Ottawa Area Birding: January 2023

Tuesday, January 31, 2023

Male Snowy Owl on Eagleson Road

January 31, 2023

We picked up some takeout and drove to Peter's house in Richmond to look at his feeders from the dead end while having our lunch. All we saw were chickadees, a downy and lots of goldfinches. Photos were not possible because of the branches.

So we headed north on Eagleson, and Barbara spotted a distant Snowy on a pole in the field near Brownlee.

There was nothing else, so we headed to the dump and found a Red-tailed Hawk which flew across the road. Note that all photos are Barbara', as Bill camera was acting up.

Not many birds, but the Snowy Owl was a delight!

Monday, January 30, 2023

Lac Leamy, Qc - Quest for a Boreal Owl

January 30, 2023

We were anxious to try for the Boreal Owl at Lac Leamy. We did not know the exact location, but were confident that we would see a group of birders on it. Well, that turned out to be a fallacy.

We started along the main trail heading east and came to the first COO (Club des Ornithologues de l'Outaouais) feeder.

A trail led into the woods, so we followed it for a few minutes, then gave up and came back. Shortly afterwards, a Northern Shrike flew beside Bill then landed briefly in a nearby tree. It was right over Barbara's head, but she could not get clear to see it.

We carried on to the next COO feeder, and Bill went a short distance down the trail into the woods, then returned without seeing anything. Bill suggested that they split up, with Bill staying on this trail and Barbara returning to the one at the first feeder. The problem was that there were too many junctions off these trails, and we had no idea which to take. So Bill decided to return. Meanwhile, Barbara ran into a very helpful birder by the name of Maurice Thibaudeau. He showed her a photo of the Boreal Owl on his phone that he had taken on a previous trip.

He offered to show us the trail and we gratefully accepted. So off we went down the same trail that Bill had just returned on, but this time we went much further. Suddenly, Maurice stopped and pointed out a Barred Owl perched high in a tree.

We carried on at times in deep snow. We saw a few deer and a Hairy Woodpecker, but no Boreal Owl. We met a few other people that Maurice knew, but none of them had seen the Boreal Owl.

We returned via the same trail except we took a side trail at the end that came out at the first feeder. Maurice told us that a Hermit Thrush was seen up towards the Casino. So after thanking him for leading us, we tried for it, but had no luck.

We were dog tired and had stayed much longer than we had planned. A tiring but rewarding day.

Saturday, January 28, 2023

Gadwall

January 28, 2023

This was our second try for the Gadwall on Iber pond. Barbara got a poor photo the first time, but these were much better.

It took us a while to spot it among the 1000s of Mallards, but we did locate it. But once you put the bins down, it just vanished in the crowd again.

Another birder showed up - Mark Gawn. We traded tales. We told him about our Boreal Chickadee and he said that the Boreal Owl in Gatineau had been seen again today. He also told us that a few Great Gray Owls were about, including one on March Valley Road. So, before going home, we went over there for a look. But no luck. We did see a Red-tailed Hawk that flew right across in front of the car.

We were glad to see the Gadwall today.

Friday, January 27, 2023

Hilda

January 27, 2023

While Bill & Grant went for a ski, Barbara spent her time at Hilda and Shirley's Bay. She got some good shots of American Tree Sparrows and others. She met another birder whose Jewish family had emigrated from the Ukraine when it was part of USSR.

Tuesday, January 24, 2023

Amherst Island with JC Birding

January 24, 2023

Birding Report by Barbara Chouinard

Bill Bowman (no Barbara this time – we missed you!), Jane and Barbc set out from Barrhaven at 7 am. It was still pretty dark and the temperature was -3 then but the day’s temperature was pretty reasonable at 0 degrees. Once we got to the ferry landing, there was a brisk wind for the rest of the day. If felt pretty chilly each time we stepped out of Bill’s SUV.

On the road

As we drove out on Fallowfield, we looked for the Barrhaven Wild Turkeys and we spotted them in the dim light still roosting in the trees in the area we usually see them. Bill was happy to see them, but no photos were taken: too dark.

