Ottawa Area Birding

Wednesday, March 25, 2026

GHOW

March 25, 2026

Undisclosed location.

This second GHOW on the nest is in Greely. Hard to see her.

Tuesday, March 24, 2026

Up the Valley with JC Birding

March 24, 2026

Birding Report by Jane Burgess

I almost phoned Bill to say I would not be joining the group (2 1/2 hours sleep), but it's birding how could I possibly say that. While putting my scope in the back of my vehicle I heard an American Robin singing. Joined Bill and Barbara and we drove to the Kanata Park and Ride. Barb C was there, but she wasn't looking for birds, sitting in her car - unusual for her. Eleanor and Ken soon drove up.

Of course we stopped at Antrim Truck stop for our usual sugar fill. Bill suggested that we check out the Arnprior Generating Station for the Peregrine Falcon, Yep it was there. Barb C wanted to go to Clay Banks, maybe the water is open. Nope it was not, but we all got to see a Northern Shrike, always good to see,

We checked the water at Cobden, frozen, we proceeded to Snake River Line. For the longest time nothing. Ken and Eleanor are not following us, we called them, they thought they had a Rough-legged Hawk. We joined them, but the bird was far away, on the wrong side of a tree and facing the wrong way. We could wait, but....

We drove a little further and we got to see a Rough-legged Hawk well. First glance I thought Eagle, second glance a Red-tail Hawk. But with the use of binoculars obviously I was wrong, wrong, wrong. We saw another Rough-legged Hawk on the other side of the road, Then we saw 2 Bald Eagles high in the sky. While Bill was checking out the Eagles, he saw a Red-tailed Hawk. A Turkey Vulture was spotted overhead.

For lunch we stopped on Ross Road - an awesome place in spring and summer, but today it was just frozen. I was passing the time looking through my binoculars and I spotted a Pileated Woodpecker. Funny because as we turned on to Ross Road, I said to Bill, we haven't seen any Woodpeckers.

Where should we go now, are there Sandhill Cranes reported, yes, just up the way on our right. Well birds have wings and they obviously used them, cause we did not see any Sandhill Cranes all day. Barb C suggested going to the Pembroke Dump (Ottawa Waste Recovery Station), Bill said sure it's 6 minutes away. We all depend on our GPS way too much, he lost service and then it made us do a complete circle before we got to the dump.

We got to the dump and I asked if we could go in, go to gate 2 and look from there. Okay we did, kind of, we drove in beyond the gate, but just slightly. We could see the birds well, Many Herring Gulls, in fact we looked for other Gulls, but there were just Herring Gulls. We spotted at least 6 Bald Eagles. Of course there were many, many American Crows and European Starlings. I did see two amorous Bald Eagles do their thing. An 'official' dump person came to see us and told us we should not be there, but at the gate. I apologized for my misunderstanding (honestly it was not a misunderstanding I was stretching what the first person said to me). She was very nice and told us about phoning before, etc, etc,. After she was done, I asked can you show us to the place in the dump. Affirmative, she would get her vehicle and show us the place, we could get out of the vehicles, "but do not go on the roads". She repeated the same thing once we were at our assigned spot. We did not see anything new, but Bill and Ken were busy photographing birds.

We went then went to the Osceola Dump, nothing. Bill did remark that maybe we becoming 'dump people'

On the way home we went to various places, but it yielded nothing. I was fading fast. Well my tiredness hit me hard, I think I slept once we got onto highway 17. Once I got home I pretty well hit the sack at 5:00 pm and woke up at 7 am.

Well rested today.

Oh but I am glad I went birding because every day birding is such a good day.

Species Noted

American Robin
Black-capped Chickadee
American Crow
Rock Pigeon
Red-winged Blackbird
Canada Geese
European Starling
Common Grackle
Peregrine Falcon
Common Raven
Ring-billed Gull
Northern Shrike
Rough-legged Hawk
Bald Eagle
Red-tailed Hawk
Mourning Dove
Turkey Vulture
Wild Turkey
Pileated Woodpecker
Herring Gull
Blue Jay

Friday, March 20, 2026

Rideau Tennis Club

March 20, 2026

We decided to check the Rideau River by the Adawe Bridge. It had snowed a bit, so had to scrape the windshield. We no sooner got underway than it started to snow, coming down fairly heavily most of the time we were out. Protecting our equipment with plastic bags was a challenge. We did well to get a few photos.

