Ottawa Area Birding: Winchester and St Lawrence River with JC BIrding

March 29, 2023

Birding Report by Jane Burgess

While driving to Elmvale Acres shopping centre, there was thick fog, oh no how long will this last. Barbara, Bill, Ken and I met up at 7:30 and were heading down Bank street 10 minutes later. I noticed Ken had no camera mmm wonder why. He said he has 15,000 or so photos and just under 200 videos to edit and just under 200 videos hence no photos today, just too much work ahead.

On the way to Winchester we saw a Pileated Woodpecker fly by. Barbara noted the fog had dissipated. We missed the road going to the Wincester lagoons, so we drove into town and headed north. Turned down a dead end street facing a huge field of Snow Geese, this is what we wanted to see. So many Snow Geese with a few Canada Geese mixed in the flock. We saw our first Song Sparrow (saw a good number during the day), lots of American Robins, a single American Tree Sparrow, Northern Cardinal, Blue Jay, Black-caped Chickadees, a single Dark-eyed Junco, heard and saw Red-winged Blackbirds (the males are here in droves). We decided we should check out the lagoons, however they are still frozen hence no geese.

At the Morrisburg dock, Ring-billed Gulls and a Double-crested Cormorant. The stop at Tim Horton got us a Merlin and Turkey Vulture. We drove up the Upper Canada Village Parkway and saw our first Killdeer. Barbara saw an Eastern Phoebe and Ken saw a White-breated Nuthatch.

The road to Ault Island where there is water on both sides was still frozen, turning west on the island we saw Hooded Mergansers on the St Lawrence. We turned around and a Pileated Woodpecker or a Northern Flicker flew by. We did not see where it landed, but we all heard it. So I played the songs of both and we were in total agreement, it was the first song I played -- Northern Flicker. I saw the bird's west end as the bird flew east.

While driving on highway #2, Ken spotted a Great Blue Heron, we turned around so we all could see it. We all saw it, but the bird did not like us looking at him so off it flew. Ken insisted we go into Farren Park, he said John Ruddy always gets good birds there. The road was not good, lots of snow, we proceeded slowly, but Bill thought it better we not go any further, so he backed out. Quite challenging because the road had lots of curves and it's hard to see where the road is given the snow. But he was up to the challenge. At the end of the road who should we see was, John Ruddy sitting in his car very focused on something.

Next stop was Ingleside. We parked the car and headed to the water, we noticed someone with a bicycle, of course there is a bike path and it was kind of cleared of snow. As we approached the bike path the cyclist left. There we saw many many thousands of Canada Geese with Bufflehead, Common and Hooded Mergansers. The Hooded Mergansers looked so small when they were beside the Canada Geese. We walked westward and noticed two Snow Geese in with the Canada Geese. Far off in the distance on the US side we see a white 'thing' in the trees, we will have to check that out with the scope once we get back to the cars. Turning around and walking eastward now we see more duckies, but really can't make out what they are. The cyclist returned and we showed her a Snow Goose, to our surprise, her response was there are many more in Winchester. Time to go back for the scope. The duckies turned out to be Ring-necked Ducks. Ken spotted something white in a tree again on the American side. With the scope it is easily identified as Bald Eagle. We join Bill and Barbara in the vehicle and have our lunch.

We drive to the east end of the Long Sault Parkway to the bridge as it is barricaded to prevent anyone from going further. Again lots of Canada Geese, but we also see 2 Gadwalls, 4 Black Ducks, a couple of Wood Ducks, American Wigeon and 1 Northern Pintail - such an elegant bird. Then we drive to the east end of the Parkway, guess who we see there, John Ruddy with 2 clients. We saw two Ring-billed Gulls chasing a Herring Gull, a single Green-winged Teal and two Tree Swallows and of course thousands of Canada Geese. There were lots of Northern Pintails. At one point a falcon flew by, but we did not get a good enough bead on it for identification. It was very cold scoping the birds, in fact I could not face west, the wind kept blowing off my hood and the scope shook too much and it was just too darn cold.

Where to next, lets try Lancaster via Cornwall. The next stop was the Saunders Hydro Dam Visitors Centre. Bill said to me, I have never seen a bird here,l we saw 2 Double-crested Cormorants. Bill, Barbara and Ken had never been inside the Visitors Centre so we went inside, even if the sign on the door said closed. A man told us the facility was closed but he would check with the people if we could come in for a brief visit. The answer was yes, then he talked to us about the history of the St Lawrence River, the lost villages etc etc. After that we checked out the exhibits. I think we were there for about 45 minutes.

Back to birding, we took the 401 to Lancaster to find there was absolutely nothing on the water. It was time to head home via a circuitous route. On one of the roads Bill and I saw a single Horned Lark and on Concession #2 we had a Kestrel on the hydro line and of course it did the Kestrel thing -- fly to another spot on the wire, then as we approach fly again. Say we have not seen any turkeys, within minutes we saw a far off flock of them.

Should we check out St Isidore lagoon.. Driving down one of the roads, both Barbara and I see a lone small duck the size of maybe a Pied-billed Grebe. We tell Bill and he turns around, driving past there was no duckie, we really did see it, maybe it flew. Bill drives up and bit and turns around, there is a fast moving vehicle behind him so he pulls over. Where did that bird go, Bill says I see them - two Hooded Mergansers, they are divers so now we know where they were. We went to the St Isidore lagoon, only birds we saw there was a single Wild Turkey and some domestic fowl at the farm just as we approached the lagoon. Driving down St Rose, I said it's weird we have not seen any Snow Buntings, then well above the car, I see a medium sized flock of them.

We all checked out the 401 roadside for Red-tailed hawks, but no we did not see any,

For March 29, we had a really good sized list -- 45. Well after Bill checked the photos, it seems that there was a Redhead in the water at Long Sault, so not 45 but 46. Darn good for March 29.