Ottawa Area Birding: Birding South of Ottawa and SOLAR ECLIPSE with JC Birding

April 8, 2024

Birding report by Barb Chouinard

It was a beautiful sunny morning when we met up at the Bowmans’ home at 8 am. It was 4 degrees which finally indicated a warming trend. With Ken driving, Barbara and Bill and Ken and Barb headed south. Thank you for driving Ken, it was a long day. With Jane away or almost home, Barb did the bird list and wrote this report. TODAY I was hoping for Common Loon and Snow Geese.

The weather forecast was for a sunny and warming morning with some clouds moving in after midday. Clouds along the St Lawrence were not expected until 3 pm or so. The eclipse was to occur between 2 to 4 pm. Barbara and Barb in the backseat of the vehicle could see as the day went on that the east end of the sky showed some high cloud cover with a blue sky directly ahead. We hoped that we should be OK for good clear skies for the eclipse.

This morning the Bowmans’ street was full of birdsong. Northern Cardinal and House Finch were also viewed.

We drove on the 416 directly to the Johnstown church parking lot to look at what was along the St Lawrence. There were Ring billed Gull, Bufflehead, Herring Gull and Common Merganser in the water. A Bald Eagle was spotted flying by. Ken said take a look at the factory roof which is west of the bridge to the US. In the past we have Peregrine Falcon here. No Peregrine, but an Osprey was perched on a corner of the roof. A car pulled up beside us. Two gents were there to take a look around. They were not birders but one fellow was from Red Deer, Alberta and was here to view the solar eclipse today. The other was from Ottawa. The St Lawrence was in the Path Of Totality for the eclipse today and so all the riverside towns were braced for crowds visiting the Seaway to view the eclipse. We also had the same plan to experience the eclipse.

Then another vehicle drove up and Janet McCullough (Bill and Barbara know her) and another birder asked what we were seeing. She told us about the trail by the big plant nearby where the Osprey was sitting. We did not know about this trail so we thought we would “check things out”.

One has to drive west a few hundred metres west on Highway 2 and then turn left for the marina and continue past the marina restaurant to the public parking area for the short trail. The marina restaurant sign has “Bakery” on it also. So we should check this out when the place is open for the season. Unfortunately, the gate for the trail was padlocked. The area looks good for future birding. We loaded up and suddenly we could see the Osprey flying low and it took a hard dive into the water, with a considerable splash. It did not look like it had come up with anything to eat but then a Bald Eagle swooped by and interacted with the Osprey. Maybe an opportunistic move by the Eagle just in case the Osprey had caught something. They swooped around each other. Photos were taken. It was quite impressive. Then the two flew off.

We headed east. Our plan was to bird along the St Lawrence at our usual spots and at the same time see how many people were gathering for the solar eclipse (which was to happen between 2 to 4 pm). It was still early, but one never knows. Thousands of people were expected for Kingston, Brockville and Cornwall. Our original plan was to view the eclipse at the Morrisburg Waterfront Park.

We spent the morning with stops at several of our regular birding spots along the St Lawrence: Cardinal, Iroquois, Galop Canal and Saver/Griswold Road. Common Loons were viewed here, Yipee!. We picked up a species or two at each stop. There were not a lot of birds around. At the Galop stop there was a gent all set up for the eclipse with a scope. It was windy there and he looked cold already sitting there on the west point. We briefly chatted. The gent had a four hour wait in that exposed spot. So hopefully he lasted the wait. It was a cool wind along the river. At the morning continued we could see groups of people assembling along the St Lawrence. Some on private property. We stopped at the Morrisburg but it was totally packed with humanity and there were no parking spots available. We continued on. Too many people, dogs and everything. Not for us.

At Upper Canada Village, there was a line-up of cars to get in and a sign that said “sold out” for parking spots. Other parks along this stretch were closed. We drove by the Migratory Bird Center turnoff and it looked quiet. We drove on.