The highway drive was really bereft of birds except for American Crows. Our first Red tailed Hawk was seen from highway 401 at 8:45 am. We had several snow showers but these did not last long and then it was clear. We made it to the ferry for the 9:30 am sailing. We were amazed to see that Lake Ontario is entirely free of ice. So there was no hope of seeing Snowy Owls on the ice and ducks that stuck around because of the open water created by the ferry crossings. We saw a Herring Gull, Common Goldeneye, Mallards and Common Mergansers. It was a rough crossing with three loaded dump trucks, one had a tandem trailer. They were full of rocks and gravel. We thought there must be something going on there on Amherst Island. Jane went out to take a look from the moving ferry and it was difficult to walk on this up and down crossing. We could see the dump trucks beside us lift up and shudder from the rough water conditions.

On the Island (population 326 and island has 27 wind turbines)

Once we arrived at Stella landing, we visited the NEW bathrooms in the new ferry office building. There is a glassed-in waiting room for foot passengers. This would be a lovely place to have lunch in a warm spot when we come next time and have more than one car. We saw birds in the water. We fetched our scopes and set them up by the building to shelter from the steady lake wind. There were Trumpeter Swans and Mute Swans in the water. We saw an adult Bald Eagle and a juvenile Bald Eagle flying around in the distance.

We started down Front Road and inspected the numerous bird feeders at the homes on the road. We saw a Downy Woodpecker, Black capped Chickadees and a Mourning Dove. Most of the feeders did not have any birds. We checked out the fields and continued on looking for Snowy Owls and raptors. We saw a Northern Harrier and a Rough legged Hawk, along with another Red tailed Hawk flying around. The KFN lands at the end of Front were quiet. We did not see any new duck species on the water here. The Kingston Field Naturalists have put up 8 huge purple martin houses here. We followed the road and made the turn where it becomes Outer South Shore Road. Here we viewed about 200 Snow Buntings and about 500 Canada Geese flying and landing in a field. We found the dump trucks with the rocks along this road and later along another road. The crews were building a rock wall and filling in a part of the collapsed side of the road. We turned down the no exit road and went to the very end. We always go down this road as last time there was a Snowy Owl up close to the road and we took many photos of the bird. Today there was nothing around. We came back to Front Road and saw an American Kestrel hunting. The male Kestrel was hovering over something, but did not catch anything. Hopefully it will catch lunch soon. We stopped at the turn-around at the water and had our lunch. Wow, pretty quiet. Here we noticed that the water was now calm. We watched the hawks hunting.

After lunch we drove the farm field roads. We saw one huge group of European Starlings along Front Road. We checked this group for possible “friends” like Brown headed Cowbird or Rusty Blackbirds but we did not see anyone different. We drove down another shore road that the work crews were fixing with rocks and gravel. It was really muddy so we turned around.

After 3 pm we drove down along Front Road again for the Short eared Owls. There were some cars already parked but no one was out of their cars. We continued on and then came back on Front Road. There were photographers out and we counted about 8 Short eared Owls flying about out pretty far in the field. We met a photographer and nature guide who has lived on the island for 20 years, Fred Lemire. He told us that the Short-eared Owls were doing well. We asked about Owl Woods. We had noticed that there were concrete barriers at both ends of the road into Owl Woods. We did not go down to Owl Woods today. Fred said that Owl Woods were open but one can no longer drive down. Too many people got their vehicles stuck and the locals had to go and get them out. Now, one has to walk in. When asked about what was currently in Owl Woods, Fred said that there were Northern Saw-whet Owls and a Barred Owl there. We asked about Snowy Owls, Fred said that they were not here in numbers so far this year with only one reported by the Fire Department.

By this time, the 4 pm ferry had sailed, we went down Stella 40 Foot Road, just in case the Snowy Owl could be flying about. Sunset was coming. Nope. But, we did see two beautiful healthy looking foxes out in the farm field. Photos were taken. From here we went to line up at the ferry and use the brand new facilities. We looked at the ponies in the farmyard nearby and they had grown their thick “winter coats” of woolly hair. No coat blankets necessary for these ponies.

