Ottawa Area Birding: Twin Elm and Richmond with JC Birding

April 19, 2021

Text by Jane

We met at Twin Elm Road to see the Solitary Sandpiper that had been reported. After a bit of search we found two of them along with at least one Greater Yellowlegs. Bill and Barbara had been birded the same road the day before and told us they had seen 5 Rusty Blackbirds. We walked the road and saw a Downy Woodpecker, lots of Red-wing Blackbirds and finally we saw the Rusty Blackbirds, but overnight the 5 morphed into 8 to 10. Walking back to the cars with Ken, I said look over there a female Rusty Blackbird and its mate, it was singing like the Rusty Blackbird, but no, they were Brown-headed Cowbirds. I wonder if it was forced adoption hence the little one learned the wrong song, or do Cowbirds mimic other birds?

We spent some time at the corner of Twin Elm and Cambrian taking photos of the Osprey on the nest and on a building east of the nest where its mate was feasting on a fish, no sharing going on.

We stopped to look at a bird on the power line and it turned out to be our first Savannah Sparrow of the day. A bit further up Cambrian, we stopped hoping to see Eastern Meadowlarks, but no luck, just a Common Raven 'singing' away.

Next we drove down Cambrian, north of the Ottawa dump. Little Gull and Glaucous Gull had been reported. Ken was the lead car and he turned around to get better looks, I left him there and continued down the road. A couple of Wild Turkeys, one of them were displaying, a single Killdeer (there were many heard and seen during the course of the day), American Tree Sparrow and a single American Goldfinch were seen. Back to Ken, did he see the Gulls, no he said but I took a lot of photos, so we will find out if he saw any later. Nope, no on the Little and Glaucous Gulls.

On the south side of the dump on Trail Road, we saw more Gulls and a single Northern Harrier. We were looking at the ponds on the south side of Trail road, where we saw a mammal in the water with its tail up, after scoping it we determined it to be a Muskrat, It would dive into the water and then out it came with his tail in the air, strange behaviour. We drove around to the south side of Moodie Pond where Bill and Barbara saw a Green-wing Teal. At the Moodie Road side of Moodie Pond, we saw lots and lots of Canada Geese and a few Common Mergansers. Bill checked out the north eastern side and said I see Bufflehead and I think Ring-neck Ducks. I moved my scope and I just could not see them. Bill retrieved a small stool from his vehicle to get him just a bit higher, no he says Scaup, no Ring-neck Duck. I could not see them because I was too short. Finally the birds decided to move away from the shoreline, yes finally I could see them. We all agree they were Ring-neck Ducks.

We lunched at Richmond Lagoons, a friend of Ken, Bill and Barbara's drove in (I think his name was Colin) and said he was going to do a quick check out the first lagoon. Since he was a good birder, we quickly put away our things and followed him in. First up Tree Swallows are back in numbers, such a beautiful blue purple colour when the sun shines on them. The first lagoon had no ducks, just Red-winged Black birds and the swallows. We walked up between Lagoon #1 and #2. In Lagoon #2, more Canada Geese and maybe 5 Northern Pintail and a handful of Bufflehead. Bill wanted to see, let's face it, we all wanted to see American Bittern, so Bill played it a number of times. I thought I heard a response, but some days my imagination is good, so no American Bittern.

Ken and I walked back to the viewing stand, while Bill and Barbara walked south. We wondered if we would see Swamp Sparrow, we played it where we would normally see it, but no. And darn, when we walked around the corner, we scared up a shorebird, it took off toward the third lagoon. I said I am going over to see if I could find it and Ken said he was going back to the car, he needed to rest after carrying his big camera and tripod. Off I went and while checking out all the painted turtles, I happened upon a Wilson's Snipe sleeping. I waved to the others but they were intent on looking at something at the opposite end of the lagoon. Bill had spotted a pair of Green-wing Teal along with a Greater Yellowlegs. Female Red-wing Blackbirds are back.

Not at all sure how long we stayed there but it must have been 2 hours. Colin finally got back to the parking lot, Bill kidded him about his quick look at Lagoon #1. I wonder can a birder really do a quick look at a good birding spot?

Next Jock Trail, the east end was pretty quiet. I mentioned not seeing Turkey Vultures and Barbara looks up and points out two in the far distance. While turning our cars around, an Eastern Phoebe shaking its tail and doing its flycatcher thing was seen. We drove down Munster Road to Kettles. On Munster Road we stopped to watch a pair of Black-capped Chickadees building a nest. We did hear a Eastern Meadowlark singing, we walked to the area, and played the song, no response. On Kettles we reminisced about seeing the Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Bill played the song for our enjoyment. Ken had asked on our return down Munster Road could we stop at some fields where Meadowlarks would potentially be seen. While driving a Great Blue Heron flew by, second one for me for the season. We did stop hoping to see Meadowlark, but no, Ken spotted an anomaly on the fence line, turned out to be a male Eastern Bluebird. Lucky for us the fence line ran along Soldier Road, so we just walked down to check him out and he was very cooperative. We also heard Wilson's Snipe winnowing.

We tried and tried to see Eastern Meadowlark, but no luck, we said our goodbyes to Ken and turned down Franktown Road. While I bird, I drive with my windows open and I hear Meadowlarks singing. I stopped, on one side of the road the Leopard Frogs (thanks to Bill for telling me the name of the frogs, I regard him as a frog expert) were crocking away. I did not see any Meadowlarks. I did see that Bill and Barbara had stopped a bit further back, so I walked back to see if they had any luck. Barbara said they had a briefing sighting, but Bill was determined to see Meadowlarks and he did see two of them. He gave me directions to one, by goodness it was far away, but I did see yellow and I did see the chevon on its chest, must be a Eastern Meadowlark.

Time to go home, another good day of birding. We met up at 8:00 and I was home by 5:00, just amazing how fast the day goes when you are having fun.