Ottawa Area Birding: Snow Geese at St. Isidore, Alfred Lagoons & Pine Grove with JC Birding

November 3, 2021

Birding Report by Jane Burgess

We met at Elmvale Shopping Centre at 8:00, chatted a bit about where we would go and we decided to see Snow Geese first. We (Barb C., Louise, Bill and I ) carpooled with Bill driving. We drove to Lafleche Dump and well we got to see Ring-billed Gulls. Okay there must be some Snow Geese at the Moose Creek Lagoon, on the way, what did we see fly in front of the vehicle and land on the tree beside the road -- Ruffed Grouse. Wow, what a good find. We drove to the lagoons and there was nothing to see, driving roads around the lagoon, we saw zip. Driving through Moose Creek, we remembered going there eons ago to see the Hawk Owl. Memories..

Driving past the field beside the Lafleche dump and we saw two small flocks of Snow Geese. Over the 417 and we started looking, nothing in the fields - Bill drove to St Isidore and turned on #3 (Ste Rose), turned on Bourgon Road to the St Isidore Sewage Lagoons. We were so lucky, the Snow Geese were flying in, in hundreds, such a beautiful sight to behold. We estimated there must have been about 5000. We all just love seeing Snow Geese in the sky then landing in the water. It was very clear No Trespassing and everyone agreed we should not do it. Temptation got the better of me, I said well I am going in and under the barricade I went. Such a bad person and I definitely influenced the others because they followed suit. But I just had to see the Snow Geese on the water. The lagoon on the left had so many Snow Geese and a few Canadas. I was so happy seeing them. We did not stay long, maybe 10 minutes maximum. Right at the end of the road there is a hobby farm with Domesticated Muscovy Ducks, Guinea Fowl, Red Leghorns and a donkey. I took a photo of a Muscovy Duck sleeping. Driving back on Bourgon Road we saw another huge flock of Snow Geese. Seems we all need to get a dose of Snow Geese every fall and spring.

After a short discussion, we decided that we should go to Alfred Lagoons. Lots of ducks among the Canada Geese -- Mallard, Ring-necked Duck, Green and Blue-winged Teals, American Black, Pintail, Bufflehead and Northern Shovellers. Then we had a flock of Snow Bunting fly by.

We had our picnic lunch at the viewing stand - imagine November 3 and the sun is shining and the weather is downright balmy. It was quite enjoyable. And we had a flock of Snow Buntings fly overhead, who knows if it was the original flock, but it was so good seeing them. Way high up, we heard American Goldfinch, I think we might have seen one flying a bit lower.

Driving through Alfred, we spoke about the 'bad boys school' that was there back in the day. I thought it was run by the province, no, said Bill. The official name of the school was St. Joseph's Training School and it was considered a Catholic reform institution for boys that operated from the 1940s to the 1970s. About 300 boys were housed there. In the early 1990, 230 of the school's former wards won a total of about 7.5$ million in compensation from the province, the Archdiocese of Ottawa and the Christian Brothers who ran St Joseph's 9 (abuse). When it was shut down it became part of the Ontario Agriculture College. La Cite now operates a Francophone agricultural program there.

Now back to get the cars and drive over to Albion Road to Pine Grove Trail (south side). In the past few days there have been consistent reports of Black-back Woodpeckers and Three-toed Woodpecker. It was easy to find the place, lots of cars. Both Bill and Barb had been there looking for the birds. Bill had seen the Three-toed and Barb had not been so lucky. First bird seen on the trail was a Black-capped Chickadee, then Evening Grosbeaks. Bill had indicated when he had been there, there had been at least 100, not that many today, but lots of Grosbeaks. We walked the trail and a Pileated Woodpecker made a brief appearance as did the Hairy Woodpecker. Just above the trail, we saw what we thought was a Sharp-shinned Hawk. Oh we were soo sooo wrong, when Bill was editing his photographs the "Sharp-shinned Hawk' miraculously turned into a Northern Goshawk, what a really really good bird. That beauty of taking photos and the surprises we get. We stayed around for at least an hour and the Black-backed Woodpecker flew in - the female not the male, but who cares we saw the Black-backed Woodpecker. We spoke to two ladies - Karine Scott and Arlene Harrold - and they said yesterday the Three-toed made an appearance at 3:15, we stayed until 3:30, but no luck the Three-toed. An Eagle flew by, very high in the sky, someone had taken a photo and it was definitely an eagle head. Golden or Bald. The head to tail ratio was all wrong for a Golden Eagle, so the consensus was juvenile Bald Eagle.

We said our goodbyes, well actually Louise left about 1 1/2 hours before we did and unfortunately for her did not see the Bald Eagle or the Black-backed Woodpecker. Home by 4:15.

Another good day of birding, made better by the absolutely gorgeous weather.