Ottawa Area Birding

Tuesday, November 19, 2024

Fletcher to Shirley's Bay and Beyond with JC Birding

November 19, 2024

Birding Report by Jane Burgess

I met Barbara and Bill at their place and we arrived at 8:20 at Fletcher Garden. Would you believe it, it took almost an hour to get to Fletchers, the traffic down Baseline was crazy busy and then there was construction on Prince of Wales. When we got there Carole, Alan and Eleanor reported that they had seen the Barred Owl, Northern Cardinal, Dark-eyed Junco, Downy Woodpecker, White-breasted Nuthatch and Black-capped Chickadee. kljkldjlfdjipafsdjiopfs darn traffic. Oh yes and Eleanor heard a Cackling Goose. We wandered over to the wildlife garden and checked the trees, and Eleanor found the Barred Owl high up in one of the evergreens. We walked over to the back feeder, splitting up because Carole and Eleanor were worried about getting a parking ticket. My group saw a couple of American Goldfinch and Black-capped Chickadees and the other group saw House Finch.

We drove over to the Experimental Farm parking lot, got out our scopes and walked to Dows Lake. It was a good idea to go there - Barrow's Goldeneye, Common Goldeneye, Hooded Merganser, Common Merganser, Black Duck and Mallard. Eleanor checked discord and she said a Yellow-throated Warbler is at Dick Bell. Rare bird. We should pack up and go and so we did.

We parked at Dick Bell and it was super easy to find the bird -- a whole lot of people on the north side of the park leading to the lighthouse. It was a new bird for Eleanor and she was already checking out the bird when we arrived, The Yellow-throated Warbler was on the water side of the pathway, it was foraging very low, almost ground level. Then it would disappear and reappear but always stay pretty low. To me, it looks pretty similar to an Audubon's Yellow-rumped Warbler. It is found in the US. A Yellow-throated Warbler last seen in Ottawa was in the 2005. So we were pretty lucky to see it. It stuck around until 11:00 flew west and was not relocated.

While we were a Dick Bell, someone mentioned a Snowy Owl and I looked through a scope to see a white dot. So we drove over to Shirley's Bay. We could see it easily seei its head move and we could see that it was a juvenile. Yes we saw the Snowy, but it was far far near the tip of Innes Point. We also saw Bufflehead, Common Loon and a Great Black-backed Gull.

We double-backed to Andrew Haydon, of course Canada Geese, one Common Merganser, a mixed flock of Lesser and Greater Scaup. In the Pond were about 10 or 12 American Wigeons. Carole thought the Merganser was Red-breasted but then changed her mind. Bill thought the same thing but when he got home and had a better look, yes Red-breasted Merganser.

After lunch we drove to Carleton Place Storm Pond, more Canada Geese and a small flock of Green-winged Teal. There were two of them swimming amongst the Canada Geese, the Teal looked so tiny compared to the Geese. We checked out the boat launch where we saw more Bufflehead, Mallards and Canada Geese. We drove west to check out the water there and saw nothing on the water.

Driving to Almonte Lagoons, we saw a Blue Jay and at the lagoons, we saw 1000s of Canada Geese. Walking down the path to the hide, there was some snow dumped to the left of the path, strange, I am assuming the hockey rink people put it there. When we got to the hide, Bill said surely there must be Teal, we looked and looked and nothing but Canadas. Bill thought he saw a Cackling Goose, Eleanor had left us and we needed her sharp eye. Then a duck swam out from the reeds and took off flying, we followed it with our bins and when it landed put the scopes on it -- Green-wing Teal. Just outside the hide, two Blue Jays made their presence known and we saw a single Black-capped Chickadee.

Time to go home. We felt very good about the day, getting some good birds and getting one fantastic bird and the day was just beautiful for November.

Species Seen

Wild Turkey
American Crow
Rock Pigeon
European Starling
Ring-billed Gull
Canada Goose
Barred Owl
Northern Cardinal
Cackling Goose
Dark-eyed Junco
Downy Woodpecker
White-breasted Nuthatch
Black-capped Chickadee
House Finch
American Goldfinch
Common Raven
Barrow's Goldeneye
Common Goldeneye
Hooded Merganser
Common Merganser
Mallard
Black Duck
Yellow-throated Warbler
Snowy Owl
Bufflehead
Great Black-backed Gull
Common Loon
Lesser Scaup
Greater Scaup
Red-breasted Merganser
American Wigeon
Green-winged Teal
Blue Jay

Monday, November 11, 2024

Mer Bleue and Eastern Lagoons

November 11, 2024

Birding Report by Jane Burgess

I met up with the Bowmans at 7:20 and we were at Elmvale Acres by 7:40, we had forgotten that it was a government holiday, hence no traffic. But when we drove into the shopping centre, Ken followed us and Ann followed him so we were all early.

We drove to Dewberry Trail and Alan and Carole were there. At the feeder (the lady had just filled the feeders) we saw Hairy and Downy Woodpeckers, Dark-eyed Juncos, Blue Jays and White-breasted Nuthatch.

We drove to Ridge Road to the Mer Bleu hoping we would see Fox Sparrows, but no. We saw a Northern Cardinal and a small flock of Wild Turkeys. At the feeders more Blue Jays, maybe 8 to 10 American Tree Sparrows, a couple of White-throated Sparrows and further down the trail 6 or 7 camouflaged Mourning Doves. The Doves blended in with the fallen leaves so well.

Next stop was Embrun Lagoons. A few of us climbed the gate to check out the cells, many Green-winged Teal, three Northern Shovellers (1 m & 2 f), Mallards and of course there were plenty of Canada Geese. We then went to Casselman lagoons to see Ring-necked Ducks, Bufflehead, Scaups (sp) and of course Canada Geese.

Next lagoon was St Isidore. When we got out of the vehicles Ken asked us if we saw the Snow Geese flying, we did not. It is not uncommon to see a Bald Eagle there and we were not disappointed, he was perched but he took off and it was so beautiful seeing the white of his head and tail. The only other new species was an American Coot. The farm next to the lagoon usually has Guinea Fowl, but none were seen or heard, but the domesticated Muscovy Duck was there. Barbara asked what St Isidore is known for, so I looked it up. St Isidore is known for his love of the poor and there are accounts of

St.Isidore supplying them miraculously with food. He died in 636 AD. Now the town of St Isidore was established after WWII

by 10 francophone families from Quebec. There is an interactive St Isidore Museum, Plein Soleil folkloric dance troupe, in the town. If birding isn't so good, maybe it might get checked out someday.

We headed to Cobbs Creek, disappointment - just mud and no geese. We had lunch and then we thought we would go after the Slaty-backed Gull at Cobb Lake. We tried a couple of locations and at one place we saw Mark P. who was checking out a flock of gulls and he did not see the Slaty-backed. We checked the landfill area, nothing.

We decided to go to the Navan area, as we drove McFadden Road, Bill said Snow Buntings. We got out of the vehicle and slowly walked toward them. But we got distracted by the 40+ Sandhill Cranes, Bonus, and started photographing them.

We drove down Smith and our first critter sighting, an Eastern Coyote who just stood there and looked at us. We drove a bit more of Smith and turned around and Mr. Coyote was gone. The Eastern Coyote is a hybrid between the smaller western coyote and the eastern wolf.

We checked out Wall Road and saw our 4th flock of Wild Turkeys -- we saw 5 flocks of them over the course of the day,

I did not mention the weather. At the first lagoon, it was blowing and I was cold, Carole very nicely lent me a toque, so glad, Thank you Carole. The weather changed to spitting rain then maybe a bit harder.

Home by 3:30