Ottawa Area Birding: Fletcher to Shirley's Bay and Beyond with JC Birding

November 19, 2024

Birding Report by Jane Burgess

I met Barbara and Bill at their place and we arrived at 8:20 at Fletcher Garden. Would you believe it, it took almost an hour to get to Fletchers, the traffic down Baseline was crazy busy and then there was construction on Prince of Wales. When we got there Carole, Alan and Eleanor reported that they had seen the Barred Owl, Northern Cardinal, Dark-eyed Junco, Downy Woodpecker, White-breasted Nuthatch and Black-capped Chickadee. kljkldjlfdjipafsdjiopfs darn traffic. Oh yes and Eleanor heard a Cackling Goose. We wandered over to the wildlife garden and checked the trees, and Eleanor found the Barred Owl high up in one of the evergreens. We walked over to the back feeder, splitting up because Carole and Eleanor were worried about getting a parking ticket. My group saw a couple of American Goldfinch and Black-capped Chickadees and the other group saw House Finch.

We drove over to the Experimental Farm parking lot, got out our scopes and walked to Dows Lake. It was a good idea to go there - Barrow's Goldeneye, Common Goldeneye, Hooded Merganser, Common Merganser, Black Duck and Mallard. Eleanor checked discord and she said a Yellow-throated Warbler is at Dick Bell. Rare bird. We should pack up and go and so we did.

We parked at Dick Bell and it was super easy to find the bird -- a whole lot of people on the north side of the park leading to the lighthouse. It was a new bird for Eleanor and she was already checking out the bird when we arrived, The Yellow-throated Warbler was on the water side of the pathway, it was foraging very low, almost ground level. Then it would disappear and reappear but always stay pretty low. To me, it looks pretty similar to an Audubon's Yellow-rumped Warbler. It is found in the US. A Yellow-throated Warbler last seen in Ottawa was in the 2005. So we were pretty lucky to see it. It stuck around until 11:00 flew west and was not relocated.

While we were a Dick Bell, someone mentioned a Snowy Owl and I looked through a scope to see a white dot. So we drove over to Shirley's Bay. We could see it easily seei its head move and we could see that it was a juvenile. Yes we saw the Snowy, but it was far far near the tip of Innes Point. We also saw Bufflehead, Common Loon and a Great Black-backed Gull.

We double-backed to Andrew Haydon, of course Canada Geese, one Common Merganser, a mixed flock of Lesser and Greater Scaup. In the Pond were about 10 or 12 American Wigeons. Carole thought the Merganser was Red-breasted but then changed her mind. Bill thought the same thing but when he got home and had a better look, yes Red-breasted Merganser.

After lunch we drove to Carleton Place Storm Pond, more Canada Geese and a small flock of Green-winged Teal. There were two of them swimming amongst the Canada Geese, the Teal looked so tiny compared to the Geese. We checked out the boat launch where we saw more Bufflehead, Mallards and Canada Geese. We drove west to check out the water there and saw nothing on the water.

Driving to Almonte Lagoons, we saw a Blue Jay and at the lagoons, we saw 1000s of Canada Geese. Walking down the path to the hide, there was some snow dumped to the left of the path, strange, I am assuming the hockey rink people put it there. When we got to the hide, Bill said surely there must be Teal, we looked and looked and nothing but Canadas. Bill thought he saw a Cackling Goose, Eleanor had left us and we needed her sharp eye. Then a duck swam out from the reeds and took off flying, we followed it with our bins and when it landed put the scopes on it -- Green-wing Teal. Just outside the hide, two Blue Jays made their presence known and we saw a single Black-capped Chickadee.

Time to go home. We felt very good about the day, getting some good birds and getting one fantastic bird and the day was just beautiful for November.