October 27, 2026
Birding Report by Jane Burgess
Bill, Barb C and I set out just before 7:30, our first stop was at Winchester Lagoons, nothing, well Canada Geese. Bill drove to the end of Bank Street. Poor Bill had to contend with the bright sun shining right into his eyes. Once at the St Lawrence,
all looked quiet, but that did not deter Barb from hauling out her scope to look for Common Loons. And she did find one, which made Barb very happy. We had two rather close flybys of Common Mergansers.
We headed east on Highway #2, where we stopped at the bay (back of the Ault Island causeway) with a huge flock of waterfowl. My goodness there were so many Ring-necked Ducks, they actually outnumbered Canada Geese. We saw at least 50 Redheads, many Wigeon,
Green-winged Teal and Trumpeter Swans. I was lucky I spotted a Pied-billed Grebe. Bill and Barb looked for it, but to no avail. On the other side of the road, we saw a couple of Mallards.
We drove to the causeway, where we heard a tapping tapping, nope we never saw the source of the tapping. Driving to the island four or five Wood Ducks were spotted. We turned right at the t junction and at the end of the road the only birds seen were
Black-capped Chickadees. Bill walked to the end of the island while Barb played the mobbing tape, it did not attract any other species except Black-capped Chickadees.
We stopped at the place with all the bird feeders, but the man of the house was cutting the lawn, so we continued on. As we turned, in the distance on the other side of the water, we spotted a Great Blue Heron. Bill said he saw 2 Trumpeter Swans flyby.
At the end of the road I looked at Merlin as I was playing it to see if it picked up any good birds singing. Yes it did, Tufted Titmouse, well we will stay longer at the house, hopefully that man will be finished cutting his lawn. We stayed at the end of
the road for a bit, hoping to see maybe a sparrow, not today.
We drove to the house with all the feeders, yeah the man was finished cutting his lawn, but now he was blowing leaves. I got out of the car to talk to him and he told me a few jokes. He indicated his wife was the birder and she was out. I asked if I
could get closer to the feeder, I watched for maybe 15 minutes, no Titmouse. There were European Starling eating at the feeder along with Red-wing Blackbirds. Only new birds were White-breasted Nuthatch and Downy Woodpecker. Driving the causeway, we noticed
more Trumpeter Swans, must have been the swans that Bill had seen.
We went to the Upper Canada Bird Sanctuary and parked in front of the usual spot where feeders are, but they were broken. We drove up to the Visitor Centre, where we saw 4 Bald Eagles high in the sky, cool. On the observation deck behind the Visitors
Centre Barb spotted a Red-bellied Woodpecker. We reminisced about the first time we had ever seen a Red-bellied Woodpecker, Bill even remembered the street in Bells Corners where we all had seen it separately. It was a big deal back then.
We then headed for the Long Sault Parkway, Barb wondered if we would see any Wild Turkeys, none were seen all day. It was pretty quiet. We stopped to photograph a lone Red-breasted Merganser, thinking it was something else. We all had our moments of
misidentifying birds, I think mine was the worst, Rock Pigeon, I thought was a small raptor. Oh dear. I won't give the details of the other misidentification. I had seen a bird swimming close to the edge of the water, we slowly drove along the road and
at the culvert, a Long-tailed Duck. Lots of photos were taken. Maybe the best bird of the day.
We drove to Guidon Park to look at the gulls by the water. Normally we see them on the water, but today they were on the lawn -- Ring-billed Gulls. There were some Gulls on a rock about 4 or 5 were Herring Gulls. What mystified us was a small gull with
pink legs and almost the plumage of an adult gull, mmmm. What the heck is it? Merlin indicated Ring-billed Gull, but why the pink legs. Maybe it was just a very small Herring Gull.
From there we drove to the R.H. Saunders Dam and Generating Station. The visitors centre is closed until May 2027, but we did go in. The facilities are spotless, they were holding some kind of meeting there, we quietly walked by to the deck at the back.
There we saw a Double-crested Cormorant flyby and yet another Bald Eagle flying way high in the sky.
Bill headed to the highway, we spotted a bird in a tree, that I thought was a crow. Bill pulled over for a better look, yet another misidentification by Jane, Red-tailed Hawk. After closer look, the head and beak certainly was not consistent with a
crow.
Bill drove to St Isidore Lagoons, where we were surprised to see a car was parked and a person was walking toward the lagoons. He stopped and headed toward us, what a considerate guy, he did not want the birds to fly.
Turns out we knew the guy - Giovanni (he is Barb, Eleanor and my 'boss' when it comes to the Munster Christmas bird count). He is doing a Big Year for the area and has broken Christian Friss Big Year record of 224 birds. Giovanni is at 226 and he had
two months to go. Here we saw many familiar ducks we had seen during the course of the day. Bill says to Giovanni, what's that bird in front of the Canada Geese on the right, good find Bill. White-winged Scoters, 4 of them. We were very happy seeing those
birds.
Along with the Scoters we did see a Greater Scaup. On the way out Giovanni says shh quiet I think I hear Red Crossbills. We all heard the song but we did not see the bird. Giovanni went into the farmer's place to ask about his domestic birds. Giovanni
then recorded the song and later he told us it was verified that the song was Red Crossbill.
All in all a long productive day. The best birds -- White-wing Scoter and Long-tail Duck, too bad we did not see the Red Crossbill.
Bill got to face the sun all the way home on the 417, sun in the eye in the morning, sun in the eye in the afternoon. But it was such a good day. Long day mind you, I got home at 5:45, Barb got home at 6:30. We had smiles on our faces.
Species Noted
- Canada Goose
- American Crow
- European Starling
- Ring-billed Gull
- Common Loon
- Common Merganser
- Blue Jay
- Trumpeter Swan
- Ring-necked Duck
- Red-winged Blackbird
- Green-winged Teal
- Common Raven
- Mallard
- Hooded Merganser
- American Wigeon
- American Goldfinch
- Wood Duck
- Black-capped Chickadee
- Great Blue Heron
- White-breasted Nuthatch
- Downy Woodpecker
- Red-bellied Woodpecker
- Bald Eagle
- Redhead
- Scaup (sp)
- Pied-billed Grebe
- Red-breasted Merganser
- Long-tailed Duck
- Herring Gull
- Double-crested Cormorant
- Rock Pigeon
- Red-tailed Hawk
- White-winged Scoter
- Greater Scaup
- Red Crossbill (h)
