Ottawa-Gatineau Christmas Bird Count

December 15, 2019

We were working the Britannia sector with Bruce Di Labio.

We met at Tim's on Merivale Rd. at 6:30 am and were assigned to work with Leia and Shuya at Clyde Woods and Hampton Park.

We counted 350 American Crows, about 12 Northern Cardinals and a few Black-capped Chickadees at Clyde Woods.  But  Leia and Shuya had a great sighting of a Red Fox.

We walked the roads and discovered a feeder with 15 House Sparrows at it.

Then it was off to Hampton Park where we had pretty good luck last year.  But this year was quieter until Shuya spotted a Downy Woodpecker.  Near the ball diamond, we spotted a tree with a dozen American Goldfinches in it.

Leia spotted not one but two Brown Creepers.

It was time to reconvene with the group for lunch at Harveys and compile our morning results.

Leia and Shuya were finished, as were some others.  But we wanted to do some other areas.  Rather than walking the streets, we presented Bruce with a list of possibilities.  We settled on Frank Ryan Park and Black Rapids.  The former produced zippo, so we headed out to Black Rapids.

Here at least, there were some common waterfowl and a few Black-capped Chickadees.

It was still light, but we decided to head for the final compilation at Parc Des Hautes Plaines in Gatineau host by the Club des Ornithologues de l'Outaouais.

Nobody from OFNC was there, so we texted our results to Bruce when we heard that nobody from Britannia Sector would be coming.  We met some friends from other sectors as we were leaving, but we decided to head for home.