November 7, 2015
Barbara spotted a small article in Le Droit advertising a
birding outing with le Club des ornithologues de l'Outaouais to the
Breckinridge, Quyon, Norway Bay area.
This is an area that we have birded often with Always an Adventure, so
we thought it would be fun to join.
We drove to the Tim Hortons at Ch Vanier & Allumettières
at 7:30am . At first we saw nobody, but inside there was
a couple with binoculars - a good sign.
Outside, we met Gérard Desjardins and Daniel Toussaint. They are both fluently bilingual and tolerated our best efforts in French. We soon
met Claude Martineau too. A few others arrived.
We proceeded in four vehicles to Breckinridge and Ch de la
Rivière. We stopped and scoped two dark
hawks in a distant tree. At first we
thought Red-tails, but then changed to dark morph Roughies. Now we are not so sure! Another hawk, definitely a Red-tail, was even
more distant. So we drove farther along
to get a closer view. But from the same
vantage point, we saw an adult Bald Eagle perched with a juvenile below. Then a second juvenile soared into view - 3
eagles!
We planned to check out Ch Therrien, but the eagles took too
much time as we had a rendezvous at the Quyon Ferry dock at 9 am . Indeed, there
were a few others there at the dock when we arrived. We viewed a pair of Hooded Mergansers
and a lone Red-breasted Merganser in the bay.
One of these, Deb Powell, joined our group as we headed out on the back
roads.
We cruised Chemins Pontiac, Bronson, Bryant, Clarendon,
MacKechnie, Knox, 8th Line, Ragged Chute and Bristol . Sightings included an immense flock of
Red-winged Blackbirds, several isolated American Goldfinches, a few Grackles
and Ravens, and a Red-breasted
Nuthatch (and some apple-loving horses). We headed to Pine Lodge for
lunch, but it was closed for some special occasion. So on Deb's advice (but she could not come),
we headed to Café 349 in Shawville, where we enjoyed a relaxing meal with the Club des ornithologues de l'Outaouais birders.
