May 9, 2023
Birding Report by Jane Burgess
Barb and I met up a little bit
earlier than the scheduled time, we left the Kanata Park and Ride at
6:20. Truth be told, on Monday night I wondered what the heck was wrong
with my brain with a meet up time of 6:30 a.m., but I was awake at
5:00, so it wasn't so bad!! First stop was Holland Marsh. Last week it
was a majorly big pond and this week, it was back to being a swamp. We
got out and with our binoculars surveyed the area, all we saw was
Lesser Yellowlegs, what a disappointment, none of the reported birds.
Okay Barb, I am taking out my scope, I checked it out thoroughly and
said what is this bird Barb -- Red-necked Phalarope, great that this
was THE bird I wanted to see. Barb had been at Holland Marsh on Sunday,
so I asked where had the Wilson Snipe been when you saw them, over
there near the sign in the grass. I scoped that area, but no Snipe, okay
they can disappear so easily I will scope it again and again. Nope.
So I then moved my attention to the swamp. Yes, I have one and
its preaning, Great those are the birds I wanted. Apparently there was a
Least Sandpiper there as well on Sunday, but I did not see it on
Tuesday. While focusing on the Holland Marsh, we were listening to the
Eastern Meadowlarks singing in the field behind us.
We
had to get the show on the road as we were meeting up with Ann at 7:30 -
7:45. We got to the Renfrew meet up place by 7:35 and Ann was there.
She moved her stuff into Barb's car and off we went. First stop was the
little pond before Cobden, a single male Blue-winged Teal and a
Muskrat. While driving to the Cobden boat launch, Ann saw something
orange on the lawn, and we all wanted to see the Baltimore Oriole. Barb
saw it on the hydro post and I saw it flying over the Filtration
plant. At the boat launch, the water was sooo high, the reeds on one
side were covered in water. There was nothing on the water. Ann walked
over to check out the bay. Two Belted Kingfishers and a Pileated
Woodpecker or so we thought, the Merlin app told us otherwise, Northern
Flicker. The Kingfishers must have been building a nest because they
were just flying round and round the area without landing, our presence
was obviously bothering them. At the vehicle, we heard a Chipping
Sparrow, thinking it was a Pine Warbler, because it was in a pine tree
and those two birds sound so much alike.
Driving
down Snake River Line (later in the day, I was calling it Snake Liver
Line, guess I was getting tired), we saw a Northern Harrier, American
Goldfinch and a Yellow Warbler, just opposite the Mennonite farm that
absolutely ruined a great bird habitat because they wanted to plant more
corn. No judgement there right, guess the almighty dollar is more
important than the environment.... About this time I got a call from
Bill to say they were home now and would be joining us and where were
we? We stopped at a home that had a unique bird feeder, homemade I
suspect (see pix), the American Goldfinch were chowing down the seed.
We watched some smaller blackbirds chase a Common Raven.
As
we turned onto Ross Road, there were so many Trilliums. Ann said
stop, what is that bird? I said Pileated Woodpecker, Barb said no an
American Crow, Ann said there are two birds. When we got out of the car
at the swamp, we all heard Common Gallinule, but it took a bit to find
them. We suspected they were on the nest and they must have been talking
to each other. We actually saw a single Trumpeter Swan (first time
seeing one there), not very photographable since it was off in
the distance. We heard so many Soras, and we played the song, but they
just refused to come out and play, We all walked off in I went one way,
Barb and Ann went another. I wanted to see a Marsh Wren (did not see
any all day), but I did see two Wood Duck and heard a Wilson's Snipe.
Going back to join the ladies, I spotted an American Bittern, I shouted
to them "American Bittern", they got to see it go down, not a great
view. But a bit later Barb saw it and shouted to us, and we all got to
see it well as it crossed the road and land. Lucky Ann had her scope in
the perfect spot and saw the Bittern through her scope. It's in the
scope she said, it's okay I saw where it landed. Then Ann said it has
disappeared, no we know where it landed, we will walk up the road and
look for it. Well, those birds simply know how to disappear in plain
sight and no we did not see it again. In the more open water, were
several pairs of Ring-necked Ducks and Canada Geese. While checking
them out we clearly heard Pied-billed Grebes and Sandhill Cranes.
Bill
and Barbara drove up and Barb went over to tell them all that we had
seen. Barbara pointed out a little bird, that we suspect was a Swamp
Sparrow, why I say suspect, it had white facial stripes on it but it was
definitely doing courtship behaviour with a normal looking Swamp
Sparrow. Not sure if Bill got a photo of the weird looking sparrow. At
this time Emily joins us and as birders do we all do our own thing
along the road looking at hopefully something new and exciting. Emily
comes back and tells us, she had a very cooperative Virginia Rail pair.
Where??? We all went to the area and I played the song and
immediately got an answer, but we could not see the bird. Bill was more
persistent than the rest of us and he says I got it. The bird was just
doing its own thing, walking along and eating, it came into full view
several times, everyone got excellent views. When the rail went off
where we could not see him, Barbara said oh it's over there, great she
saw a second one. Going back to the vehicles a single King Bird was
seen.
