Ottawa Area Birding: Fletcher, Dow's Lake & Ottawa River with JC Birding

October 23, 2025

Birding Report by Jane Burgess

Eleanor, Barb C, Connie, Barb B, Bill and I met at Fletcher Garden for 8:00. At the bird feeder we saw Dark-eyed Junco, White-throated Sparrow and lots of Black-capped Chickadees.

We walked to the bridge where there were a pair of Mallards swimming. We heard and saw lots of Canada Geese leaving the area.

We met a gentleman who told us he regularly saw an owl perched on one of the bird houses, but more often than not, it is scared away by dogs not on lease. We vended for a while and continued up the hill.

Just before the butterfly pond we stopped to look at the American Robins, oh my goodness we saw lots of American Robins at Fletcher and then around the arboretum. While looking at the American Robin, we saw a single Yellow-rumped Warbler and then 2 Ruby-crowned Kinglets. Those little budgie guys just can't sit still, I swear they shake when they perch. Then we saw some Purple Finch and lots of American Goldfinch.

We walked toward the back feeder and we were hoping when we walked through the evergreens we would see an owl. Nope we did not. We walked eastward and stopped looking toward the gulley. Eleanor produced a recording of mobbing birds. So many birds flew in - more Chickadees, Goldfinch, 2 Downy Woodpeckers and on the other side of the path we had House Finch fly in. As we were watching the show a Common Raven flew over quietly. We walked down toward the water, when Eleanor suggested we might want to move our vehicles.

We moved the vehicles to the Agriculture Canada visitor parking and walked toward Dow's Lake. More of the same birds. Barb and I were talking about her seeing lots of European Starlings while driving back to Ottawa. I said they must be all gone from here by now and so what should we see about 8 Starlings. Then Barb said what is that bird on top of that far tree -- Merlin - good one. At the water saw at least 20 American Black Ducks, 1 Green-wing Teal, at least 10 Lesser Scaup, 2 Double-crested Cormorant and a couple of Ring-billed Gulls.

It started to rain so Barb C and I walked quickly up the hill to the car. While we waited for the others, we wondered if Connie had left since she only walked down to a park bench and sat while the rest of us went to the water. No she had not left, she walked back to her car. Where were the rest, they must have taken a different route. While we were waiting we caught up with each other since we had not seen each other in 6 weeks.

Connie, Eleanor and Barb C decided it was time to go home. Bill and Jane wanted to keep birding. Bill drove to Kichi Zibi Parkway and checked out some of the lookouts, only to find rocks. We did see a flock of Scaup near the parkway but there was no way we could stop, so we headed for Mud Lake, there we saw Wood Duck and Pied-billed Grebe. We drove down to the water and saw just water. Okay where to next, let's try Scrivens - Common Merganser. We had lunch at the turnaround on Grandview where we saw more American Robins. Then we tried Dick Bell - Common Goldeneye. There was nothing at Shirley's Bay.

On our return we checked out the DND pond, Hooded Merganser and a Song Sparrow. Bill, let's try Andrew Haydon Park. Just after I got out of the vehicle I received a call from Ken asking if we were still birding and where were we? He said he would join us. Bill brought out his scope and we checked out the western end of the park. The water was very very low, many Canada Geese along with Common Mergansers and a couple of Blue-wing Teal and of course Mallards. I walked over to the bridge to see if there were any birds around, yep one lone Canada Goose. Walking back I see Ken's car. I shouted to him to look up, there was a Bald Eagle juvenile. His response was a good way to start birding.

We chatted a while and we were heading to the car and I was telling him Sami did not join us because he had a cold. Ken said well there is Lynne and Sami. We caught up with them, it had started to rain again. Time to go home and stop birding for the day, Well not really our last bird was a Rock Pigeon on Pinecrest.

33 species for mid October is not bad.

Thank you Bill and Barb and Connie for your photos and thank you Eleanor for doing the ebird list.