Ottawa Area Birding: Ross Road with JC Birding

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.