Birding Report by Jane Burgess
There were quite a
few of us today--Bill, Barbara, Barb C. Ken, Eleanor, Ann, Guy and me.
We met at Ken's place and walked to the Ottawa River. Ken wanted to
show us the Bald Eagles nest on Duck Island. He told us to stand on the
hill because we would not see it from the pathway, he was correct on
that one. We did not see the Bald Eagles, but we did see Mallards and
Canada Geese. The parkway was quite busy, it did not seem to bother Ken
who got over no problem, the rest of us had to wait for cars to pass.
On the way back to Ken's, we saw a couple of dog walkers, one pair of
dog owners were a bit unusual, one man had a big dog and the other dog,
frankly it took me a couple of looks to see the dog, was a tiny little
thing, smaller than my small cats, maybe the size of a rat!. I said
Barbara, that is a small dog, her response was people come in all
sizes too.
We drove to Champlain Marsh where we
met up with Ann and Guy, well they were not there, but Ann's vehicle
was. There were so many American Robins around, we walked to the marsh,
to find it frozen. Of course the Red-winged Blackbirds were singing
their hearts out. Black Ducks were seen. We walked west on the
pathway, at this time I called Ann to find out where they were, walking
on the path going west. She had said they had heard a Carolina Wren and
seen a Fox Sparrow, okay we will walk to you. But we did not, we heard
the Carolina Wren and wanted to see it, too bad so sad the bird had
other plans. It did not fly into our area when the song was played. We
saw Ann and Guy and took some time to catch up with what they saw,
nothing other than the birds Ann had told us about. A White-breasted
Nuthatch, Downy Woodpecker and an American Goldfinch were also seen.
Ken
was leading the group and he suggested we go to the most easterly
point of our destination, that meant we were going to take the 174. We
ended up in Rockland, he did not mean to go there, he missed the road he
intended on taking. Birders are resilient, hey there are country roads
here, there must be birds along the way. Eleanor and Barb C. were
checking ebird and discord reports and Ken had hot spots programmed into
his GPS. While the other two cars just followed the lead letting
the lead car do all the work.
On Vinette we saw
some Wild Turkeys mixed in with the Canada Geese. We stopped on Birch
Grove because Ken wanted to draw our attention to the osprey platform.
We started up again and there was this creek that crossed under the
road, where we saw a pair of Wood Ducks. When we passed the osprey
platform we were surprised at how low it was, maybe 6 feet from the
ground. Most osprey platforms are about 20 feet from the ground. When
we stopped again we spoke about the low platform, I think it was Bill
that said some Osprey's build their nest on the ground when a suitable
platform is not available - natural or manmade. MMM who knew. On Birch
Grove we saw a small flock of Snow Buntings, probably the last time we
will see Snow Bunting until next winter. Later the following day there
was quite a bit of discussion about a particular bird Ken photographed.
He found it looked a bit different from the rest of the Snow buntings.
No final conclusion was drawn as to exactly what species it was. But
it is always good to stretch our brain a bit.
Eleanor
finally got power and told us there were Snow Geese spotted at Cobb
Creek yesterday, off we went. Disappointment, they had left. At this
point Guy and Ann left us. We drove maybe 1/4 of a kilometer and we saw
some Snow Geese in the distance. Bill and Ken drove down what we
figured must have been a farmer's lane, but not too far because it
looked very questionable, cars might have got stuck. We walked to the
area clear of trees and checked out the waterfowl. Oh my goodness,
there are so many Northern Pintails, I think there must have been 1500
of them. Such beautiful birds. The 'snow geese' were further away. I
followed Ken with my scope as he walked down the lane. The ''snow
geese' turned out to be swans, both Trumpeter and Tundra. As we
learned from Michel T post the following day, the closer ones were
Tundra, maybe 7 of them and about the same number of Trumpeter Swans
much further away. There were also Green-winged Teal and Wigeon. The
best treat was the small flock of 7 Sandhill Cranes flew over making
their presence known. Just love their song. According to Sibley
their voice is a loud, resonant, wooden rattle hkkkkkk or hkarrr,
variable; a rolling bugle, typically long, slightly descending roll,but
some variation. Ken and another fellow, Michel T told us there was one
Snow Goose much further away. I looked in Michel's scope and said you
are right. We heard Killdeer. We saw a large flock of Snow Geese fly
over and that is always a glorious sight.
Bill
and Ken backed out of the laneway onto Russell Road and we moved maybe
40 feet to another parking lot to check out the flocks of waterfowl on
the north side of Russell Road. More Northern Pintail and Canada
Geese. Eleanor found a hybrid goose - Canada Goose body with a Snow
Goose head and neck. She also found Ring-neck ducks. Just before
getting into the vehicles, the Northern Pintail lifted off, oh what a
beautiful sight.
We were so lucky seeing the
Sandhill Cranes and then the Snow Geese flock and the icing on the cake
were the lifting up of the Northern Pintail. To think there are some
people that just can't appreciate the wonders of nature.
Off
to Fournier. Bill and Barbara were there earlier this week and the
fields were flooded. Not so today, we did find a small flooded area
again Northern Pintail and Canada Geese. I called Barb C to find out
where they were, St Isidore was the answer, Ken needed to gas up. She
also mentioned there was an ice cream place nearby and we all know how
Bill loves his ice cream. Okay we will join you. Text from Barb, sorry
Bill the ice cream place doesn't open for another month.
We
drove to St Isidore, but where is the gas station? We found them, they
were on the other edge of the town. We decided the last stop should be
the St Isidore Lagoons. It was not very far, both Ken and I thought we
had seen a Bald Eagle flying, we generally see one there. We were
wrong, Red-tailed Hawk. Eleanor and I stayed back as the others went
over to check out the lagoons. We watched as the Canada's took off with
one lone Snow Goose with them. We wondered, did his buddies leave him
behind or was it having an identity crisis. The flock returned minus
the Snow Goose. Eleanor and I joined the group at the lagoon to find
out what they were photographing - Northern Harrier. Ken pointed to the
bird just over the trees and very nicely it flew back so we got
excellent views. The farmer close to the lagoon had his donkey and two
pairs of domestic Muscovys out, but no Guineafowl. As we drove away,
Bill said Kestrel on the line. Of course it played its game, come
closer I fly to the next line over, then he flew to the top of a tree,
then took off never to be seen again by us. I phoned Eleanor and said
'we saw a kestrel, we saw a kestrel', her response was Ken saw it and
said if it's a Kestrel they will let us know. I hate it when I am that
predictable...
After a bit of discussion, Bill, Barbara and I decided we should call it a day, while Ken's car went to parts unknown.
Once out of my vehicle at home, I was greeted by a Chipping Sparrow singing. A good end to another excellent day of birding.
