Thursday, January 23, 2014

OFO trip for Ottawa Winter Birds


Jan 19, 2014

This trip was led by Roy John with help from Bev McBride, Dave Moore and Bob Cermak.

(notes by Roy John)
"Thirty-eight resilient birders faced -5 C temperatures with a really nasty wind that made it seem much colder, and many snow flurries obscuring our view, to see 29 species of bird.  Ottawa has not been bird friendly this winter so the going was tough, with even common birds hard to find.  

That said we had a good day with the highlights being Barrow's Goldeneye (2 m 1 f), Snowy Owl (4), Glaucous Gull, Northern Shrike and a flock of 30 Cedar Waxwings in a "cedar"! (Juniperus sp., ornamental). This species is usually scarce in Ottawa in winter. We also saw two gatherings of wind-blown Snow Buntings, probably about 100 in total.

We started off at Bate Island where the Ottawa River is open, and continued along the river to the Hilda Ave. feeders near Shirley's Bay, then March
Valley Road and then south along Moodie Dr. to the Richmond area, visiting the Trail Rd. landfill site en route."
















Sunday, January 12, 2014

Snowy Owl Hunt

Jan 4, 2014

With so many reports out there, we decided to check the west end ourselves.   We went to Fallowfield, Richmond, Rushmore, Eagleson, Shea and Brownlee without seeing one.  We took Barnsdale back towards home when we spotted a birder with a scope at the corner of Twin Elm.  He confirmed that a Snowy Owl was just down Twin Elm.  Sure enough, it was perched on the roof of the rugby stadium.

 
 


 
 The next day we went snowshoeing in Kanata and saw a nice Red-tailed Hawk on March Valley Road.