Brief Cottage Visit

April 22, 2017

Barbara had a Cottage Association meeting, so we drove up on a rather dreary day.  At Venosta, we had a pair of Merlins entertain us.  At Aylwin, we looked for ducks on the river but found a Belted Kingfisher.  At the cottage, the ice was hanging on just barely, and we had to shovel a snowbank to get down our hill.  The usual feeder birds were around and Barbara spotted a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker.

After the meeting, on the way home, we had a Northern Harrier at Bouchette and the Merlin was still holding court at Venosta.

Birding at Mud Lake and west of Ottawa

Tuesday April 18, 2017
Text by Barb C

After three days of rain or overcast dreary skies, this morning dawned bright blue with no clouds.  It was chilly though and around 3 degrees when Connie, BarbC, Lynn, Barb & Bill Bowman met up at the Mud Lake parking lot.  Connie’s target birds today were Eastern Blue Birds, Eastern Phoebe and an Eastern Meadowlark.  Not asking for much…. if possible.

There were lots of Canada Geese around and one Double Crested Cormorant in Mud Lake.  We saw Common Mergansers, Wood Ducks and a Pied-billed Grebe from the roadside shore.  We had to use our scopes to see the birds in the back.  There was also a Canadian Beaver that swam by.  There are pretty easy to id, the large head and ears are easily seen and the large wake behind the animal means a strong big swimmer is motoring along.  Bill identified a Leopard frog from the sound we heard, the Leopard call is like a big snore sound.

We decided to do the ridge first in the early morning sunshine and there were many Dark-eyed Juncos flitting about and many Red-winged Black Birds, including females.  The Robins were out along with the “Hey Sweetie” Chickadees.  We found our first Yellow-rumped Warbler in breeding plumage of the year here, along with male and female Pine Warblers.  We encountered a Ruby-crowned Kinglet in the bushes and it was typically very flighty but we ended up having great looks at it.  One of Connie’s target birds was found.  Another new bird for the year was a beautiful White-throated Sparrow in bright breeding plumage.  We took our time and poked around and found some patches of Snow Drops (Lynn sent info on this afterwards on the plants we discussed; Common Snowdrop – “Galanthas nivalis”).  These are usually the first spring ephemerals and sometimes there is still snow around them.  They are perfectly suited to our Ottawa climate.   We viewed the Ottawa River side also for diving ducks.  The water was wild and high and fast.  There were some female Goldeneye that were sailing by in the swift current.  On the way down from the ridge to the road we came across patches of small blue flowers which Lynn identified for us as Scilla.   Lynn followed this up with more information.  These small bluebell –like flowers are called Scilla or wood squill, “Scilla siberica”. 

 We saw many patches of Scilla on our walk through the forest of Mud Lake.  It was pretty dry on the path along the lake to the back of the lake,  with only a few wet spots which was surprising to us.  We found Hairy and Downy Woodpeckers, more Juncos and Song Sparrows which were everywhere yesterday.   In addition on the path near the back bridge, there was a lingering American Tree Sparrow.  We looked for the nest-building Pileated Woodpeckers in the back but they were not there.  To get to the bridge at the back one had to go through some deeper water as there was some flooding there.  Some of us did this and once on the bridge we had great views of Painted Turtles sunning themselves on rocks and logs.  Turtles need to do this to harden the shells after being in the mud all winter.  When they emerge in the spring their shells are soft.

We returned the same way we came and in the big pine tree area, we saw people looking up and the Pileated Woodpecker male was excavating a nest hole.  The chips of wood were flying in the air and the nest hole was high up in a tall white snag.  There was no bark on the tree.

We saw some more pairs of ducks; Wood Ducks and Black Ducks along the shore.  Here Bill and Barb Bowman said goodbye and Lynn also had to leave.  

Note - Barb C and Connie continued on...

So it was just Connie and I and we had no other plans for the day, so that meant….. we continue to bird until it is time to go home.

Connie and I walked over to the east side of the water filtration building in hope of finding a Black-crowned Night Heron which would have been nice to see.  Nope!  The only heron was saw this day was the fly-by of a Great Blue Heron over Mud Lake.  They were kind of scarce.

By now the call of nature was presenting itself and we drove to Shirley’s Bay to use the facilities and have lunch at Hilda St feeders.  In the parking lot at Shirley’s Bay we met two birder friends and they told us about a reported sighting of a Ross’s Goose on Old Highway 17 near Antrim.  We told them we were looking for Bluebirds.    We wished them good luck.

At Hilda Feeders there was hardly anything in the feeders but still lots on the ground underneath the feeders so there were birds.  American Tree and Song Sparrows were abundant.  On the feeder we spotted our first Cowbird of the year!  It was solo.  We had a quick picnic lunch, each of us sitting on a cushion on the large rocks. There is nothing better at this time of year to have lunch outside in the sunshine.  We finally shed a layer of clothes and I took off my rubber boots which were hot and put on shoes.

