Ottawa Area Birding: Presqu'ile Park Search for Purple Sandpipers with Jon Ruddy & JC Birding

November 24, 2024

Birding Report by Jane Burgess

Bill and Barbara met Eleanor and I had my place at 5:45 (so early). We were joining Jon Ruddy's group at Presqu'ile Park at 9:00. The traffic was very light on the 416 and 401, no big trucks at all. On the way Bill was telling us that he put his rubber boots into the back of his SUV on Friday, but on Saturday he was putting something into the back and noticed one of his boots had a crack in it so he took it out and glued it back together. I had to buy new rubber boots because I did not think my existing boots were high enough, I just did not want to get my feet wet. Bill and I also brought along walking sticks, neither of us were interested in falling down in cold water. We all brought winter coats and rain pants. Barbara came along but she just was not interested in going to Gull Island, last time she went, the water got over her boots and she had cold wet feet, so she decided to walk around the area and take photos.

We arrived early around 8:30. Jon arrived next and the two other participants shortly thereafter. We had changed into our warm clothes, around the water it could be just darn cold. Jon suggested that we leave our wind pants outside of our boots, I opted not to because my rubber boots could be tightened at the knee, no water was getting into my boots.

We walked to the point and the first bird we saw was a juvenile Herring Gull, then a couple of Red-breasted Mergansers, one with a broken bill. Someone asked about hunting -- Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday are set aside for hunting. Good no one will be shooting. I had asked Jon if I could use his arm as we crossed the water, the water was not deep and there wasn't much of a water crossing -- a couple of minutes of walking at the most. Once on land we scanned the lake -- Long-tail Ducks far away. Walked some more and looked through the scope to see a Snowy Owl on a small island far away, but we would see much better views as we moved further onto the island. We saw a small flock of Mute Swans which Jon later changed to Tundra Swans.

At this point Bill indicated his boot had a malfunction, the other boot had started to leak. Must have been cold on his feet.

Jon decided to check out the east side first. We saw several Rough-legged Hawks, Red-tail Hawk and Cooper's Hawk on the next island, High Bluff. As we walked further down the island Rosanne, one of the participants, spotted some shorebirds. Jon said "Dunlin", they were among the Ring-billed Gulls. Eleanor took a look through the scope and she muttered to herself looks like a Sanderling to me. It turned out there were two shorebirds, Jon had not seen the Sanderling initially. In the distance we saw a small flock of Snow Buntings, then minutes later we saw a huge flock of them.

Time to check out the other side of the island, Jon did not cross the island because of the potential for ticks. As we walked to the other side I asked John why so many dead birds -- Gull, Cormorant and Terns' remains were all over the place. There was no smell to them, it was late in the season and they had washed ashore was the answer. The middle of the island had a lot of mallow growing, we came along a tomato plant with many little red tomatoes as well we saw flowering wild asters. On a sandbar we saw a Great Black-backed Gull amongst the Herring Gulls. There was also another Dunlin spotted. From where we were we had good views of the Snowy Owl. We also saw White-winged Scoter, Common Goldeneye, Horned Grebe and Bufflehead.

Walking back Jon spotted a Peregrine Falcon and lucky for us it landed on the beach, then it flew and came back to the same spot on the beach. We met up with Barbara who was waiting for us in a duck blind. We checked out the beach but just Canada Geese. On the walk back to the vehicles we did see a small mixed flock of Black-capped Chickadees and Golden-crowned Kinglets. A bit further down the trail, Jon had spotted a Wood Frog. Now these frogs are different. They have adapted to cold climates by freezing, over the winter. During this time they stop breathing and their heart stops beating. The bodies produce a special antifreeze substance that prevents ice from freezing within their cells. Nature is simply amazing. Oh another interesting factoid about this frog, it quacks like a mallard duck!!! Back at the vehicles, we decided it was time for lunch, since we did have quite an early start. We drove a short way down Lighthouse Lane to a picnic spot with a view of the lake. Imagine, an outdoor picnic at the end of November!

So we were hoping for Purple Sandpiper sadly no Purple Sandpiper for this outing.

After lunch we drove to the lighthouse, no new water fowl, but we did see more Chickadees, a Brown Creeper, Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers, White-breasted Nuthatch and American Goldfinch. We walked over to Fred Helleiner's place and there we saw Mourning Dove and we spoke to Fred briefly. Good to see him. Back at the vehicles, for one more stop at Beach 1 with no new species noted. Jon indicated the day trip was over with him. We took off our warm clothes for the trip back to Ottawa . Before Jon left we got the coordinates of Mac Johnson Wildlife Area in Brockville.

We got to Mac Johnson around 4ish, we were hoping to see the Eurasian Wigeon. When we got out of the vehicle, the weather had gotten a bit colder and windier. Eleanor set up the scope and she found American Wigeon (lots of them), Northern Pintail, Northern Shoveler, Hooded Merganser and a Muskrat. We did not stay very long, the lighting was poor. We decided that the next outing would be back to the area, for a more concentrated search of the Eurasian Wigeon with more scopes. The couple that had joined us at Presqu'ile told us it took them 1 1/2 hours to find the one Eurasian Wigeon.

It was getting dark, time to head home.

37 species, not bad for end of November birding.