Ottawa Area Birding: Mud Lake and Andrew Haydon Park with JC Birding

August 25, 2022

Birding Report by Jane Burgess

We met at Mud Lake at 7:30, we had some new faces join us, whom we have not seen in a while - Louise S, Sami and Lynne Z. Ken arrived and I said to him I am a little surprised you are here, Why he asks. I thought you would be checking out the Red Knot at Petrie Island, Turns out he had not seen the post. Bill and Barbara arrive but I don't see Barbara, I ask where is Barbara?, oh she went to see if the Peregrine Falcon was on the Quebec side that we saw yesterday. When we saw her she told us there was no Peregrine Falcon. On Mud Lake we saw lots of Wood Ducks and Mallards. We decided to check out the river first - Great Blue Heron on the island and more Mallards. Then west on the river, we saw a single Common Merganser, a couple of Spotless Spotted Sandpipers and Canada Geese.

Bill and Barbara had been to Mud Lake the day before and their advice was to go on the ridge. Off we go. Lots of warblers, Yellow-rumps, Cape Mays, then a Black & White and it continued. Confusing fall warblers. We end up doing two complete passes on the ridge. Along with the warblers we saw Savannah Sparrow, some with yellow lores and some without. At one point some Wild Turkeys came along, a particularly prolific pair -- 14 juveniles in tow. On the pass going eastward Louise and I saw first one Merlin and then another, one kept flying to the Quebec side while the other turned and came back. When Ken caught up to us, we told him about the hawks, of course he said did you get any flight photos. Yeah sure, I was too busy watching the bird. Oh, oh, Ken over there on the dead tree, he got some shots of the Merlin along with other people, apparently I wasn't very quiet when I told Ken and so all the people on the ridge saw it. Later Bill told us Cooper's Hawks nest in the area. I overheard someone say 3 stripes on the tail mean ... 5 stripes mean... Talking with Bill and Ken they were a bit skeptical about using that rule for ID. I went home and checked it out, Bill and Ken were 100% correct. don't use that rule.

Today I was Sami's pointer, "Sami over there, Sami come here, Sami...... " I think I drove him to exasperation with Sami, Sami, Sami. Later when I called him he said he took over a 1000 photos. When he had arrived he said he wanted different birds than he had been seeing at Fletcher Garden and around his place. I think he got many many different species. Ken, Barb C, Bill and Barbara and I wanted to see Sami and Lynne so we planned the day so it suited them. We were all quite satisfied with the birds we saw, I just wished I could identify them. I think there must be 100 different variations (maybe a slight exaggeration) of Yellow-rumps and really the only way I can ID them as Yellow rumps, is when they turn and show me their rumps. No chestnut sides on a chestnut sided and really with imagination you can see Bay on the Bay-breasted, but then there is absolutely no hint of bay on others. Cape May, American Redstart, Black & Whites are much easier. But today and every day in the fall, with warblers is a day to learn and be frustrated. Today we saw a juvenile Common Grackle, which looks like a Grackle but does not have the yellow eye, the American Robin with spots on its breast (that is an easy one) and a House Finch that was all brown with a slight wash of red, but clearly a finch bill. Frustration can come from not knowing what the bird species is and also not being able to get a decent bead on the bird before it flies away. All that said, I like going in the fall and trying to ID the birds, challenging but someday I will know them. Maybe when we go back on Tuesday I will be a little better at IDing the birds than I was on this outing.

We eventually get down to the Cassels Road where one crosses over to the path on the other side. There was a group of good birders there who had just arrived, they said they had seen a bunch of birds so we went and checked out the trees. We stuck around the area for at least an hour. At one point Louise says she is going back to the car to sit a bit and to get some food. Not to worry we will move slowly, you won't have trouble finding us. Bill tells me there was Black-throated Green, it flew. We watched and watched, the best bird clearly was a Yellow-throated Vireo, we all got good views. It had been seen in this area for several days. About 30 minutes later the good birders returned and asked if we saw the Yellow-throated Vireo, we all said yes. Why didn't you tell us? Firstly we don't have their phone numbers and we had no idea where they were. Truly it did not even cross our minds to tell anyone outside the immediate area. They asked questions and wanted to see photos, frankly scarlet if my word isn't good, well I just walked away. Ken 'could not find the photos' I went back to our group and said I was going into the woods, they followed. When Louise returned, I think we might have moved to the trail head. Well we all decided at various times we should go back to the car for some kind of sustenance. Little side note the good birders did see the Yellow-throated Vireo about 30 minutes after they arrived.

At this point Lynne has brought the car up, and Sami gets in. They are headed home or at least that is what we thought.

We took the path to the right and it was very quiet so we took the path to the main path. We heard a chip sound and we saw a lady looking at a bird, she said she thought it was a Swainson's Thrush. I saw a bird and it was a flycatcher, no wrong bird. Ken and I saw the thrush fly away. Then a lady came out of the woods and said her husband had seen it clearly, yes, Swainson's. Ken took the spot where the husband was and I took the spot where the first lady was, all we did was hear the bird, never saw it. But the chip sound was exactly the same as Sibleys and when recorded Merlin came back and said Swainson's Thrush. Louise leaves around this time. My phone rings, "hello" says Sami, "I am at Andrew Hayden park and there are lots of Semipalmated Plovers", thanks we will go there next. Guess they did not go straight home.

Exiting the woods, we decided to do another pass of the ridge. We added Parula and Blackburnian Warbler to the warbler list. Time to go to the cars and have a bite to eat. While the others ate I started to write up the species list. I was in between Ken and Bill's vehicles when Ken said, "Jane come around and sit in my car, I want to speak to you." It reminded me of the days when I said something similar to my children and they were in 'big trouble'. He wanted more details of the Columbia trip that is being planned for early in 2023. The absolute best part of the conversation was when Ken said "I am in". If anyone is interested in joining us on the Columbian trip, please contact me for details.

We drove to Andrew Haydon Park to see the Semipalmated Plovers. Couple of them were there along with Semipalmated Sandpipers. A lone Great Egret, Great Blue Heron, Black Duck, four Blue-winged Teal and maybe a Pectoral Sandpiper, I have to wait until all the photos are reviewed to know for sure. After the review of the photos no Pectoral Sandpiper but photos showed Least Sandpipers. Bill and Barbara said their goodbyes and Ken asked about a roommate for the Columbia trip. I would make enquiries for him. Then he said he was not going back to Mud Lake but would head to Petrie Island for the Red Knot that he got. An explanation of how species get on the list, we count birds seen once the group is together and any birds seen on our way to our homes.