Ottawa Area Birding: Long Island Locks to Winchester with JC Birding

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....