Ottawa Area Birding: St Lawrence River with JC Birding

March 20, 2025

Birding Report by Jane Burgess

When I left my house, I felt spring was in the air -- hearing Northern Cardinal, American Robin, Common Grackle all singing at 6:30 - it put a smile on my face. Driving down Greenbank Road, there were many,many Canada Geese in the fields. I got to Bill and Barbara's place at 6:50 and we headed to Elmvale Acres via Baseline Road. It was a good route because we arrived at Elmvale Acres by 7:15, where Eleanor was waiting for us. She put her stuff in the car and Alan and Carole arrived. I suggested that when we turn off the 417, we take two routes. Alan took the #138 while we took #20, we did this in the hope we would double our chances of seeing Snow Geese. Gee we drove and drove no Snow Geese, just Canada Geese, then all of a sudden, we saw white. Snow Geese. I tried to phone Alan and Carole, but discovered I did not have their number, Bill took a few photos and then called them. Eleanor called them and then we discovered they had driven up behind us. The service was not all that great.

We watched the Snow Geese for at least 30 minutes as more flew in, we took out our scopes and found Ring-necked Duck, Northern Pintail and of course Canada Geese. Eleanor saw a couple of Turkey Vultures. A flock of water fowl flew over, Bill took a photo and told us they were Northern Pintails about 40 of them. I think I will be able to identify fly over Northern Pintails now. We drove a bunch of roads, but we did not see any more Snow Geese. Bill had done his research and had pinned the area on his maps, but that was yesterday and today was a different day.

We ended up at Cooper Marsh. We walked to the visitors' centre and of course it was closed. There we saw Downy Woodpecker, Dark-eyed Junco, Song Sparrow and a single Mallard. Since we had had an early start, we thought maybe a snack would hold us until noon. Eleanor and I walked toward the road and said to her, if you come back here, always check the other side of the road from here. We joined the other, then a Pileated Woodpecker sounded and sounded again from the other side of the road, then it flew over us.

On highway #2 we stopped a number of times to see Lesser and Greater Scaup, 2 Redheads, Common Merganser and Bufflehead

While driving through Cornwall, I recounted a memory from I think about 12 years ago. Barb C., Sami, Connie and I were birding the area and we heard on the news that Prince George was born, so we stopped at the Prince George Restaurant (we don't normally go to a restaurant while birding) to have lunch in honour of the little prince. The weather was pretty nice, the temperature was 17 degrees. A young lady thought it was warm enough to wear a crop top and flip flop and here we are in winter gear!!!!

The next stop was the visitors' centre at Saunders Hydro Dam, it was closed. I said that is okay, just take your lunches and we will have lunch inside, oh but it is closed. I walked in and asked to use the toilets and if we could eat our lunch inside. Of course, said the lady. Where we had lunch overlooking the river and looking onto the dam. The only bird we saw was a Turkey Vulture. Walking out Carole said they thought they would leave us, at Guindon Park is not far and we often see Black-backed Gulls.

The road to the water was bumpy, but who goes into the beach area anyways at this time of year. Birders do! We saw what we thought were Mallards, so we did not pay any attention to the 2 on the ice. We proceeded over to where we could see gulls - Herring Gulls and Lesser Black-backed Gulls. While we were looking at the gulls, Alan and Carole were scoping the 2 water fowl that we assumed were Mallards. We were wrong, 2 Gadwalls.

Alan and Carole left at this point, indicating they were going to check out the Greater White-fronted Goose that had been reported on Anderson Road. We drove to the west end of the Long Sault Parkway. Lots of Hooded Mergansers, Bufflehead and of course Canada Geese. I think it was here Bill saw the Black Duck. Bill and I were looking on one side of the bridge, Eleanor the other side, where she saw a couple of Common Goldeneye.

We checked out Upper Canada Bird Sanctuary and Ault Island and the only bird new was an American Tree Sparrow. Driving out of Ault Island we saw a Bald Eagle flying overhead.

On our homeward journey we checked out Winchester, hoping we would see Snow Geese, we had difficulty even seeing the lagoons. Eleanor suggested opening the windows, we would hear them if they were there, we heard nothing. We decided to check out Anderson Road for the Greater White-fronted Goose, nope. Alan and Carole did not have any luck in seeing the Greater White-fronted either.

Spring is here for sure, we got, 38 species.