Ottawa Area Birding: 2025

Friday, November 7, 2025

Harlequin Duck at Billings Bridge

November 7, 2025

Tuesday, November 4, 2025

Eastern Lagoons with JC Birding

November 4, 2025

Birding Report by Barbara Chouinard

Tuesday November 4, 2025 Birding Day in the Eastern Lagoons

Jane is very busy this week orchestrating a family Murder Mystery Night which we are looking to forward hearing all about it. Maybe Jane is not only a birder but the murderer??

It was a sunny morning when we met up at Elmvale Shopping Centre. I had not noticed the wind when I left downtown Ottawa. Maybe there was none. BUT as Eleanor, Ken and Barbc waited for Bill and Barbara who were stuck in traffic, the wind was gusty, blustery and chilly. One had to hold on to one’s scope today.

At the parking lot were Rock Pigeons, Ring billed Gulls and European Starlings. Oh, did I mention, Canada Geese. We saw lots and lots and lots of birds today, problem being they were mostly Canada Geese, probably in the thousands.

So, we set off. Bill and Barbara and Ken in one vehicle and Eleanor driving her car with Barbc. We got lost in Russell/Embrun nexus of the universe. My Google maps would not work properly. On the highway I tried to get google maps to work. It could not find the coordinates I put in for Road 3 and Road 6, Russell. Nope. To further complicate matters, I had no reading glasses and we were driving east in the sunshine directly in our eyes. All we could do was laugh.

Eleanor managed to get some google maps but we overshot, (we think) a road or two. Finally, leaving the phone on and talking with Ken and Bill and Barbara got us to a happy meet-up. Finally! We were so glad to see them.

Today we decided to do a good birding survey of the Eastern Lagoons. Maybe some Snow Geese...

The Russell Lagoons were “locked up” and it did not appear that anything was there. So, we went on to the Embrun Lagoons. There were lots of Canada Geese here. In the distance, Ken spotted a flying hawk, which was determined to be a Red-tailed Hawk. Once it crossed over it was mobbed by American Crows, maybe 5 of them. In the lagoons were Mallards, Green winged Teal, and Black Duck. There were strings of Canada Geese in the sky and Eleanor spotted something different in the far sky. We saw 5 Snow Geese flying. Trouble was they were flying away from us. But no doubt when the sunshine caught them at the right angle, the beautiful white with the black on the wings was beautiful. Ken took a stroll down the road to check the next cell. We lost him but could only see a green form flapping (Ken wore his green jacket today). Luckily, we did not have to search for Ken. We laughed.

At Casselman, the lagoon gate was open. Again, lots and lots, estimate was 2,000 Canada Geese. We looked through the geese and found a tiny female Bufflehead. It had the little white comma directly behind its eye. Barbara spotted movement in a nearby bush near the gate. The bird came out and sat on a branch with a red berry. The bird had a very crisp white breast and gray top and head in the sunlight. It was very handsome Dark eyed Junco and sat for a bit on the branch. I don’t know if there was a photo op. Barbara most likely got a great shot of it.

Next we headed to the St Isidore Lagoons. On the way there was a bird on the hydro wire. From our angle it looked like it had a round head and body and rusty sides. It flew after a minute or so. So, it was a mystery bird but Eleanor and I were tending toward saying it could be an Eastern Bluebird. Confirmed by Bill's photo: a female Eastern Bluebird. The bird was back lit so it looked pretty well all black except for the bit that had the right angle of the sun on it and it was the rusty breast that we could see a bit of.

At St Isidore, in a lagoon of thousands of Canada Geese, there was one white bird. The waterfowl were moving away from us but the white bird stuck out and it was moving with the Geese. Eventually the whole group lifted up in the air to fly around and we could follow the white bird. We believe it was a Ross’s Goose as it was very small and had a small pinched-type of bill. In the nearby bushes by the road Eleanor and I stopped and pished as Eleanor had seen something fly across the road. In the Pines, a Black capped Chickadee responded and showed up.

We continued on to Moose Creek Lagoons. This is the lagoon that once a fence was put up to keep us and other people out, one can’t really see into the lagoon which is wrapped up in plastic. Plus, the water level was low. Eleanor stood on her car door edge to see better. Eleanor is pretty tall if you ask me and she saw a group of Snow Geese fly into the next nearby lagoon cell but there was no way to see them once they landed. Also, at the lagoon there was a workman in a pickup truck with some equipment to monitor some things. Barbara had kindly offered us some treats: granola bars/hard candy, etc. Thank you, Barbara. She even offered some to the fellow in the pick-up truck. The fellow checked around the whole lagoon driving his pick-up truck but the birds did not rise up and fly around. Ken said there was a sign at the road that explained that the lagoons would be expanded. So maybe the fellow was doing some work on the expansion.

In the blustery wind we ate our lunch standing up and chatting. It was still sunny but once in the vehicle we were happy to use the seat heater to warm us up.

We moved on to Chrysler. Bill walked over to us to tell us he had seen a Mourning Dove. On a day like today every species counts. So, thank you Bill. Here the water was very low and the “falls” were pretty calm. There were no birds on or around the water on the rocks.

At the lagoons, Bill saw two types of flying ducks here and he is sure one is a Lesser Scaup and the other species a Gadwall or Green winged Teal. It was too far away to tell.

Eleanor had a Blue Jay (not the baseball team player). We then decided to head home taking the roads that still may have some Sandhill Cranes. We down Frank Kenny, Milton, Smith, McFadden and Ramsayville Roads. Nope, no luck with the cranes.