We got on the ferry to head home and so did the now empty three dump trucks and the work crews. The crossing was smooth and it was dark by the time we disembarked from the ferry. The drive home was like a summer drive except for a short snow shower. There were no snow banks along the 401. We arrived back in Barrhaven shortly after 7 pm. I was home downtown by 7:45 pm. Thank you to Bill for driving today. It was an excellent birding day.

Birds Seen – 26 species

Wild Turkey

American Crow

Common Raven

Red tailed Hawk

Blue Jay

Northern Cardinal

Rough legged Hawk (2 forms, dark and light)

Northern Harrier

Black capped Chickadee

Canada Goose

Trumpeter Swan

Mute Swan

Common Merganser

Mallard

Bufflehead

Common Goldeneye

Bald Eagle

American Tree Sparrow

Downy Woodpecker

American Kestrel

Mourning Dove

Rock Pigeon

Snow Buntings

Herring Gull

Short-eared Owl

American Kestrel

Thursday, January 19, 2023

Québec Birding - East & West, with JC Birding

January 19, 2023

Birding Report by Barb Chouinard

We met up at the parking lot at the intersection of the Champlain Bridge and the Ottawa River Parkway (not sure what it will be called as the NCC are to rename it after taking away the Sir John A MacDonald Parkway name) at 8 am.

Jane was early bird and she checked for ducks on the river before most of arrived. There was nothing on the water at that time. We carpooled into two vehicles: Bill and Barbara and Eleanor and Barbc in one. Jane, Ken and Guy in the other. We picked up Guy in Gatineau on our way East first. It was an overcast day with little wind in the morning and a steady temperature of 0 to -2. The wind picked up as the day went as there was a snow storm forecast for the evening. We were lucky that the roads were in decent condition and surprisingly, the rural roads were in amazing condition. Better than downtown Ottawa where my street has yet to see a snowplough come down the road way. Really weird! The sidewalks have been ploughed well, so I really should not complain. Jane’s computer has been acting up so this is Barbc writing the day’s birding report.

We picked up Guy at his home in Gatineau and we were off. Since they were all together in person in one vehicle, Jane, Ken and Guy used this opportunity to discuss their Colombia trip logistics.

But first we had to sort out the day’s travel. There was some confusion on whether we should be driving to get on the 50 or the 5. We wanted to go east first. The 50 or 5 confusion was cleared up and we were going the intended direction. There were few birds around aside from crows. A Red-tailed Hawk was seen in a bare tree along the 50. On the way back, it was seen again, this time on the opposite side of the 50 in the same general area.

Our first stop in Quebec was the Gatineau Executive Airport as a Northern Shrike had been reported there. We slowly drove down the airport roads but no luck with the Shrike. We determined that short of getting on the runway and driving there, one could not drive around the airport. We continued on the 50 to the 315 to Mayo, Quebec, Papineau Regional County, Municipality and the rural roads around Lac La Blanche. On Chemin Riviére Blanche we found a gaggle of Wild Turkeys. Bill got lots of Wild Turkey sightings today and maybe a couple of photos of the gaggle. We also viewed a friendly White tailed Deer up close. It looked like it had food there on the property. Down the 315, there was also an unfortunate deer lying along the road that was long dead. It had been predated by animals and there were no birds around that one. Once in Mayo there was another unfortunately dead deer along the roadside that birds were feasting on.

We traveled the rural roads around the La Blanche River. In the overcast light, the water looked ink- black and that made for a beautiful contrast to the snow on the ground and on the coniferous trees. We traveled down Chemin de la Riviére Blanche to Chemin Burns, to Smallian Road and onto Chemin Miller which again brought us back to Chemin de la Riviére Blanche. We called this a “square” and it is a lovely area to drive through with several good feeders around and many full time residents. A beautiful drive on a winter day. Now to the birds. We saw a “party” of Blue Jays. Lots and lots of them near some feeders. Maybe the Blue Jays figured they owned the particular feeders as there was a definite Blue Jay concentration here.

