Snowy Owls for Nancy

February 2, 2019

Since the sking was still the pits, we called Nancy to go out for Snowys, since we had missed them on the way back from Montreal, and we had just seen three the day before.  Nancy was happy to go with us.

We started on Rushmore again, and spotted three Horned Larks on the road - back lit unfortunately.

We carried on down Rushmore and saw the first of several flocks of Snow Buntings.  We turned onto Eagleson and saw a car stopped on the shoulder.  As we came close, we spotted a male Snowy fly across the road and head down parallel to Akins.  We watched in our bins until it was out of sight, then followed down Akins in pursuit.  We never did catch up.

We cruised Brownlee, Eagleson, Shea and Garvin without seeing another owl.  But we saw lots of Snow Buntings.

We made a stop at Timmy's, then tried Rushmore one last time. Bingo! There was a male on a distant utility pole, which we got in the scope.  It looked like the same owl we had seen on Eagleson.

Then I spotted a female on the other side of the road on a low low fence post, which subsequently moved closer onto the ground.

We finished the day with another good flock of Snow Buntings.

Rural Roads near Richmond

February 27, 2019

Our last Snowy Owl was before Christmas, so it was high time we went reaching. Well, we found three, all females, one each on Rushmore, Akins and Brownlee.

We also saw our first Horned Larks of the season on Rushmore.  At first only a couple, then going back, a flock of about 30.  If you look closely at the first photo, you can see the horns.

Mud Lake and Fletcher Wildlife Garden

February 24, 2019

We made several unsuccessful tries for the Red-belied Woodpecker at Hilda, then twice had the same fate at Pinecrest Creek for the Gadwall, so we decided to head for places we at least know we would find birds.

The ridge at Mud Lake provided no rarities, but there was an interesting procession of Mallards and Ameican Black Ducks coming up from the river.

We realized that we had not been at Fletcher for a long time, to decided to give it a try too.  We drew a blank in the woods, but had a few good sightings at the feeder behind the OFNC building.  The White-throated Sparrow was a nice find.  And it was heartening to see some redpolls, as they have been scarce.

Gray Partridge

February 16, 2019

We received an Ottawa RBA at 10 am, so headed out to 560 Hazeldean Road near Stittsville.  The birds had just left flying south according to a friendly birder.  So we drove down Iber Road to Abbott Road and into a new construction area.  We spotted them far off and also some birders on a closer access road.  So we went back to Hazeldean Road and found the construction access road by the red barn and the birds coming our way.  Success!

Snowy Owl and Bald Eagle

Feb 01 19

Well, our flight to Jamaica was postponed for a day, so of course we went birding.  It had been over a month since we had looked for Snowy Owls out by Richmond, so off we went.  We started on Rushmore, where we saw a few Snow Buntings.  On Akins, we saw a few more, but no snowys.  And none on Brownlee either!  So we decided to go and look for the Gyrfalcon, but went back by Eagleson and Fallowfield. Suddenly Barbara spotted a Snowy Owl way back in a field north of Fallowfield Rd.

We decided to try for the Gyr from the Deschenes Rapids parking lot.  We pulled in a Barbara said it's out on the ice!  I got the scope out and saw that it was a Bald Eagle cleaning up the remnants of a Gyr kill.  A workman was interested, so Barbara invited him to look through the scope. He was thrilled and told his buddy who had no interest at all.  Hey it takes all kinds.  Soon The eagle flew off leaving the remains to the crows.