Ottawa Area Birding: December 2024

Friday, December 13, 2024

Baltimore Oriole at Heron/Walkley

December 13 2024

This bird has been reported several times, and we saw in previously. But it's so hard to see it, that we had to come back a second time. Even so, Bill used a stool to get a shot over the fence! It's a good bird for winter.

Tuesday, December 3, 2024

Mac Johnson to Morrisburg with JC Birding

December 4, 2024

Birding Report by Jane Burgess

Ken, Ann, Bill and Ian met at my place and we headed to Brockville, Mac Johnson Wildlife Area. We took the route via Merrickville to Brockville, hoping to see some birds. Well the birds we saw were - Northern Cardinal, Wild Turkeys, American Crows, Canada Geese, a single Robin and a flock of pigeons. Once we got to the Wildlife area, disappointment was the general feeling, the water was totally frozen over. So no Eurasian Wigeon.

Birders are eternal positive people, there must be something on the water. We headed to the waterfront in Brockville, there we saw a couple of Ring-billed Gulls, but our big find was 4 Common Loons at a distance. We drove east and saw Red-breasted Mergansers (we saw many during the course of the day).

Our plan was to drive highway 2 along the water to check out the waterfowl. We saw a mixed flock of Common Goldeneye, Common Mergansers, and Mallards. At Maitland another flock, this time Greater and Lesser Scaup were the new birds. Some trivia - the Maitland townsite was laid out in 1822 and named after Sir Peregrine Maitland - governor of Upper Canada at the time. Where we parked there was signage that gave us this information.

Driving slowly, I said to Bill, stop the car, there is a bird on the line. The bird flew but the bird was a Belted Kingfisher, a good find at this time of the year. Looking toward the river we saw Bufflehead amongst the mixed flock of waterfowl.

At Johnstown we had American Black Ducks amongst the many Mallards and we got to see a small flock of Hooded Mergansers. Love these little mergansers and the males are so pretty. All of the birds were actively fishing and coming up most of the time with success.

We drove down North Channel Road and there we saw a Northern Shrike. These birds love to hunt from the top of small trees or bushes where they forage for small birds or rodents. They are very easy to identify, black and grey with a black mask and very much look like a songbird, but make no mistake not a songbird but a predator. They breed in the north and come south in the winter. They often save food for later by impaling it on thorns or barbed wire. All this said, I love seeing the Northern Shrike.

We took Galop Canal Road driving to the end, we saw two Mute Swan (yellow beaks). These birds are not native to the continent and are considered an invasive species outside of Europe and Asia.

We drove along some more and on a curve on the road with a guard rail we saw a flock of about 20 Trumpeter Swan with at least 7 cygnets. We wanted to stop but there was no place, so Bill drove on a bit and turned around. Found a driveway to park, but the Swans had moved on and the brush and trees along the road made taking photos challenging.

Ken asked Bill to stop the car, Bald Eagle (we saw 2 during the day), again Bill had to turn around for better views.

Then at Mariatown, we lucked in -- a small flock (300+) of Snow Geese and the majority of them were Blue Morph. I have never seen black snow geese - Bill said they were juvenile Blue Morph Snow Geese.

Time to head home. I smiled to myself because when we started out I told Ann and Ian that we would probably be home by 2:30. Well Bill, Ken and Jane got back to my place at 4:45. Ann and Ian had left about 2 hours early. Ann texted me to say she and Ian had seen a Red-tailed Hawk.