Ottawa Area Birding: Birding Day in the Clarence/Rockland area with JC Birding

Tuesday March 29, 2022

Birding Report by Barb Chouinard

It was a sunny and cold Tuesday with a brisk wind all day. We dressed like we do in January and we were still cold. When will winter lose its grip? There were many reports of birds in the flooded farm fields east of Ottawa. We headed east.

Ken and Barb first stopped on Milton to look for Swans. The fields were all frozen and all we could see were Canada Geese, all huddled together. Swans would be easy to spot if there were any there. Lucky for us, Ken saw activity on the other side of the road. There was a raptor flying about. It was a Rough legged Hawk and it flew and hovered for a good while and many photos were taken. Meanwhile, heavy morning traffic buffeted our vehicle as drivers flew by. Why do people drive so fast on such a treacherous roadway with almost no shoulders to safely pull over? One of these days.....

Ken and Barb then met up with Bill and Barbara at the Navan arena and we carpooled together with Bill driving and Ken as navigator. The Barbaras in the back were the spotters.

We drove up and down the country roads in the Clarence Creek Area. Bill sent me a track map of the roads we traveled, which is included in the photos. It felt as if we drove on every road in the area. We went through places like Ettyville, which I had never been through before. Thank you Bill for the track map.

Almost all of the water in the flooded fields of Cobb's Lake Creek was frozen solid. The nights and days have been cold. We checked the usual spots and found no Snow Geese on the ice. However, in the distance, like an advancing armada, one could see many strings of Snow Geese coming towards us. They were like strings of pearls in the sky with the sunshine catching the brilliant white in a brief flash. The Snow Geese were followed by some disorganized groups of Canada Geese. We watched this beautiful murmuring ballet and it was stunning. In one of the strings of Snow Geese there was a big raptor bird flying amongst them causing a lot of chaos in the group. It flushed the landing of Snow Geese and gave us memorable views of a sky filled with Snow Geese. We ID’d the big bird as a Bald Eagle. Unfortunately, after all this landing and flying up, all the Snow Geese landed beyond our lines of sight from the roadway.

We thought that maybe we could see the Snow Geese from “the opposite side”. So we drove around the whole area, trying different viewpoints of this flood plain. Down one road, Barbara called out “stop”. We pulled over and we saw a lovely Red tailed Hawk and photos were taken. We continued on and almost opposite from where we were when we first saw the Snow Geese disappear, there they were! They were still far away though. There was also a small group of swans here! We are assumed that these swans were the Tundra Swans that were reported in prior days. They were just too far away for ID purposes.

We drove around many roads as shown in Bill's track map: Bourget Rockdale, Russell Road, Cheney, St Pascal, Lalande etc. We came back to the causeway on Russell Road and stopped. In front of a huge group of Canada Geese, we saw large birds fly in and we identified three mature Bald Eagles and what looked like three immature Bald Eagles sitting on the ice. Bill took out his scope to view the group of Bald Eagles. One of the immature birds looked a bit different. Maybe it was an immature Golden Eagle? Well we all quickly stepped outside to take a look through Bill’s scope. The particular bird did look different. We continued to study the group of Eagles. What was the attraction for them to sit in front of hundreds of Canada Geese? Well, there was a dead Canada Goose frozen onto the ice. The Eagles were taking turns, with the odd skirmish, picking at the carcass.

We then parked on a nearby pull-out that lead to skidoo path. It was a safe place to stop off the busy roadway to have lunch and have a excellent view of the flood plain. Ken and Bill braved the stiff blustery wind and walked down the trail to get closer photos of the Eagles. It was a pretty muddy walk down this spit. The two of them were pretty chilled when they returned. So we ate our lunch here and watched the Eagles dine on Canada Goose. Inside the vehicle it was pretty toasty warm and maybe there was a cat nap or two happening in the back seats.

When we were all done lunch, Bill started the vehicle which startled a nearby Northern Harrier who flew by and gave us great close up views. We continued looking for anything flying driving down the roads. On Chemin Du Lac we saw another raptor in the distance. A nearby cemetery looked like a good spot to get closer to the flying bird. There is quite a large hill in the St Huge Cemetery and we drove up the steep hill and we could view the Northern Harrier hunting below. “Cemeteries are good places to bird” goes the saying.

We went down the road that on a recent solo birding outing, Ken had seen 6 Gray Partridge. He told us about his encounter with the Gray Partridge and meeting the police officer in flak gear. No Gray Partridge were viewed this time and we did a pretty thorough search. It was sunny but still so cold in the afternoon.

We did a final loop around Navan roads, looking for swans, Sandhill Cranes, Horned Larks, woodpeckers and anything else that flies. It was sunny and the temperature was around zero. Some of the ice was melting in the later afternoon. We dipped on these but we did have some special moments today.

Thank you to Bill for driving and Ken for navigating. Thank you to Bill and Barbara and Ken for the photos.

Barb

Post script :Once at home, the Eagle photos were shared and studied by the group and after consulting Sibley's, it was decided that this bird was a Bald Eagle. There were no dissenters to the ID decision and no Golden was spotted.