By this time, we could see the Crow Highway in the sky. Crows were traveling to their night group roosts. It was still sunny but soon with the time change two days ago, the sun would start going down. Throughout the day we saw massive farm equipment on the county roads. The farmers were taking advantage of the dry and sunny day.

We returned to our cars and said our farewells.

Writer: Barbara Chouinard

Confluence of the Castor River with the South Nation.

View from the bridge at Crysler.

We must have set a record for the smallest species list today. We should record it. Five sets of pretty good eyes and few birds. Count is 16 species. Nevertheless, it was a great birding day.

1. Canada Geese

2. Rock Pigeon

3. Ring billed Gull

4. European Starling

5. Red tailed Hawk

6. American Crow

7. Common Raven

8. Mallard

9. Green winged Teal

10. Black Duck

11. Snow Geese

12. Ross’s Goose

13. Eastern Bluebird female was the Mystery Bird

14. Mourning Dove

15. Lesser Scaup

16. Gadwall (maybe)

One green mammal waving arms (that was Ken)

Wednesday, October 29, 2025

Clay Bank

October 29, 2025

We returned to Clay Bank to retrieve the hitch cover that fell off the day before. There were 3 Snow Bunting at the edge of the boat launch which were not yet in winter plumage. We found the elusive trail and hiked the whole thing - it was lovely, but devoid of birds, except crows.

We also checked out the attractive Young Rd. We found juncos and other sparrows on the road.

Back on White Lake Rd, Bill commented that they had seen Northern Harriers the previous day. And there they were again!

It was an interesting day for Barbara who had never been there before.

Tuesday, October 28, 2025

Arnprior, Almonte & Carleton Place with JC Birding

October 28, 2025

Birding Report by Jane Burgess

Bill and I met Barb C and Eleanor at the Park & Ride off Eagleson Road. We had a short discussion of where we were going first, some thought McNamara Trail, I said no Antrim Truck stop. I have my priorities, mmm their scones are so good and I did not want to chance not getting any. Driving on highway 417, oh my goodness it was foggy but we did see a Red-tailed Hawk (we actually saw 5 of them during the course of the day). We stopped at the bakery and bought our stash, some to be eaten during the day and some to be shared once we got home.

We decided to check out Clay Banks Nature Park, only bird we saw was a Blue Jay, but the fog was a factor for sure. Bill drove over to the boat launch and the water appeared out of nowhere.

We then checked out Young Road, where we saw Dark-eyed Juncos. A huge piece of farm equipment pulled by a tractor met us just after the bridge, thank goodness there was a bit of a pull off. While we were parked another vehicle stopped to tell us a tractor trailer would be coming by shortly. Then a school bus passed us, like it was after 9:00, who goes to school that late in the day. We waited and then decided we would check the house on the hill for birds. The child was safely on the bus, then the tractor trailer left. We turned around and slowly moved on.

We drove a road that none of us had been on before Van Dusen. We saw a large flock of Canada Geese, Eleanor spotted a female Northern Harrier, good one. We checked out the Canada Geese for Cackling Geese - no luck on that one. We kept driving and saw a small mixed flock of birds, turned out to be Dark-eyed Juncos and American Tree Sparrow. We drove to the end of the road, ending at the river. We turned around and checked out the private road, nothing new. Coming back, we saw a very large flock of Red-winged Blackbirds with a couple of American Robins and European Starlings. Driving just a bit further, we came upon a bird feeder -- Northern Cardinal, Hairy Woodpecker, American Goldfinch and White-breasted Nuthatch. Stop the car Bill, we saw another Northern Harrier this time male. The two birds were too far away to photograph.

We then went to the Macnamara Trail - we were greeted by some Black-capped Chickadees. We walked part of the trail and nothing, it was so quiet. We turned around and at the head of the trail Eleanor played a bird mobbing tape, she was successful in bringing in Chickadees, Blue Jay and White-breasted Nuthatch. We checked out the river and saw nothing. We had checked the other side of the water and I think we saw one Ring-billed Gull.

Where to next - Pakenham 5 span bridge where we had a late season picnic. As usual we had a stimulating conversation.

We checked various areas and really it was so slow. We went up this road where we have seen Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers, nope none. We played the mobbing tape again, same species brought in, Chickadees, Bluejays and White-breasted Nuthatch. This time we did not walk the road as we usually do, we drove down to a cottage on the water. Nothing on the water. We did notice that it had cameras, so we might have been seen by the homeowner, but we did nothing unsavory.

Eleanor checked ebird reports for both Almonte Lagoons and the storm water pond in Carleton Place. Both had recent reports. Off to Almonte Lagoons. Well finally we got some birds. First species I saw were the Bonaparte's Gull, then there were Bufflehead, one Snow Goose, 1 Killdeer (thanks to B Kennedy who pointed it out to us -- it looked like a speck beside a Canada Goose), lots of Black Ducks and Mallards, Green-wing Teal, American Widgeon, 3 Trumpeter Swans, Common Goldeneye, Ring-neck Duck and Ring-billed Gulls. Of course there were many many Canada Geese. My whole attitude changed, my spirits picked up big time.

Time was ticking, but we did head to the Carleton Place Stormwater Pond. There were Canada Geese, Green-winged Teal and Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs. It is late in the season for Yellowlegs.

We left Barb C and Eleanor and the park & ride and went to see if the Ross's Goose was still at Bruce Pit. Bill brought his scope, luck was on our side. It was quite close to the far end of the toboggan hill. But it was swimming fast and toward the hill. Photos weren't all that wonderful because it was swimming close to the edge where there is a lot of vegetation, but both Bill and I were able to capture its image.

Thank you Bill for driving and taking photos. Thank you Eleanor for doing the ebird list. Good luck next week.