Off to the Osceola dump, Barb somehow
lost her GPS on her phone sometime in the past week, so we were kind of
flying by ear. We got to Osceola but did not know where the dump was.
While conferring with Bill, Ann and I heard and I saw a House Wren.
Bill thought we should just keep going, I think we drove 5 minutes and
we found the road to the dump. We were hoping to see Bald Eagles, but
no, there were men and machinery at the dump, covering up the dumped
materials. Okay we should drive to behind the dump, no Barb was not
comfortable doing that, so we walked. While we walked the roads, we
noticed some of the cattle were lying down with their heads on the
ground, bins up, the calves were sleeping, all fluffy and white, they
could have been mistaken for sheep. Emily saw a Black & White
Warbler fly over and Barb and Bill also saw it, others of us were still
ruminating over the cattle. I am not sure who saw the juvenile Bald
Eagle in the sky, but we all eventually saw it. Some went up the hill
to sing "the hills are alive with the sound of music" and I went down
the road, to find more birds. My big reward, Song Sparrows and
White-crowned Sparrows. I noticed Emily walking ahead towards the car,
when I finally caught up, the others told me Emily had a headache and
had left for the day. But she told them she had heard Field Sparrow,
Bill was playing it, but the Sparrow did not respond.
Bill
asked where we were going next, Pembroke. He said he was going to head
home, he wanted to stop at Holland Marsh to get the Red-necked
Phalarope and the Wilson's Snipe. Ann went with them because Barb and
Jane who just don't know when to quit birding. Off we went to Pembroke,
and one of the roads, we heard a song, turn around Barb. I stuck my
hand out the window with the Merlin app on and it identified as a
Black-throated Green Warbler. I played the song and Barb said look
high in the trees, so I opened the door and swung my legs out, watching
the trees. I have it, Barb! We were out of the car quickly. That
little bird went to the other side of the road but still quite high,
then flew to the same branch I had originally seen it on. We tried
taking photos, if Sami can work a miracle, there might even be a photo.
We
got to Pembroke marina and the river was so high I think the boat slips
were covered in water. The only birds we saw were Ring-billed Gulls.
Walking over to Algonquin college, we saw nothing new. Time for our
evening meal, we decided the weather was balmy so we should sit on a
picnic bench overlooking the water. Only thing new here was a bunch of
spiders on the walkway that came to visit.
Somehow
we took the wrong road out to highway 17 and that caused us a problem.
We took lots of roads to get to Ross Road, we had an adventure and lots
of laughs. Barb "stop the car, a bird just fly up into the tree", then
to a hydro line a Kestrel with what looked like a mole or a mouse in
its talons. We finally got to Ross Road (1 1/2 hours that should have
taken 1/2 an hour), it was absolutely beautiful weather, nothing new,
but such a great place to finish up our day.
The
weather started out cold, I had three layers on. On Ross Road the
jacket came off and eventually the sweater came off as well. While
sitting near the water the jacket went back on. We had a great day, but
long. I left the house at 6:00 a.m. and returned about 9:40 p.m., but
Barb and I are known for not knowing when to quit.
Bill
let me know at Renfrew they got a Red-tailed Hawk and at Holland Marsh
they did not get the Red-necked Phalarope, but did get the Wilson's
Snipe.
Good day for all, no matter how long the birding was.
Thank you Emily ,Ann, Bill and Barbara for your photos.
Species Noted
- Red-necked Phalarope
- Wilson's Snipe
- Lesser Yellow Yellowlegs
- Killdeer
- Red-winged Blackbird
- Eastern Meadowlark
- Mourning Dove
- Ring-billed Gull
- American Crow
- Common Grackle
- Rock Pigeon
- Wild Turkey
- Mallard
- Blue-winged Teal
- Swamp Sparrow
- Canada Goose
- American Robin
- Baltimore Oriole
- Tree Swallow
- Chipping Sparrow
- Song Sparrow
- Northern Flicker
- Belted Kingfisher
- Eastern Phoebe
- European Starling
- Northern Harrier
- American Goldfinch
- Yellow Warbler
- Barn Swallow
- Black-capped Chickadee
- Common Raven
- Pileated Woodpecker
- Rough-legged Hawk
- Common Gallinule
- Sora (h)
- American Bittern
- Wood Duck
- Ring-necked Duck
- Virginia Rail
- Sandhill Crane (h)
- Trumpeter Swan
- Pied-billed Grebe (h)
- King Bird
- Northern Cardinal
- Turkey Vulture
- House Wren
- Evening Grosbeak (h)
- Kestrel
- Bald Eagle
- Black & White Warbler
- White-crowned Sparrow
- Field Sparrow (h)
- Black-throated Green Warbler
- Merlin
- Red-tailed Hawk
No comments:
Post a Comment