On the last birding trip to this area, which I did not go on, there was a place called the “Chicken Farm” and Jane who grew up on a chicken farm and the gent at 237 Burns (Chicken Farm) talked up a chicken storm last time. We identified the right house and stopped and looked at the feeders which were active with lots of Chickadees, both Nuthatches and a Hairy Woodpecker. There was one Chickadee that came out on the snow... it looked darker and the head looked brown......a Boreal Chickadee!!! We all took photos. We were thrilled to see the Boreal Chickadee. There were smiles on each of our faces. Up to that point we had only seen about 12 different bird species so it was a slow day so far. Jane knocked on the door to tell the gent that he had a Boreal Chickadee at his feeders but no one was home.

Seeing this bird raised our hopes for maybe a Boreal Owl, Barred Owl or a Golden Eagle (we are reasonable birders). We completed this “square” route and ended up on Chemin de la Riviére Blanche again and agreed to meet-up at the church at Mayo”. Our vehicle continued to the meet-up spot as there was that dead deer at the bottom of this hill before the church with a “rave” of Common Raven and a “murder” of crows, all predating the deer’s carcass. We waited for Jane’s car. On the way, they had spotted a Bald Eagle and had stopped to look at it. It flew away. There was No Service on our phones. We were in the boonies, so they could not let us know.

By this time, it was near lunchtime and we decided we would travel to La Réserve écologique de la Forêt-la-Blanche to use the facilities (outdoor johns) and see if there was a place inside to eat lunch in a warm spot. Barbara went to the park office to get this info. It turned out that it was $7 per person to visit the reserve and we decided that it was kind of expensive to sit and eat our lunch. We used the drafty facilities and we were very relieved for that.

At this point we were done with the east end and decided that since we still had a couple of hours of good daylight, we would drive west to Masham and the Eardley Escarpment to try for finches. We still had hopes for a Golden Eagle. First we would try for a Snowy Owl. We got off at the 50 at Montée Paiement, Gatineau exit as this bird had been reported north of the highway. No luck. We went down another road to get eventually back on the highway and at Montée Paiement and Chemin Des Terres by a barn ruin, we saw a raptor and it was a Rough legged Hawk. We saw it take off and fly away. It was a beautiful bird that most of us had not yet seen this winter. A Rough legged Hawk is a high Arctic breeder with feathered legs, small feet and bill. They migrate south to avoid the Arctic winters. We were all happy to see it.

We arrived in the Masham area with about an hour of good light left. We traveled through Chemin Eardley Masham road. We made several stops but it was deadly quiet. No birds at all. Once we came down the escarpment we stopped along the road and saw a juvenile Bald Eagle flying high in the distance. The sun was trying to peek through the clouds so it lightened up and bought us some more daylight time. We turned left onto Route 148 homeward. We were not done yet… we turned left onto Therrien to get closer to the escarpment. The wind was gusty and cold. It felt like the snow was coming soon. We did not see anything fly here but the view itself is stunning at this spot.

Back on the 148 homeward, Ken spotted a Northern Shrike on a small tree at Chemin Maple. Bill made a u-turn on the 148 and we turned on to Maple and saw the bird fly on to another small tree nearby. We got out and had good views of the bird. Suddenly a school bus appeared and turned onto Maple, we had to move off a bit to let the bus through. Birders are very accommodating. Rush hour was starting and it was a bit of a wait to have to make the left turn back onto the 148.

Once in Aylmer, we made a quick detour to go around Grimes – a circle road. A Three-toed Woodpecker had been reported here but we did not see it. In the pond along the roadway there was open water and on it a “sword” of Mallard (group of floating Mallards – once they are flying they are a flock).

There was still a bit of daylight and we turned at Vanier and drove to the end of this road and the Ottawa River. There was no activity at the feeder there, but on the water there were several Common Goldeneye on the water. We drove to the second feeder and found our first Northern Cardinals for the day! We crossed onto the bridge and returned to our parked vehicles. Not a lot of birds today: total species count is 20. But we did get some very nice birds. I arrived home in the dark. A good birding day!!