Ottawa Area Birding: Amherst Island with JC BIrding

March 4, 2025

Birding Report by Jane Burgess

We met in Barrhaven for 7:00 a.m. we heard Northern Cardinals singing as we got into Bill's vehicle. Leaving Barrhaven we saw a few Black-capped Chickadees and Wild Turkeys on the northside of Fallowfield. We drove directly to Amherst Island. Really the only species we saw driving down 416 and 401 were lots of American Crows. We arrived at the ferry in plenty of time, we checked out the water, it was frozen, hence no birds. Once the ferry was underway, we checked out the water that the ferry had broken, our big find in the distance were several Mallards and Common Mergansers.

Once on the island we turned left on Front Street and drove slowly along, the houses with bird feeders had no birds. We saw absolutely no raptors in the field. We turned onto Lower 40 Foot Road and finally we saw a large dark bird in a faraway tree. We thought it is a dark morph Rough-legged Hawk. Out comes the scope and before the scope is set up, the bird flies away. We looked at all the crows just in case it might be a Rusty Blackbird, but no. Just as we are to turn onto South Shore Road, finally we see a Northern Harrier rather close up.

Along South Shore Road wherever there was open water, we saw many Common Goldeneye and Lesser Scaup and a sprinkling of Red-breasted Mergansers.. In one flock Ann spots a Bufflehead. We were out of the car looking at the waterfowl, we noticed a car just a bit further up the road looking at the same flock. She drives closer and speaks to Bill and tells him there is a large flock of Redheads and Long-tail Ducks ahead. Now there really isn't any traffic on the road so she parks almost opposite us and of course this is when another vehicle comes along and is impatient, and honks his horn at Bill as he had just got into the car to move the vehicle. Really the lady was at fault parking where she did. Oh well!!! While we were looking at the waterfowl, we also saw 3 American Tree Sparrows on the other side of the road.

Further down the road we saw Blue Jays and on the water side, finally we saw one Redhead, not a flock. Bill spotted 3 Mute Swans in the distance. We were getting closer to Long Point Bay, when we saw this huge bird, turned out to be a juvenile Bald Eagle, then we saw another full adult Eagle flying over the road. We saw a couple of Common Ravens. At the very end of the road there is a feeder and in the past there have always been birds flying about -- thank goodness we got some birds -- Black-capped Chickadees, American Goldfinch, House Finch, Mourning Dove, White-breasted Nuthatch and American Tree Sparrow. On the ground we spotted a rat, but I think he heard our voices, because he darted right back into his hiding place, he came out again but again darted away. The feed on the ground must have attracted him. Just a bit up the road, I asked Bill to back up, because I saw something on the dock. A red fox was lying there, but he jumped off the dock fairly quickly and watched us from behind the dock. Driving back we saw the eagle’s nest with an eagle on the nest. I checked out when eagles nest and it’s anywhere from February to June, our eagle was clearly sitting on the nest.

We decided a health break was in order and we all thought lunch time sounded good. We were off the road, so we did not bother the locals who were driving the roads.

Next we drove up Stella 40 Foot Road to Concession 3. We saw another Rough legged Hawk and a flock of Dark-eyed Juncos.

Nothing new on Concession 2. We went up Dump Street and nothing, we decided to do the other end of Dump Street and we saw one deer, thinking it was a lawn ornament. It just stood there, the only thing that moved was its ears. Somewhere on our travels Barbara spotted an American Robin, a mixed flock of Robins and Starlings.

Because we had plenty of time, we decided to drive South Shore Road, wow we picked up Herring Gull, the first gulls we saw all day.

We parked where we traditionally see the Short-eared owls, we were a bit early. Bill got out and checked out the area more thoroughly, nothing. Ann saw something flying quite far away, we all thought, great Short-eared Owl. We at least got one. Then we saw something else in the distance. Bill, forget that there is one closer, Bill got some good shots. Not a Short-eared Owl, but a male Northern Harrier, it was quite cooperative, he was hunted and made some passes in front of us. After a bit of a discussion, we decided that the first bird we initially identified as a Short-eared Owl was a Northern harrier. Darn. A man came along walking his chihuahua / labrador mix dog. He told Bill all about the dog, but then he told him something everyone was interested in. The sheep farmers were putting lime on the fields, which is to increase the nutrition of the grass. Side effect is that it reduces the vole/mice population. Now we know why we saw so few raptors. I think we saw maybe 6 Rough-legged Hawks and 4 Northern Harriers, no shrike, no kestrels, no owls. The man said he had seen no Snowy Owls on the island. There had been one reported the day before, his explanation, must have flown over from Wolf Island. He also told us the best place to see Short eared owls was the KFN properties.

As for the large flock of Redheads and Long-tail Ducks we did not see it.

But going to Amherst Island was not a bummer even with the drizzle we encountered part of the day, We saw 29 species over the course of the day and Amherst Island is just a special place.

There were a total of 9 vehicles on the ferry and Bill spotted birds as we approached the mainland - Canada Geese and Mallards. We were almost at the 401 when we spotted a large bird on the hydro wire, we turned around and it turned out to be a Red-tailed Hawk. We were hoping for a Coopers or Sharp-shinned Hawk.

Thank you Bill for driving, I know the drive home was not so easy with all the big transport trucks and the rain. I could almost hear you breathe a sigh of relief when we turned onto the 416, no rain and no big trucks.