April 26, 2021
Story by Jane Burgess
Ken had already checked out Chapman Mills boardwalk and was less
than impressed, so we simply altered the plan a bit, crossed the river
and drove towards Manotick. We started off at Jeffrey
Armstrong Memorial Park and stayed there at least 3 hours. Lots of Song
Sparrows singing. We walked toward the locks, we heard this very
strange sound again and again. Turned out it was a Flicker, letting a
squirrel know that this was his tree and the hole was his, so get lost.
He stuck around the hole until we heard the traditional sound of a
Flicker and off it flew to be with its mate.
We heard the very familiar song of the Eastern Phoebe and found it fairly quickly doing the flycatcher thing.
We
walked a bit further and I noticed a couple of small birds, turned out
the birds were Yellow-rumped Warblers, we saw a number of them while we
were at this park. We crossed over the bridge to Manotick Island and
Bill pointed out a Belted Kingfisher. By this time Ken had joined us.
We saw a single small bird who was difficult to really get a bead on,
Ruby Crowned Kinglets don't like to sit still. We saw a number of
Kinglets as we walked.
I think it was the Hairy
and Downy Woodpeckers' courtship day. We saw at least three pairs of
Hairy Woodpeckers and one pair of Downy Woodpeckers who were very busy
with their courtship behaviour, flying around pursuing each other. Ken
and Barbara were kept busy taking photos.
We
walked as far as Barnsdale on the island then turned around. We heard
this song and we were determined to find out what bird was singing it.
Finally after ten minutes or so, we finally found the bird -
Ruby-crowned Kinglet. I am familiar with the high pitch song, but not
the bubbly one. Always something to learn while birding.
There
were lots of Tree Swallows flying around the water when we arrived, but
when we got back to where the cars were parked there were none.
A
couple that we had met while walking told us there was a Canada Goose
nest close to the bridge, we checked for it on our return trip, but did
not see any nest. There was one Goose who stood its ground, I have a
good amount of respect for Canada Geese and kept my distance. As a
child we had geese for a while and I still vividly remember their beak
'pinch'.
We drove over to Earl Armstrong Road
to see if the Great Horned Owls were still there, Ken was the only one
who saw the heads of the owlets. I noticed Bill ,Barbara and Ken were
not behind me, they had stopped for a Red-tailed Hawk and I had stopped
to watch some Turkeys displaying.
We drove to
High Road. Bill and Barbara had been there the day before and had seen
Bluebirds (we saw none) and a Field Sparrow (we saw none). We did see a
Northern Harrier. We walked over to where the Field Sparrows were seen
and the phone rang. It was Ken, wanting to know where we were. He
reported a dog walker with 15 dogs, some ran over to greet Ken, which he
did not like (same thing happened to Barbara). No judgement, but the
walker should keep the dogs under some semblance of control. Time to
leave and go to Findlay Creek Boardwalk. Well we got to as far as High
Road and Earl Armstrong, when a Kestrel was spotted. The Kestrel flew
west, hover and then went to ground, fly, hover and went to ground,
always flying west. We ended up having lunch pointed toward the field,
in hopes the Kestrel would fly our way again. After lunch we headed
toward Findlay Creek Boardwalk. Guess what, we saw the Kestrel perched
in the place we originally saw him, somehow he flew there without us
seeing it.
Findlay Creek boardwalk was a nice peaceful walk, but not all that great for birds.
Where
to next. I suggested we go to Winchester Lagoons, but was unsure
exactly how to get there. There should be some shorebirds there I
figured. Ken put it in his GPS and off we went. We turned right into
Winchester and while we could see the lagoon, we couldn't get to the
lagoons. But what we saw was a field of Snow Geese, Beauty..... We had a
discussion of how many Snow Geese were in the flock. Can't remember
the number because it was irrelevant. We left Winchester and took the
road to the lagoon, open gate but with a red light, indicated don't
come in. I said to Ken this is not the lagoon I know, Bill checked his
GPS and he said there are lagoons just ahead. Oh my Goodness, did we
have Snow Geese at least 50,000 of them 1/2 of which were blue morph.
Never have I seen so many blue morphs. Another conversation, we decided
because of the number of blue morphs and the relative small size of the
geese, we figured they were Lesser Snow Geese. Another observation was
birds of a feather stay together, the blue morphs were generally all
together while the white ones stayed together. Yes there was a very
small mixing but birds of a feather.... I figured the last time we saw
the snow geese was the last, but I was wrong, oh I like being wrong if
it means seeing 50,000 snow geese. A truck comes in and oh oh, are we in
trouble. The man said we had to get out and did we not see the four No
Trespassing signs, honestly I did not. He was a nice guy and we
chatted a bit, he said that the geese had been there for at least a
month. None of us knew that, we had not seen it on ebird.
It
was time to go home, so Bill, Barbara and I took a very circuitous way
home via Metcalfe to the 8th line. I heard a Meadowlark so we turned
around to see if we could see it. While I was making a U turn I saw a
Rough-legged Hawk, but no we were not successful at calling out the
Meadowlark. We turned at Mitch Owens and then on to Spratt. We stopped
when we saw a Red-tail Hawk sitting in a tree with three American Crows
above. The hawk took off with the Crows in hot pursuit.
Another
good day of birding with a Snow Geese as a surprise at the end of the
day, You will see by the number of photographs of the Snow Geese what
our focus was. When I got home I noticed 2/3 of my photos were of the
snow geese....
Species Noted
- Wild Turkey
- American Crow
- American Robin
- Red-wing Blackbird
- Song Sparrow
- Black-capped Chickadee
- Mallard
- Ring-billed Gull
- Eastern Phoebe
- Yellow-rumped Warbler
- Downy Woodpecker
- Hairy Woodpecker
- Northern Flicker
- Ruby-crowned Kinglet
- Belted Kingfisher
- Chipping Sparrow
- Blue Jay
- Tree Swallow
- European Starling
- American Goldfinch
- Turkey Vulture
- Great Horned Owl
- Red-tailed Hawk
- Northern Harrier
- Kestrel
- Common Grackle
- Snow Geese
- Shouse Sparrow
- Mourning Dove
- Killdeer
- Black Duck
- Rock Dove
- Rough-legged Hawk
- Eastern Meadowlark