We  parked my car in the little parking lot opposite the turn-off to Shirley’s Bay.  There was a trio of huge barking dogs in the yard next where I parked, so it was a good spot.  Off we went in Connie’s car.  We drove down March Valley.  We passed the spot where the Bald Eagle nest can be seen and the Egret Rookery and stopped but it was too far to view any activity like a sitting bird and there was a lot of heat haze already.  There was nothing at the Duck Club feeders and then we turned on to Riddell Road which now has a new name which I googled just now and can’t find any info on it.  The street sign said Cameron something Street.    On this road we saw that the Osprey had returned to its nest and one Osprey was sitting on the nest and the other was nearby.  Connie also saw a third big raptor-like bird flying by.  I did not see it when I got out of the car and I was quick.  It was gone, so it is a mystery raptor.

Once on Concession 6 we looked for something different and it was pretty quiet in the lovely afternoon sunshine.  We did see a Wild Turkey Tom cross Concession 6 slowly and he was all alone, no female Turkeys were with him.  So he was a Romeo on the hunt or else had a death wish,  he was strolling across the road and there was a truck coming up fast behind us which we thought he may pass us and hit the Turkey.  Did not happen, whew!  We drove down the north side of Berry Side Road which is usually good in migration and maybe this was a touch too early as there was nothing unusual there.  We turned around and headed south to turn on to Concession 5.  We turned left which was not usually where we go and we were quickly rewarded with Bluebirds on a property.  Connie parked as she wanted to take photos of the bluebirds and when I got out on my side there was a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker working away on a nearby Birch Tree and up really close.  I took photos of this fellow since he was so busy and did not mind.  The sapsucker was there for the longest time and even Connie took photos of it after her Bluebird photo session. 

From here we went down Berry Side Road toward the Constance Lake houses and we heard a Warbling Vireo.  Off we went to Thomas Dolan to see what was on Constance Creek.  There was not much on Constance Creek except Canada Geese.  We bumped into the two birders we talked with earlier and they had seen the Ross’s Goose and a White-fronted Goose .    Also Eastern Meadowlarks were seen.  It was only 3:30 or so, Connie and I decided to go and check this out. 

We arrived on the Old Highway 17 past Antrim spot across from a flooded field and there were birders still there.  The Ross’s Goose was easy to spot.  It was feeding and walking around when we viewed it through a scope.  It was so white compared to all the other Canadas there.  Greater Yellowlegs were spotted AND Eastern Meadowlarks.    Some Canadas started to fly and we scoped through the flooded area for the White-fronted Goose with no luck but we had some lovely birds today.  By the time we headed back to town and my car, it was after 5 pm.  We were delighted with the birds today!  The bird list follows.

Mud Lake shore by parking lot
1.       Pied-bill Grebe
2.       Double-crested Cormorant
3.       Canada Goose
4.       Wood Duck
5.       Red-winged Black Bird, both sexes
6.       Hooded Mergansers
7.       Great Blue Heron
8.       Black Duck
9.       Mallard
10.   American Crow
11.   Bufflehead
12.   Northern Cardinal
13.   Black-capped Chickadee
14.   Downey Woodpecker

Leopard Frog heard
Canadian Beaver viewed

Mud Lake - The Ridge
15.   Dark-eyed Junco
16.   Yellow-rumped Warbler
17.   Common Goldeneye
18.   American Robin
19.   Northern Flicker
20.   Pine Warbler
21.   Trees Swallow
22.   Song Sparrow
23.   Ruby-crowned Kinglet
24.   White-breasted Nuthatch
25.   House Finch
26.   American Goldfinch
27.   White-throated Sparrow
28.   Brown Creeper

Mud Lake - On the way to the back of the Mud Lake bridge
29.   Hairy Woodpecker
30.   Common Raven – heard several times
31.   American Tree Sparrow

Mud Lake - By the Water Filtration Plant
32.   European Starling

Shirley’s Bay
33.   Eastern Phoebe
34.   Mourning Dove
35.   Brown-headed Cowbird

On Riddell and Concession #6
36.   Osprey on nest and partner nearby
37.   Wild Turkey Tom

On Concession #5
38.   Eastern Bluebirds
39.   Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

On Berry Side Road – heading south
40.   Two American Kestrels on a tree
41.   Warbling Vireo – heard only

Old Highway 17 and Antrim Road area
42.   Eastern Meadowlark
43.   Ross’ Goose
44.   Greater Yellowlegs

Ottawa East and South - Milton Rd, Bourget, Lancaster, Cooper Marsh

April 12, 2017
Text by Connie

This was a much better date to go looking for Snow Geese and waterfowl -- lots of flooded fields and birds.  What a change from 2 weeks ago!  From reports it was apparent that there were more Snow Geese east of Ottawa than south.  Hence we spent quite a while around Milton, Smith, Frank Kenny and Bourget.