On Ault island there was a huge eclipse party going on at a private waterfront home. It was 12:30 or so and we had our lunch at the western dead end of Wilbruck Drive on the island. Several cars came in and parked at this turnaround. Two young fellows arrived in a car and went down to water on the private property. Turns out they were from Ottawa. They spent some time picking up garbage on the private property . They said that if anyone official came by they had improved the property by picking up the garbage. Smart guys. A lady driving a van with a bunch of kids also stopped by. The kids briefly unloaded with a soccer ball. They loaded up shortly after, maybe to look further around and then they came back. We had a lovely lunch outside on our camp chairs. The birds were scarce though. The causeway at Ault Island had a couple of groups of people on a picnics There were a few waterfowl around here including some lovely Ringed necked Ducks.

We continued east as the blue skies led us. We wondered about the Long Sault Parkway. Would it be open. NOPE. There was a huge bunch of traffic and people at the west entrance.

We thought we would continue on. It was just before two pm. We figured that the east end of the Long Sault Parkway would be open as far as the turnoff for the Moulinette Island Causeway to the residential island. It was very busy at this east entrance with lots of people parking on the roadway and as we thought, the Parkway was closed after the turnoff onto the causeway to Moulinette Island. The causeway had just a handful of cars parked along the roadway and the park/beach was pretty empty. This looked promising. Time was moving. We quickly birded Moulinette Island. A Turkey Vulture was seen. On the way out we parked along the Moulinette Island Causeway. It was perfect for us. No mobs of people and we could just go over the aluminum road guardrail and there was a picnic bench waiting for us.

It was time for the eclipse. The eclipse glasses came out. I had picked these up at the Michigan State Planetarium anniversary party last month. The glasses were to code and ISO approved. We shared the glasses. As the eclipse progressed we followed the movement of the moon’s shadow across the sun. At first the moon’s shadow looked a biscuit bite, then a bigger bite. Then a thin line at about 10 percent. It quickly became twilight, it was awesome. We could view the corona. Ken played an eclipse music playlist on his phone. The house of the rising sun, Here comes the sun, etc. Thanks Ken. The Bowman’s super idea to bring a vintage bottle of champagne to celebrate this moment was great. We had the perfect eclipse experience. Good company and good music to watch the awesome celestial dance in the sky from sunshine to twilight and back to sunshine along with some bubbly. Thank you Bowmans. They even brought wine glasses. It was a humbling experience to see the eclipse. And it was wonderful.

We followed the eclipse wearing the glasses. Photos were taken. Soon it was over. It took no time to get out of the area.

We stopped at a nearby gas station and Barbara and I joined the wait line for the single bathroom. Word went out the bathroom was out of tissue. One woman in the line up brought out a roll of toilet paper from her purse and shared it with everyone in this lineup. The question in my mind is who carries a full roll of toilet paper in a purse? No matter, it was appreciated.

But we were not done birding yet. Ken found looked at postings a found a nearby location where Eastern Bluebirds had been seen lately. We went to the farm fields and to Beckstead Road where the Bluebirds had been reported. We stopped for an American Kestrel and Barb saw a Bluebird. A gent stopped and told Ken that he had just put 6 Bluebird boxes on Don’s Road. We headed there. Don’s Road turned out to be a long road. Along this road we found one house that had many feeders. In a nearby field we found an Eastern Meadowlark. We could hear Killdeer. It was beautiful area. We spoke with one lady out for an evening walk on the road and she told us that after a curve in the road was her bungalow and just beyond her house were the Bluebird boxes. This was near the end of Don’s Road. We watched a pair of Kestrel’s here and looked for the Bluebirds. Nope, none were seen here. We continued homeward.

We turned left at the T-intersection on to Stormont and Glengarry Country Road 11. We drove by a swamp. The gent we had met before was there also. He came over and asked if we saw the Wood Ducks in this flooded swamp area. Yes we had just spotted them. The gent, Hans van der Zweep, was very helpful. This area would be good in spring migration next month. Another new spot.

We continued on homeward. We made a couple of turns onto Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry CR 7 we crossed Boyne Road and just before the sign for Badger Excavating right by the road there was a quarry filled with SNOW GEESE!! There were Blue Morphs also and some Canada Geese. We estimated around 700 were on the bank of the sand quarry and in the water. The geese were close to us. We had smiles on our faces. Photos were taken.

It was a wonderful end to a memorable day. Thank you Bill and Barbara and Ken for the photos to follow in separate emails.