Twitcher's Delight - Ottawa Centre & West with Tony Beck

Monday Dec 19, 8:00am

There were seven of us today - Tony, Nina, Rick, Helena, Roger, Brenda and me.

Thirty-three species today - not bad for winter birding.

We first went to Britannia Pier to look for the Snowy Owl.  The wind was freezing there, and we did not see much besides Black-capped Chickadees.

So we went to Mud Lake.  Tony spotted a Northern Flicker which flew away from us in a hurry.  We hoped to relocated it, but never did.  Helena spotted a Downy Woodpecker and put some seed and peanuts in her hand.  Amazingly, the little woodpecker flew in to grab a peanut.

We hiked the perimeter trail around the forest. The highlight was a Carolina Wren, which came to the song. 

We also saw a couple of Dark-eyed Juncos.  We checked a few spots for a Screech Owl, but had no luck.  We saw many American Robins eating berries and several Mourning Doves and a Hairy Woodpecker.  We tried to entice the White-breasted Nuthatches to hand, but only the Chickadees would come.  As we were coming back towards the filtration plant, we saw two or three Brown Creepers.  A very red House Finch had us fooled for a while into thinking it was a Purple Finch.  A buch of American Goldfinches were hanging out with the House Finches.

We went up on the ridge and looked over the rapids.  We saw Mallards, Common Goldeneye and a couple of Long-tailed Ducks in the distance.  Several Great Black-backed Gulls flew past, and we could see Common Mergansers and Herring Gulls in the distance.

We then went to the end below the rapids.  In the corner, we saw A couple of female Hooded Mergansers accompanied by a female Red-breasted Merganser.  There were also a few Lesser Scaup, some Canada Geese, and a couple of American Black Ducks.

With some time, we drove to Hilda feeders, where we picked up two Red-winged Blackbirds, an American Tree Sparrow and lots of Blue Jays.  American Crows and Common Ravens could also be heard.

We checked out Shirley's Bay and found a Common Loon loafing about and a Pileated Woodpecker in the forest.

On the road out, we stopped to see a tree full of Cedar Waxwings.  And on Carling, we saw a couple of distant Rough-legged Hawks.

Complete List

  

1. Canada Goose
2. American Black Duck
3. Mallard
4. Lesser Scaup
5. Long-tailed Duck
6. Common Goldeneye
7. Hooded Merganser
8. Common Merganser
9. Red-breasted Merganser
10. Common Loon
11. Rough-legged Hawk
12. Ring-billed Gull
13. Herring Gull
14. Great Black-backed Gull
15. Mourning Dove
16. Downy Woodpecker
17. Hairy Woodpecker
18. Northern Flicker
19. Pileated Woodpecker
20. Blue Jay
21. American Crow
22. Common Raven
23. Black-capped Chickadee
24. White-breasted Nuthatch
25. Brown Creeper
26. Carolina Wren
27. American Robin
28. Cedar Waxwing
29. Dark-eyed Junco
30. American Tree Sparrow
31. Red-winged Blackbird
32. House Finch
33. American Goldfinch