Ottawa Area Birding: Hidden Lake to Macnamara Nature Trail with JC Birding

November 22, 2022

Birding Report by Jane Burgess

Barb C. and I checked out Moody Pond, backside - just Canada Geese, no gulls. On the Moodie Drive side, we looked hard and found 4 Mallards and many gulls -- Ring-billed, Herring and Great Black-backed among the thousands of Canada Geese. The pond has started to freeze so the Canada Geese were next to the ice all bunched up together in a very long line. We checked the flock for Greater White-fronted, but none.

Next we drove down Cambrian Road W. to see European Starlings, nothing really, oh yes, high in the tree taking in the sun a Red-tailed Hawk. Those birds usually sit still when you drive by, but when you get out of the car, they fly, not this one, it just sat and moved its head looking looking for a good meal. We drove to the end of the road and saw a deer running in the field. Almost where Cambrian and Trail Road meet we saw some movement near the fence, I thought Robin, well Robin sized, with persistence we saw 3 White-crowned Sparrows - late for these birds . On Trail Road I said to Barb I think there are 5000 European Starlings, they were everywhere, she said maybe a 1000, so I guess the number was somewhere between 1000 and 5000. A couple of Dark-eyed Juncos and Tree Sparrows were also seen on Trail Road. We turned around and headed for Twin Elm Road, great find there maybe 8 Mourning Doves and Rock Pigeons on the silo.

We thought maybe we would have some luck finding a Snowy Owl on Rushmore, Akins area, nope, but we did see a lone Snow Bunting eating the grit on the road. Then maybe 10 minutes later we saw Snow Buntings resting on power lines. On one of those roads we saw a Sharp-shinned Hawk, too far for photos, but close enough to identify without the use of a scope. Eagleson is closed one way so we could not take it to Fallowfield, so we headed to Steeplehill and over to Fallowfield Village. No new birds.

We checked out Emerald Meadows Pond, a lot of it is frozen and the open part had Canada Geese only. We saw a Cooper's Hawk fly up and around a house. Hmmm, remember that place that had the Boreal Chickadee, let's go there, but I am not sure which road it is, Fernbank or Flewellyn Road, we tried Fernbank, lucky it was the correct road. The lady was friendly and said we could come onto her property - lots of Black-capped Chickadees, a pair of Northern Cardinals, Hairy Woodpecker, a couple of American Goldfinch and a Red-breasted Nuthatch.

Neither Barb or I had ever been to Hidden Lake in the Carp area. So off we drove and during that drive we got a call from Bill Bowman saying they were going to join us, where were we. While waiting for the Bowmans to arrive we had lunch and watched a man caulking his house. Nope he was a pest control guy, problem with mice getting into the homeowner's house. The Bowmans arrive and off we go with our scopes -- Canada Geese and more Canada Geese. We spent a good while looking for a Greater White-fronted Goose, but no we did not find any. But what we did find was three Canada with white spots on their neck, head or both. We walked the trail and Barb did her Barred Owl howl, but that only attracted Black-capped Chickadees, we were hoping to see an owl, but nope.

On the way to Arnprior, a Pileated Woodpecker was seen flying. Driving to MacNamara Trail at Riverview Park, we checked out the river and Barb found a large group of waterfowl in the middle of the river and a good distance away Bill says no point getting our scopes, just too far. We looked the other way and saw a boat going out in the water, maybe we could get them to ID the birds, turns out it was a police boat and I think they were not too interested in the birds. We again turned our attention to the birds, for some reason, they decided to fly, please, please fly in our direction. Well they kind of did, close enough to ID them as Common Goldeneye.

Barb suggested we go to the Macnamara trail and see what was coming into the feeder. We walk in and then we come to a decision, to go left or straight ahead. We opted for the left and took the Nopiming Loop. Apparently it 'provides an enhanced nature experience and improved observation of the wetland by Goodwin Bay' and its 1.5 K. The regular trail is 4 K. So we found out we made the wrong decision, we should have gone straight ahead, this information was provided by a local who was walking his dogs (no dogs allowed on this trail). Oh well we got our steps in for sure, part of the trail particularly the metal bridge was slippery. Only birds on the loop we saw were American Robins. When we finally found the bird feeder we saw Chickadees and one White-breasted Nuthatch.

Time to call it a day, first Antrim Truckstop, for some goodies. Barb and I made a stop at Costco before dropping me off. Home around 5:30.

The weather was bearable, cool but no wind. Thanks Sami for editing my photos.