Plaisance Wildlife Reserve – Gatineau East

Tuesday April 8

Although prospects for open water were not good, we decided to go anyway to check it out.  Today there were Tony, Nina, Karen, Josh, Margaret and me.

We met at the Gamelin entrance to Gatineau Park, then headed east on Hwy 50.  First good bird was a Red-tailed Hawk on the fence along side of the throughway.

We exited at Masson and took the 148 east towards Plaisance.  Margaret spotted a lone Sandhill Crane in a field beside a house just outside of the village.

We turned into the park and debated about paying the fee, finally deciding to have a look first.  Just past the entrance, Josh spotted a Ruffed Grouse in the bush at the edge of the road.  A quick drive around showed that there was no open water and no prospects of seeing any waterfowl.  So we turned around and headed back to Gatineau, stopping to view a perched light-morph Rough-legged Hawk and a Snowy Owl.

We drove all the way back through Gatineau to Aylmer, turning at Vanier Rd to check the Ottawa River.  At least the river was open, but there were only a few ducks to be seen.

Bird List

1. Canada Goose
2. Common Grackle
3. American Robin
4. American Crow
5. Ring-billed Gull
6. European Starling
7. Red-tailed Hawk
8. Sandhill Crane
9. Killdeer
10. House Sparrow
11. Brown-headed Cowbird
12. Red-winged Blackbird
13. Song Sparrow
14. Ruffed Grouse
15. Rough-legged Hawk
16. Snowy Owl
17. Common Goldeneye
18. Mallard
19. Common Merganser
20. Herring Gull
21. Wood Duck
22. Great Blue Heron
23. Hooded Merganser
24. Lesser Scaup