Ottawa Area Birding: Ottawa Valley Outing with JC Birding Adventures

March 9, 2022

Birding Report by Barbara Chouinard

The temperature was -8 and there was a bit of a wind when Barbara and Bill, Jane, Ken and Barb left the Eagleson Park and Ride at 8 am for a day of birding up the Ottawa Valley. We were excited for the day as there were reports of a Golden Eagle, Northern Shrike and Snowy Owl to name a few birds in the last couple of days.

We had European Starling and American Crow at the park & ride. Off we went to Renfrew to meet up with Anne. The conversation in the car ranged from the spring arrival of American Woodcock to world issues. Ken said to look in ditches for a Woodcock at this time of year. So he was teased throughout the day about whether a particular ditch was examined. Notwithstanding the teasing, each of us was looking in ditches. Ken could not get any info on historical locations of Woodcocks leks in the area, so we just kept an eye out. Then the conversation then went on to the photographers issue and some unacceptable practices we have seen or heard of. The OFO meeting last evening also brought this issue up. Other than educating photographers according to the birding code of ethics, not much can be done.... We then went on to world conflicts and discussed the events in Ukraine and what could be done. Enough of serious topics. We were birding.

Had we known at this point how the day would go, it would have been fun to see “Count the Crows” seen today. A few winters ago, a new person joined us and it was slow birding that day. So slow that the new person got us excited “Counting the Crows”. It was memorable and fun. We should have done this today. It was slow birding and the most common bird seen was the Crow.

Outside Arnprior we saw a group of Wild Turkeys! We were happy to see this bird. Last week we did not see a single one. Well, next to all the Crows and Starlings seen today, the next most common bird seen was probably the Wild Turkey. At first we stopped to take pictures of them, but later in the day we would just say Wild Turkeys and keep driving.

We stopped at the new Tim’s in Cobden for a bathroom stop. There is a gully along the parking lot and there were lots of American Goldfinch calling. It was hard to spot them but we kept looking and finally spotted three female American Goldfinches. There were also many Rock Pigeons seen today. We could have counted these also... On we went down the highway. Our Navigator today who did a very good job for most of the day, asked “is this Highway 60”,... nope, we were on Highway 17. We turned back on the 17 and with a slight course correction, we were good.

We followed the hotspots of the eBird reports of Sunday and yesterday for Snowy Owl, Golden Eagle and Northern Shrike. We did this several times and none of these birds were seen by our collecting 6 pairs of eyes. In addition, there was not much bird action at all, all day. We came out onto Highway 60 via Germanicus Road. We stopped at the open water in the Golden Lake “The Algonquins of Pikwakawagan First Nation Reserve . Ken and I got out at the bridge to see what was on the water. Jane went and filled up at the gas station. Common Goldeneye and Canada Geese were seen here. We got back into the car and drove on to Island View Drive. On Sunday it was reported that there were birds along this stretch of cottages and year round homes. We were not lucky. We were still at single digits of bird species seen. We turned back to 60 and drove east. We stopped at Columbine Lane, a short road of homes and cottages. Nothing on Wilbur Lake. It was open water in spots but no waterfowl were viewed. At the Highway 60 lookout over Wilbur Lake we pulled over and got our scopes and cameras out. There was one adult Bald Eagle and two immature Bald Eagles out on the ice sitting there watching an otter not too far away. The Otter had a water hole in the ice and was probably trying to catch fish but the otter knew better than to bring up a fish in front of the Bald Eagles. It was sort of a standoff. Down Highway 60 a bit we viewed another juvenile Bald Eagle that eagle-eye Jane, the driver spotted.

We continued on to Eganville and stopped at the tourist bureau parking lot to view the open river below. Nothing on the Bonnechere River. It was suddenly time for lunch and we found a picturesque high spot on Barr Line. We could see for miles. No birds. We continued on to Behm Line and on to one of the favourite roads, Snake River Line. This road did not disappoint. There were hundreds of Snow Buntings flying over the road and a lovely Rough legged Hawk in a tree. On Poff Road we finally saw and heard a Common Raven. There were two and likely a pair.

Bill had suggested stopping at the Osceola Dump on Woito Station Road. Here Bill saw another Bald Eagle at the dump but by the time Bill looked through his camera to take a photo, the bird had vanished. We had a Dark eyed Junco here and there were many crows and ravens flying about making a racket.

We discussed where we wanted to go next and decided to take the country roads to continue looking for birds but head in the general direction of home. By this time the sky had cleared a bit and the sun was out and the light was lovely. We spotted a Red tailed Hawk on Cobden Road. It was a very pale looking raptor and the belly band was hard to see, but when it flew, there was the black leading edge of the under wing; one of the diagnostics for this species. The photos may show the red tail.

On Foy Road .... BINGO, the harbinger of spring was seen, our first Red winged Blackbirds! We had smiles on our faces. We also saw our second woodpecker of the day, a Hairy Woodpecker.

We drove to Renfrew for Anne to get back to her car. We said our farewells to Anne and we took Burnstown, Waba and Dwyer Hill Roads to get onto Highway 7 and back to the Eagleson park and ride.

The light and setting sun in the sky were beautiful but there was simply a paucity of birds today. Maybe it was the birds’ day off and no one told us. We ended the day with 22 species seen and we worked hard to get these. Numbers are not everything. We were happy birding today and pretty satisfied with our day up the valley.