Late Winter Birding – Ottawa East with Always an Adventure

April 1, 2014

The first spring arrivals would have to wait for spring weather - this was a winter outing! 

We met at Petrie Island - Tony, Nina, Josh, Margaret, Rick & me.  There were no waterfowl at Petrie Island in the only tiny trickle of open water under the causeway.  So we went to Wall Road to get our Snowy Owl fix, but could not locate the bird.  We tried Bear Brook on Milton and Frank Kenney, but there was no open water to speak of.

We proceeded to Larose Forest, and picked up a few finches and nuthatches.  No sign of any grosbeaks.  So we continued on to east of Caselman where we saw lots of Horned Larks and some Snow Buntings.  We also located 5 Snowy Owls, including 3 cooperative ones.  We saw a very dark Rough-legged Hawk, which was nice to find. 

Finally, we went back to Mer Bleue to pad the list.

Bird List

1. Red-winged Blackbird
2. Downy Woodpecker
3. American Crow
4. American Robin
5. House Sparrow
6. Common Raven
7. Pileated Woodpecker
8. Blue Jay
9. American Goldfinch
10. White-breasted Nuthatch
11. Blue Jay
12. Purple Finch
13. Red-breasted Nuthatch
14. Common Grackle
15. Hairy Woodpecker
16. Snow Bunting
17. Horned Lark
18. Ring-billed Gull
19. Snowy Owl
20. Rough-legged Hawk
21. Mourning Dove
22. Turkey Vulture
23. Northern Cardinal
24. European Starling