On Milton we found only three Snow Geese, but at the flooded area were many ducks.  All the Northern Pintails today were quite far away but Barb B manage to get a photo of a few.  The cloudy day meant little heat haze so scope views today were great.  Along with Bufflehead, Gadwall, Lesser Scaup, Ring-necked Duck, and American Black Duck we also had Tree Swallow and a Vesper Sparrow.  Barb managed to get a quick photo of the sparrow -- it was not there long but was showing off its reddish shoulder patch beautifully.  We checked along Milton for Sandhill Cranes but eventually found about 10 of them on Smith Road a bit closer than they often are.  They were vocalizing a lot as you can see in one of the photos.

The flooded fields on Frank Kenny also yielded some first-of-the-year waterfowl for us.  We had both Teal (Blue and Green Winged), American Wigeon, Northern Shoveler, and Wood Ducks.  There were many more Northern Pintail here too.  We also had an American Kestrel along Frank Kenny.

Further east on Russell Road, East of Bourget, we saw 2000+ Snow Geese in flooded fields.  And south of Curran on CR 9 in another flooded area we had 1000+ more Snow Geese.  One area had a large number of Blue Morphs.  Throughout the area one could see in the distance, ribbons of geese that went on forever.  One photo of the black dots shows only a very small portion of what we saw.  I should mention too that we saw many, many Canada Geese today as well -- some in almost every field!

On Hwy 2 east of Cornwall we saw our first Osprey on a Nest beside the river.  Also along here we had great views of a Common Merganser pair, Gadwall pair, and Pied-billed Grebe which did manage to catch a tasty snack!  Our next stop was the Cooper Marsh.  We thought it might be too wet to go far but the boardwalk through the marsh was fully open.  Some good birds were see here:  Brown Creeper, both Kinglets, Wilson's Snipe, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, and a Pine Warbler!  I saw a hawk briefly and after checking some references have since decided for sure that it was a Broad-winged Hawk.

We took the South Service Road east of South Lancaster but the river was extremely rough and we saw very little on it.  We did find a Northern Harrier (m) flying low over the fields near the Wesley Point area.  And on the way back to Ottawa we had another Norther Harrier, this time a female.  We concluded our day with views of Wild Turkey and Red Tailed Hawk.

So a good day despite the fact that the sun only materialized briefly, and the wind reminded you that it is still early spring.

The list for the day is below -- surprisingly we had 50 birds seen plus one we just heard.


Connie Denyes

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Birds Observed Wednesday, April 12, 2017   
Ottawa East and South - Milton Rd, Bourget, Lancaster, Cooper Marsh
(Barb C, Bill & Barb, Connie)   
   
Ottawa East - Russell Road   
1    American Crow
2    Canada Goose
3    Red-winged Blackbird (m)
4    Rock Pigeon
   
Ottawa East - Milton Road   
5    American Black Duck
6    Bufflehead(m,f)
***    Canada Goose (thousands)
7    Dark-eyed Junco
8    Gadwall
9    Lesser Scaup
10    Mallard
11    Northern Pintail
12    Ring-billed Gull
13    Ring-necked Duck (m)
14    Snow Goose (3)
15    Song Sparrow
16    Tree Swallow
17    Vesper Sparrow
   
Ottawa East - Smith Road   
18    American Robin
19    Black-capped Chickadee
20    Common Grackle
21    Mourning Dove
22    Sandhill Crane (10)
   
Ottawa East - Meteor (off Smith)   
23    Blue Jay
24    Northern Flicker
   
Ottawa East - Frank Kenny   
25    American Kestrel
26    American Wigeon
27    Blue-winged Teal
28    Common Raven
29    Green-winged Teal
30    Herring Gull
***    Northern Pintail (many)
31    Northern Shoveler
32    Wood Duck (m, f)
   
Ottawa East - Russell Road    
33    Killdeer
***    Snow Goose (2000+ near Beaulieu)
34    Turkey Vulture (at Cheney)
   
Ottawa East - County Road 9   
35    House Sparrow
***    Snow Goose (1000+, South of Curran)
   
Cornwall - Hwy 2 east of Cornwall   
36    Osprey (on nest)
37    Common Merganser (m, f)
38    Pied-billed Grebe
***    Bufflehead
***    Gadwall (pair)
39    Cormorant (colony)
   
Cornwall-Lancaster -- Cooper Marsh   
40    Broad-winged Hawk
41    Brown Creeper (at least 2)
42    Downy Woodpecker
***    Northern Flicker
43    Golden-crowned Kinglet
44    Pine Warbler
45    Ruby-crowned Kinglet
***    White-breasted Nuthatch (heard only)
46    Wilson's Snipe
47    Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
   
South Lancaster - East - 2nd Line (Westley's Point)   
48    Northern Harrier (m)
   
Cornwall - Guindon Park   
***    Herring Gull
   
Highway 138   
49    Wild Turkey (m, 2f)
   
Ottawa East - Highway 417   
***    Northern Harrier (f)
50    Red-tailed Hawk

Total:    Birds Observed =   50     Birds Heard Only =  1