Ottawa Area Birding: Birding the St Lawrence and area with JC Birding

April 5, 2022

Report by Barbara Chouinard

It was a cool start to the day, but the sun was out and soon we were enjoying a perfect birding day. The winds were mostly calm and the skies were blue. Bill, Ken and Barb (Chouinard) carpooled in Barb’s Jetta to head down the 416 highway to the St Lawrence. This time we got off the 401 Westbound at Prescott. We were talking so much we missed the East 401 turnoff that leads to Johnstown. So that set the pace for the day’s birding: relaxed and with lots of time to spare. We were in no rush.

One advantage of birding the Lawrence is that navigation is easy. Simply pull into every road that leads to the water. This is what we did most of the day. We looked around Prescott and at Johnstown we set up our scopes and looked out over the water. There was little ice or icebergs in the water and generally any signs of winter were mostly gone. There may have been some ice along the shores in some places but the river was wide open. So waterfowl was not close to shore. We saw a Great-Laker (ship) motor down the river so the St Lawrence is open for business.

We saw Bufflehead, Common Mergansers, Ringed neck Ducks and Lesser Scaup in small groups all along our stops. In addition, there were many gulls flying or sitting about. Ring billed Gull, Herring and a Lesser Black Backed Gull among the many gulls at Guindon Park in Cornwall.

We drove down North Channel Road, Gallop Channel Road, Saver Road. Each yielded some waterfowl. You may ask how many SNOW GEESE did we see today? Well, we drove down Saver Road to Grisdale BLVD, to the very end. There were some of the regular waterfowl we were seeing along in the bays. We reminisced about the magical flyover of the Snow Geese a couple of years ago on Grisdale. It was before the pandemic and we had many Snow Geese flush in the bay and fly low over us. We will never forget that moment. Bill looks into the bay and there is now ONE Snow Goose! A singleton that flew in or emerged from somewhere to give us a photo op. We were so happy to see the single Snow Goose. One is better than none. That is the only Snow Goose we saw for the day!

At Morrisburg, we made the stop to look over the river. Young fellers nearby asked Barb how close could I see with my scope. “pretty good, do you want to take a look?”. “No” They went on to ask if there are seals in the St Lawrence as they saw one last year. Maybe it was an Otter? Nope it was a seal. Okay. Across the river on the opposite shore there is now a sizeable heronry of over a dozen Great Blue Herons. There also was one Double crested Cormorant in the group.

On the causeway leading to Ault Island we viewed a largely still frozen bay. The edges along some of the shores were opening up and there were also open channels of water. A sole Mute Swan was in the bay. They only swan we viewed that day. We had lunch on the east dead- end of the road. The road has been extended as it looks that there will be lots for sale this summer. The house where we usually get birds had only empty feeders. Maybe the people living there were away. At the west dead-end of the road on Ault we saw a large dark raptor that turned out to be a juvenile Bald Eagle, also the only one we saw that day. Ken took photos of the flying eagle.

We found that the Long Sault Parkway is still closed. At the east end of the parkway entrance we went as far as we could go and stopped and took out our scopes. There were groups of waterfowl in the water along with many gulls. Ken was at the other end of the bridge and saw an American Wigeon. We stopped to chat with a local photographer from Morrisburg who was riding an e-bike with a little trailer attached that held all his camera gear. The gent told us he used to carry it all on his back but the trailer made it so much easier. He was allowed on the parkway on his bike and powered away from us after saying goodbye.

We went on to Guindon Park in Cornwall and had the time to ID a Lesser Black backed Gull among the large group of Herring and Ring billed Gulls. We thought we should go down to the Cornwall Hydro Power Dam for a look and a pit stop but the Visitor Center is closed and the sign said it would reopen in May 2022. We did take a look over the water and saw some Double crested Cormorants flyby.

It was 4:30 pm and we decided to take mostly county roads homeward, with some stops along the way. We hoped to see birds on the quieter side roads. We stopped at the Moose Creek Lagoons but it was very quiet. Then a stop at the Lafleche Dump off the 138. It was also quiet. We hopped onto the 417 to the Calypso Road exit. We went through the villages of Russell, Metcalfe and Greeley. There were few birds about. Along the whole way we were looking into the farm fields for Wild Turkeys or Sandhill Cranes and none were seen.

Bill phoned Barbara to tell her we were almost back at the park and ride on William McEwen Drive. Ken and I also let Barbara know that we missed her today, and she is needed to take the scenery photos. Bill tried to take some photos using Barbara’s camera but we heard him grumbling to himself as he did not exactly know her camera well enough.

We were done at 6: 20 pm and it was a good St Lawrence birding day for us. I think each of us slept well last night.

Barb Chouinard.