Gulls.
We walked over to the west section of Andrew Haydon Park and scanned the river. We were able to see 3 White-winged Scoters among the raft of Greater Scaup. We also saw a few Red-breasted Mergansers and a Mallard eating a large frog.
Tony also spotted singles of Black Scoter and Common Loon. The two Brant were still present at the second pond, as were a few Green-winged Teals and several Lesser Scaup.
We shifted location to Shirley’s Bay. There were 3 Snow Bunting on the rocks by the boat launch. We were not seeing anything new, so decided to go part way out on the dike. We were rewarded with sightings of Wood Ducks and lots of Northern Shovellers and Common Goldeneye, and a Double-crested Cormorant. We saw a nice buck White-tailed Deer make it’s way along the spit covered in long grass. It eventually walked right out into the water, and we saw another buck hiding in the grass in behind.
Returning along the trail, Tony and Nina spotted a Ruffed Grouse, which we all saw briefly before it flushed. We drove over to the Hilda feeders, where we flushed a bunch of Blue Jays. There was an American Tree Sparrow on the ground, and an American Goldfinch and several Red-winged Blackbirds in the trees.
With some time left, we headed over to Mud Lake. We had good scope views of Wood Ducks, Ring-necked Ducks, Hooded Mergansers, and finally, a pair of American Wigeon.
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