Ottawa Area Birding: Petrie Island & Sandhill Cranes with JC Birding

Thursday, November 3, 2016

Petrie Island & Sandhill Cranes with JC Birding

Oct 26, 2016

Text by Jane

Tuesday evening I received an email from Connie indicating that it would be cold Wednesday and to dress warmly. So I put on my winter coat, toque, boots and warm mittens. Thank you Connie we certainly did need them. Wednesday was cold, don't know what I will do when winter comes.

We (Connie, Barb C., Sami and me) first birded on Jeanne D'arc Blvd and there we found a small flock of House Finches with a single Purple Finch. There also was a Hairy Woodpecker, several Downy Woodpeckers and many Dark-eyed Juncos.

We drove down towards Petrie Island, where we met Bill and Barb, who had been there for 30 minutes freezing while looking at the Green-wing Teal, single Northern Shoveler and the many Mallards. We drove over the causeway and parked our vehicles, then tried to determine (without using our scopes) who the raptor was perched far in a tree. The photographers took their cameras and finally a scope was brought out - Kestral. There was nothing really special along the path; another fast moving raptor flew by, we could not determine what species it was since it just kept on flying. I guess only the bird knows for sure.

When we were leaving the Petrie Island area, stop the car, look up, a Bald Eagle. We drove down Jeanne D'arc again and the single eagle morphed into two Bald Eagles. Great looks. We saw another eagle (or was it just one of the pair) in the Giroux Pond area.

At Giroux Pond, we saw lots of Northern Pintail, a Bufflehead, Common Merganser (5) , Hooded Merganser (2), Blue-wing Teal (1) and a Double Crested Cormorant. It was nearing lunch time, just too cold to have a picnic outside so we headed for the Navan arena.

Next, lets find us some Sandhill Cranes. We checked out Smith, Milton, Perreault and finally Trim where we saw 24. It is always good to see Sandhill Cranes.

Barb and Bill left us. We decided we should check out Mer Bleue, we drove down Milton, stop the car I think I see something. A Northern Harrier hovering, looking for food. Drove on a bit further, stop the car and single Rusty Blackbird and a large flock of Red-wing Blackbirds.

Next Farmers Way to find some Wild Turkeys and then off to Mer Bleue. A single American Tree Sparrow and 2 Fox Sparrows were feeding around the latrine area.The Fox Sparrows were the last species of the day, an excellent way to end the day.

Species Seen