Ottawa Area Birding: St Lawrence and Cobb's Creek with JC Birding

March 23, 2021

Story based on Jane's report

Once again, the meet up place was at the Bankfield/Brophy park & ride off the 416. Anne Burnette from White Lake area joined us for the first time.

Driving down the 416, we saw all the usual suspects, including Red-tail Hawk as we passed two tractor trailers. We exited for Hwy 16 and went straight to Johnstown without incident. We like to stop at the United Church there because we usually find good birds --Northern Cardinal, Song Sparrow, White-breasted Nuthatch, Herring Gull, Common & Hooded Merganser, Common Goldeneye, Great Black-backed Gull, Bufflehead, Common Grackle, Mallard, Dark-eyed Junco and Turkey Vulture. Not bad for one stop.

Barb C. took the lead as she likes to dip into various streets off highway #2. We stopped at Cardinal to see if there was anything on the water. Our objective today was to see Snow Geese, well there were none there. Barb and I were discussing if we heard a Pileated Woodpecker or a Flicker, when Bill saw the Pileated Woodpecker. Going back to the car, Bill pointed out a Merlin perched on the hydro post. It gave us just a few minutes for photos and then off it flew. We stopped at Iroquois, last year we had such a spectacular sighting of Snow Geese, no not one there, Barb B. pointed out a mink on the ice -- good sighting. A bit further into Iroquois we stopped and checked for more Snow Geese, no not one, but we had our first shorebird - Killdeer.

Ault Island didn't really give us any new birds. We parked at the end of the road for lunch. Ann had stopped at Antrim Truck Stop for butter tarts for all of us - delicious, thank you Ann, we all appreciated them.

Next we checked out Upper Canada Bird Sanctuary, in the distance we saw Mute as well as Trumpeter Swan. No Snow Geese, but another mink walking on the ice, saw it with a fish in its mouth.

The front gate at Long Sault Parkway indicated the road was closed, so we took the Ingleside entrance. Parking near the bridge, we saw lots of waterfowl -- Green-wing Teal, Ring-neck Duck, Redhead (Bill was happy), Black Duck, Greater Scaup, Northern Shoveller, Northern Pintail as well as others we had seen previously.

Checked out Guindon Park, nothing but Herring, Ring-billed and a couple of Great Black-back Gulls.

It looked like we were going to come up empty-handed when it came to Snow Geese. We had a huddle and decided the best place to look for Snow Geese, given there was open water on the St Lawrence, would be Cobbs Creek. Bill and Ann entered it into their GPS and it was about an hour or so to get there. Barb and I wanted to take the road near the Richmond Swamp, maybe we would get some different birds. No, we were wrong. Bill took over shortly before Hwy 138. Saw a Common Raven on the nest. I found the hour or so driving to be very tiring and I was beginning to think we would never get there.

We drove into and out of Bourget. And at this point I am not a believer, thinking all this way and we probably no Snow Geese. Well, I was wrong, wrong, wrong. And I find myself with a big grin on my face and I look around and I see we all have smiles. We have Snow Geese, yet it was not reported on eBird, oh well who cares, we have Snow Geese, so many, I estimate 50,000, such an awesome sight to behold.

We headed for home, but Jane and Anne stopped for the Great-horned Owl and had great luck again!

Spring is here, so many Robins, Red-wing Blackbirds and Grackles are here.

All and all such a good day.