Ottawa Area Birding: 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!!