Wednesday, March 18, 2026

Eastern Fields to the St Lawrence with JC Birding

March 18, 2026

Birding Report by Jane Burgess

I got out of my vehicle to close the garage door and all I could hear was bird song - a large flock of European Starling singing. What a beautiful way to start the morning. I drove to the Bowman's place and once there I heard a Common Raven, then saw it fly over, calling all the while. I glanced over at his neighbours and saw an American Robin and a Northern Cardinal.

We met Barb C and Ken at Elmvale Acres shopping centre, they carpooled. Driving out of the shopping centre we saw a large flock of Rock Pigeons. Flying amongst them were 3 Ring-billed Gulls. There was an American Crow perched on a light standard.

Which way are we going to go to Milton, straight down Russell Road or via Ridge Road, Bill indicated Russell Road, but decided at the last minute to go via Ridge Road, no birds anywhere. As we turned onto Russell Road, we stopped to look at the Red-tailed Hawk in a tree. Always the optimist, I suggested seeing the hawk so early might be a good omen for the day. I had let Alan and Carol know we would meet them somewhere on Milton Road, wherever there was room to park. We stopped to check out the fields, yeah no open water, no birds. Further up we noticed the ditch water was flowing, but no birds. We drove past a silo looking for Common Raven nesting, nope. Later when we met up with Carol and Alan, they told us there was a Common Raven on the top of the silo not on the nest.

We met up with Carole and Alan at the bridge on Frank Kenny, there were lots of Canada Geese, no ducks with them. We checked out several flocks of Canada Geese, looking for the Greater White-fronted Goose that had been seen, nope did not see it. We drove over to Dunning and parked in front of the Commando Paintball establishment. There was lots of space to set up all the scopes, we checked and checked, Canada Geese only. I got a little bit bored so I started checking the trees, in the far distance we saw two Bald Eagles high in the trees.

Ken suggested with all these frozen fields perhaps we should drive south, for open water. We decided that would be the plan, however Carol and Alan did not want to make a full day of it, so they opted out. Bill suggested we check out Cobb Creek first. Off we went, Bill took Russell Road while Ken decided on a parallel road. We got to Cobb Creek first, to find a very small flock of Canada Geese. A call to Barb C found they were 20 minutes out, so we decided to meet them at Farren Park (We never got there).

Well we found lots of open water, but no birds. Finally after an hour + driving we ended up just in front of the Long Sault Parkway. Bill let's go there, it's usually pretty good. Well that was an understatement. On one side of the bridge nothing but Canada Geese, but on the other side, we hit pay dirt. Two close up Long-tail Ducks, such beautiful birds in breeding plumage. Lots of Common Goldeneye and Ring-neck Ducks. The Hooded Merganser males were in full breeding plumage. We watched 4 or 5 male Hooded Mergansers do their full courtship ritual for one female while she paid absolutely no attention to them. They would swim up close to her and extend their necks and somehow blow up their throats, shake their heads and open their beaks, sing and bob up and down. There were lots of Common Mergansers and I think only one Red-breasted Merganser. It was good seeing Redheads. Strangely I think we saw only one pair of Mallard, usually there are so many. There was a large flock of Canada Geese there as well, all of a sudden with a lot of noise, another flock of Canadas joined the swimming Geese. Directly in front of us a little Black-capped Chickadee was busy going from branch to branch singing Chick a dee dee dee. Love nature.

A man came over and spoke to us, he was a photographer from Metcalfe. We spoke for a while (I was doing the Barb C thing chatting him up). I called Barb and Ken to tell them where we were and what species we were seeing. They said they would be there in 20 minutes. As I spoke to the gentleman, a car pulled up and asked what we were seeing, I listed all the species for him. The woman in the passenger seat said there are Snow Geese at Glen Walter, they just landed there. Oh thank you we will go there. What goes around comes around.

Barb and Ken drove up and they too were so happy seeing all the ducks. We all had smiles on our faces, not sure there were smiles before that though at just seeing water and no birds.

We all had lunch and decided we would go to Glen Walter, wherever that was - the woman said it was east of Cornwall. Thank goods for GPS. Bill took the 401 while Ken took highway #2. We arrived at Glen Walter, drove past it, no Snow Geese, then all of a sudden Oh My Goodness, so many Snow Geese, what a wonderful sight, must have been between 4 and 5000 of them. The gentleman that we were talking to was also there. As I went back to the vehicle feeling one with the world.

Asked Bill what next, he made a suggestion. I went back to Ken and Barb's vehicle and told them. Barb handed me three wrapped candies, I gave one to the gentleman thanking him and the other two went to Barbara and Ken.

Our day finished on a very high note, seeing a Great Horned Owl on the nest.