Ottawa Area Birding: Little Froggy Marsh to Plaisance with JC Birding

July 8, 2025

Birding Report by Jane Burgess

I arrived at Bill and Barbara's place at 6:40 and heard an Eastern Phoebe singing. I loaded my stuff into their vehicle and off we went. We met Barb, Eleanor, Ann and Ian and Kichi Zibi Parkway and Champlain bridge parking lot. Barb had a long list of birds they had seen while waiting for us -- Double-crested Cormorant, Mallard, Common Merganser, Canada Goose, American Goldfinch, Chipping Sparrow, Red-wing Blackbird, Song Sparrow, American Crow and Ring-billed Gull. Gee maybe we should have come 10 minutes later, who knows how long the list would have been.

Bill and Ann turned east on the parkway, while Ian opted to go via the Quebec side. We encountered a traffic jam because of the set up of Blues Fest with port-a-potties taking up a lane. Oh well. I got a call from Ann asking for directions because they lost us in the traffic jam. We could not pull over because of the traffic so we waited for her once off the highway on the Quebec side. I called to give more directions. We pulled off to wait for Ann and she showed up minutes later. Then I got a call from Eleanor to ask where we were, they were already at Marais des Laichest Esst. Once in the parking lot, some put on rubber boots. We noticed a bus converted to a recreational vehicle was parked just beyond the parking lot. People were sleeping in it, no doubt we woke them up.

Once on the 'path', the grass was very high, like up to my shoulders and of course the grass was wet because of the overnight rain. Needless to say we all got very wet. Barb thought they should cut the grass and maintain the path. Ann, Ian and Eleanor were at the back of the line and lucky them they got to see a Wilson's Snipe. Looking out over the river we saw lots of reeds and other vegetation, but did not see any birds. All of a sudden, we heard a loud, resonant wooden rattle hkkkkk or hkarrrr, a rolling bugle, typically a long slightly descending roll, but some variation to quote the Sibling Birds app. SANDHILL CRANES, but where. The Sandhill Cranes rounded the trees and flew toward us and then changed their minds and flew away from us. What an absolutely wonderful way to start our morning. We were all sure they would be the bird of the day.

We had a hawk fly over us and into some trees, We thought the hawk was Sharp-shined but Bill's photos will help with the final decision. We were right, it was a Sharp-shined Hawk. At one point Ann went to investigate because we were all pretty sure it did not fly out from the trees. The hawk flew out with what looked like a small bird in its talons. Ann returned, we told her the hawk had come out, thanks for flushing it. We had a Great Egret Flyby. A Belted Kingfisher made its presence known. We heard Warbling Vireo, Red-Eyed Vireo and a Great-crested Flycatcher. We set off again in the tall grass, I asked Bill to be the front person, I was tired of getting all the spider webs in my face. We thought we were getting nothing else, so we turned around and headed to the vehicles. Of course while we were walking to the cars, we heard Swamp Sparrow, American Goldfinch, Common Yellowthroats and Yellow Warblers.

Other birders had arrived and Bill and Barb spoke with them. I told Bill I would start walking up the road, to see if I could actually see the Sparrows, other than Song that is. I saw a pair of Northern Cardinals.

Ian passed me saying he would meet us at the Little Frog Marsh. Bill picked me up and off we went. Turning down the road to the Little Frog Marsh, there was a good long piece of the road washed away, but it was safe to drive on. Here we did not have a path to walk on but a road, so no more getting wet....or so we thought. We saw Eastern Kingbirds, more Yellow Warblers and the usual Sparrows. Bill saw a Northern Flicker fly off. While walking along the water, we saw a Black-crowned Nightheron that flew the closer we got to it. Bill pointed out a Muskrat on the other side of the water, chewing on some type of vegetation. We had to dodge some water puddles.

Bill, Barb and I got to the viewing area first. Barbara came next, oh boy she was covered in clay - her camera, her arm and her pants. She had fallen in the big puddle. We heard laughing from the others and it turned out Ann had fallen as well and Ian had helped her out. Didn't know birding was so dangerous. Bill and Barbara saw an American Bittern, the rest of us didn't. We continued walking toward the Ottawa River, where another American Bittern showed itself.

Coming back to the cars, I saw a singleton Leopard Frog, I had seen one going as well. But in years gone by, there were so many frogs, not so this year. Back at the car, Barbara tried to clean off all the clay and mud. Ann indicated that she was getting tired and would leave. I gave her directions to the ferry and she then left us. Again I decided to walk the road. Ann had parked because a car was coming down the narrow road. She also told me she saw a Purple Finch family. We said our goodbyes and I continued walking. While I did not see anything new, I did see yet another American Bittern. How lucky are we 3 American Bitterns. Ian passed me and told me he would see me at Plaisance.

Bill came along, Barb had cleaned up as much as possible, and off we went to Pleasance. Bill paid the park entrance fee for us all and we decided to have lunch in the visitors centre.

We drove over to Sentier de la Zizanie des Marais. Ian was there already and was sitting on a bench taking photographs. He said he had a Baltimore Oriole on the other side of the pond. After a bit, we all saw a bird bathing. Was it an Oriole or a Redstart. We were not at all sure, but photos don't lie, the Baltimore Oriole sighting was confirmed. We walked to the boardwalk. Barb pointed to this tall vegetation asking if it was the bad one. Yes was the answer after checking with the

Inat classic app. Wild Parsnip is the plant that causes itchy and painful rashes. Funny I would have thought the park would have dealt with them. The boardwalk was so safe and touching the rails it was not hot, I thought it was aluminum but aluminum gets hot and the rails were cool to the touch.

The water near the boardwalk was filled with Pickerel Weed. I thought it was an invasive plant but it is not. It plays a beneficial role in the ecosystem by stabilizing shorelines, filtering water and providing habitat for wildlife. I saw lots of Honey Bees flying from flower to flower. Along with the Pickerel Weed, there were the white Pond Lilies and Variegated Yellow Pond Lily. On the island we saw White-breasted Nuthatch, Downy Woodpecker, Veery and American Robin. We heard birds but not all that many wanted to show themselves.

Over the road and continuing down the path, Bill and I reminisced about last year and seeing an American Bittern out in the open that stayed like forever. It was not there this year. Bill said time to go. We returned to the car and decided we should check out the blind. Driving close to the water we were seeing waterfowl - Common Gallinule, Pied-billed Grebe and Mallards. A car stopped and the man told Bill where we could find a Bald Eagle. We drove to just beyond the 'first house' and there it was, high in a tree. We turned around and checked out the blind. In one of the holes in the blind was perched an Eastern Phoebe. Once at th blind and checking out the water, we were quite disappointed because the grass was so tall, it was difficult to see the water, but we did see Common Gallinule.

Time to go home, we stopped at the Visitors Centre for some pop and to use the facilities. I al so wanted to complete the bird list. Again Ian left first and we were surprised he had not arrived to the parking lot before us, guess the traffic was heavier on the Quebec side

Another excellent day of birding - 2 Sandhill Cranes, 3 American Bittern, 3 or 4 Green Herons, 1 Black-crowned Nightheron, several Great Blue Herons among all the song birds.

This trip I will say definitely the bird of the day was Sandhill Cranes, the dirtiest person by a long shot was Barbara Bowman (she reaally rolled around in the mud) and she was such a good sport about it and of course the persons who likes to play in the mud goes to Ann and Ian.

Thank you Bill and Barbara for your photos. And thank you Government of Canada for sending Bill on French language training.