Ottawa Area Birding: Eastern Farm Fields with JC Birding

October 6, 2021

Birding Report by Jane Burgess

We met at Ken's home at 8:30. The Bowmans drove via the 417 and 174 total time, taking about 30 minutes. Me, well I decided not to take the 417 because of morning rush hour, so I took a circuitous route via Leitrim Road, total time driving 55 minutes. But I got there. The Bowmans had a good look of the Ottawa River since they had time to spare before our meet up time.

Before leaving Ken's place, we checked out the large tree behind his house, Mourning Dove, Red-breasted Nuthatch and lots of American Goldfinch. We proceeded to the end of Shefford Road and where we saw Rock Doves, the ones that had a lot of white feathers were quite pretty. As we walked toward the path, we saw two frolicking Chipping Sparrows. Onto the berm, we got to see warblers - lots and lots of Yellow-rumps, Northern Parula, Nashville and Black-throated Green with Golden-crowned Kinglets sprinkled in the 'flock'. A Common Raven flew over and stayed in a tree close to us, calling every now and again. We walked over to the parkway where we waited for the traffic including a recumbent bicycle with a canoe overhead (see photo) to pass before we crossed. Barb C kept remarking about the fall colours - just beautiful.

While driving to the Sandhill Crane spot, we stopped because we saw a Northern Harrier on one side and then looking on the other side we saw what looked like white rocks, but no they were giant white mushrooms.

We headed to where the Sandhill Cranes were last reported, we were not disappointed 39 of them, they were far away, but still always so good to see. There were 5 WildTurkeys to the north of the Cranes and to the west maybe 15 or 20 Canada Geese, but the stars were definitely Sandhill Cranes. Did you know their young ones are called "colts", a piece of information given to us by Bill Bowman who was told that fun fact by his daughter in law from Saskatchewan. We saw 2 colts. Before we left Ken made a 'big reveal', he took his coat off and showed us he was wearing a plaid shirt that had been in Barb's vehicle for at least 6 weeks while Ken was on vacation in British Columbia. He did say that it had been washed and he had ironed it for this occasion.

We turned onto McFadden and there we saw 5 Rusty Blackbirds and some American Pipits amongst the corn stalks.

Going to Giroux Pond, we stopped to see Horned Larks in the furrows, making them difficult to see, but with 5 sets of eyes looking we found them. Barbara and I walked to the pond while the others drove. Barb and Ken checked out the southern pond to find Great Blue Heron and lots of Canada Geese. Bill, Barbara and I walked to the north pond (mmm not sure if we were trespassing) where we spent a long time. I was quite happy to see Snow Geese on the spit, while looking at this area, shore birds were spotted. At some point in time Barb and Ken joined us. The shorebirds were very difficult to see because the Canada Geese just did not want to cooperate. We would have one shorebird in our scope and a Canada Goose would move slightly, totally obstructing our view or the shore bird would move. We decided yes definitely Plovers. However we were not sure if there was one or two and if they were Black-belled or American Golden. Well for sure we had a single Lesser Yellowlegs, but what about the Plover(s). Finally we saw 2 Plovers. We decided at least one was an American Golden Plover. We walked to the car and our wanderer came up to us and said if you want to see them closer take the path over there. So we did just that, took the path on the west side of the north pond. Everyone but me walked directly to the shore while I decided I wanted a view from the top. Stupid decision, there was no path, furrows and tall weeds and not great views of the shorebirds. The others were seeing them up close and personal so I joined them. The Canada Geese all flew, but the few shorebirds stayed 2 Lesser Yellowlegs and 2 Plovers and very thoughtfully the Black-bellied Plover lifted its wings to show the dark underwing. The other Plover had a golden hue on its breast - American Golden Plover. After loads of photos we walked back to the vehicles, our clothing from the knees down had lots of burrs on them and I for one had many bug bites, not mosquito not sure what kind. But it was worth it seeing the Plovers.

The Bowmans said they were going back to see the Sandhill Cranes and after that they would go home. We followed maybe 10 minutes later. When we arrived there were maybe 30 Cranes in the field. I see from the Bowman's photos and video that they too saw them and captured 6 flying away.

At one point during the day Barbara asked me how many European Starling did we see, well that is difficult, but it was in the thousands for sure. They definitely outnumbered the Canada Geese we saw.

Sandhill Crane Video:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1q7wpg_ETPyMudyB2gdpsdBq8SyQKU96G/view?usp=sharing