Ottawa Area Birding: Ross Road & Surrounding Areas with JC Birding

April 17, 2025

Birding Report by Jane Burgess

Ken, Ian, Ann, Guy, Bill, Barbara and I met at the Park & Ride at Eagleson and the Queensway. We decided the first stop would be at Antrim Truck Stop -- they make such good scones. After purchasing all our goodies we drove to Cobden, stopping at the little pond just before where there were just Red-winged Blackbirds singing. The dock had not been put in at the boat launch as the water was still pretty much frozen.

We turned on Snake River Line and birding started in earnest. We stopped an American Kestrel on the line - we saw 10 Kestrels during the day. We stopped to look at the Northern Pintail amongst all the Canada Geese, spotting some Mallards, at least one Black Duck and a couple of Green-winged Teal. We made a turn, Bill said there is a pond down here, what we saw was another American Kestrel, this time with a bird kill. It had flown to a post and was plucking the bird, I don't think it ate it because it flew off again. We did not disturb it, so maybe it did not like the taste of fresh birdie... As we drove over the bridge Bill said Hooded Mergansers, once out of the vehicle we heard an Eastern Phoebe.

We turned down Ross Road and a Cooper’s Hawk flew by. We had high expectations since this area is always so productive. We got out of the vehicles and well there were no waterfowl on the water. Yes we saw a few Mallards flying. We saw about 6 Sandhill Cranes in the sky ( mane 3 or 4 small flocks flying, only one group were singing). Walked to the end of the swamp area unfortunately with nothing of interest. I just planned the trip to Ross Road a tad too early

Ann was concerned about buying gas, Pembroke was the closest to get gas. We told her we were going to check out the other side of the swamp, she was with us. The only new species was a Great Blue Heron. No I am wrong, we saw a small flock of Tree Swallows. Ann and Guy went off to get gas, we would meet them at the Pembroke marina. On one of the many roads we checked out, we saw an accipiter and a buteo. No photo of the accipiter but Bill got one of the buteo.

On the way to the marina, I received a call from Guy to say they were heading home. Ann had an appointment at 2:00 and she wanted to get there on time. We parked at the marina, Bill got out to check out the situation on the water -- nothing. We decided to have lunch there in the vehicle because it was just too cold to picnic. We watched three fishermen get out of their truck, get their gear and off they went fishing. We did watch them fishing, it seemed there was no luck for them. We watched a Common Merganser fly by in the distance, it seemed it was on a mission, flying quite fast. A bit later a Double-crested Cormorant flew by. After lunch we checked out the area around Algonquin, a couple of American Goldfinch and one Black-capped Chickadee.

At this point Ian had to leave, Ken put his gear into Bill's vehicle and off we went.

I had mentioned I would like to see the dump, maybe we would get an eagle. Nope no eagles at the Pembroke dump, but plenty of Ring-billed Gulls and a couple of Herring Gulls. We went back to Ross Road, hoping with the sun out, more birds would appear. Nope not the case. We then drove over to Osceola Dump and there were lots of American Crows and Common Ravens. Walking back to the vehicle we heard and then saw an Eastern Phoebe. I thought we saw a female Red-winged Blackbird, but no it was a Song Sparrow.

On our travels we saw a Tree Sparrow and a Killdeer. We stopped at the side of the road to check out the Canada Geese to see if there were any other species mixed in with them. Both Bill and I spotted a shore bird and we drove to the area where we thought it had landed. We did not locate it. As I was walking on the road I heard Yellowlegs, (thank you Susan for teaching me their song). I heard it again and told the rest of the group I heard Yellowlegs. Ken got out and he heard, we looked and looked following the sound. The calling was right in front of me. Then the two of them took off, we all saw them. The Yellowlegs were closer to us than I was looking. When will I learn?

Back into the car and not far, Bill, stop the car, back up a little bit. Northern Shrike. We all wanted a photo, but along came a school bus and when it passed no more shrike, it had flown. But a good sighting nevertheless.

While we were stopped, Barbara was taking a photo then she showed Ken, Bill and I. We had no idea what it was because there was sun shining on its back. We turned around and located a very cooperative bird on top of a tree. We took photos and came to the conclusion it was a Rusty Blackbird because of its yelloweye, smallish body and regular tail. I say regular tail as opposed to a slightly twisted tail of a Grackle (they also have yellow eyes and a longer, more slender body). Once I was home I put all 5 not great photos through Merlin and all came back Rusty Blackbird.

On the way home, we saw Wild Turkeys.

Bill was checking out his photos, but the buteo turned out to be an Osprey. He was looking at Barbara's photo and she had photographed two Savannah Sparrows.

By the end of the day we had tallied 40 species.

Thank you Ken, Bill, Barbara for their photos and Sami for editing my photos.

Happy Easter