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.

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.

Species Noted

1. White-breasted Nuthatch
2. Black-capped Chickadee
3. American Crow
4. Common Raven
5. Wild Turkey
6. Ring-billed Gull
7. Canada Geese
8. Red-tailed Hawk
9. Rock Pigeon
10. Europ[ean Starling
11. Blue Jay
12. Dark-eyed Junco
13. Northern Harrier
14. American Tree Sparrow
15. American Robin
16. Red-winged Black-bird
17. Hairy Woodpecker
18. American goldfinch
19. Northern Cardinal
20. Great Blue Heron
21. Mallard
22. Bufflehead
23. Snow goose
24. Killdeer
25. Black Duck
26. Green-winged teal
27. American Widgeon
28. Bonaparte's Gull
29. Trumpeter Swan
30. Common Goldeneye
31. Ring-neck Duck
32. Mourning Dove
33. Greater Yellowlegs
34. Lesser Yellowlegs
35. Ross's Goose

Critters Noted

1 White tail Deer

Home and Deschenes

 October 26, 2025

Best birds these day at our home feeders.  We headed out to the Quebec side at Deschenes.  We had a nice walk but the only decent birds were a couple of rafts of Lesser Scaups.

Fletcher, Dow's Lake & Ottawa River with JC Birding

 October 23, 2025

Birding Report by Jane Burgess

Eleanor, Barb C, Connie, Barb B, Bill and I met at Fletcher Garden for 8:00.  At the bird feeder we saw Dark-eyed Junco, White-throated Sparrow and lots of Black-capped Chickadees.

We walked to the bridge where there were a pair of Mallards swimming.  We heard and saw lots of Canada Geese leaving the area.

We met a gentleman who told us he regularly saw an owl perched on one of the bird houses, but more often than not, it is scared away by dogs not on lease.  We vended for a while and continued up the hill.  

Just before the butterfly pond we stopped to look at the American Robins, oh my goodness we saw lots of American Robins at Fletcher and then around the arboretum.  While looking at the American Robin, we saw a single Yellow-rumped Warbler and then 2 Ruby-crowned Kinglets.  Those little budgie guys just can't sit still, I swear they shake when they perch.   Then we saw some Purple Finch and lots of American Goldfinch.

We walked toward the back feeder and we were hoping when we walked through the evergreens we would see an owl.  Nope we did not.  We walked eastward and stopped  looking toward the gulley.  Eleanor produced a recording of mobbing birds.  So many birds flew in - more Chickadees, Goldfinch, 2 Downy Woodpeckers and on the other side of the path we had House Finch fly in.   As we were watching the show a Common Raven flew over quietly. We walked down toward the water, when Eleanor suggested we might want to move our vehicles.

We moved the vehicles to the Agriculture Canada visitor parking and walked toward Dow's Lake.  More of the same birds.  Barb and I were talking about her seeing lots of European Starlings while driving back to Ottawa.  I said they must be all gone from here by now and so what should we see about 8 Starlings.  Then Barb said what is that bird on top of that far tree -- Merlin - good one.  At the water saw at least 20 American Black Ducks, 1 Green-wing Teal, at least 10 Lesser Scaup, 2 Double-crested Cormorant and a couple of Ring-billed Gulls.

It started to rain so Barb C and I walked quickly up the hill to the car.  While we waited for the others, we wondered if Connie had left since she only walked down to a park bench and sat while the rest of us went to the water. No she had not left, she walked back to her car.  Where were the rest, they must have taken a different route.  While we were waiting we caught up with each other since we had not seen each other in 6 weeks.

Connie, Eleanor and Barb C decided it was time to go home.  Bill and Jane wanted to keep birding.  Bill drove to Kichi Zibi Parkway and checked out some of the lookouts, only to find rocks.  We did see a flock of Scaup near the parkway but there was no way we could stop, so we headed for Mud Lake, there we saw Wood Duck and Pied-billed Grebe.  We drove down to the water and saw just water.  Okay where to next, let's try Scrivens - Common Merganser.  We had lunch at the turnaround on Grandview where we saw more American Robins. Then we tried Dick Bell - Common Goldeneye.  There was nothing at Shirley's Bay.

On our return we checked out the DND pond, Hooded Merganser and a Song Sparrow.  Bill, let's try Andrew Haydon Park. Just after I got out of the vehicle I received a call from Ken asking if we were still birding and where were we?  He said he would join us.  Bill brought out his scope and we checked out the western end of the park.  The water was very very low, many Canada Geese along with Common Mergansers and a couple of Blue-wing Teal and of course Mallards.  I walked over to the bridge to see if there were any birds around, yep one lone Canada Goose.  Walking back I see Ken's car.  I shouted to him to look up, there was a Bald Eagle juvenile.  His response was a good way to start birding.

We chatted a while and we were heading to the car and I was telling him Sami did not join us because he had a cold.  Ken said well there is Lynne and Sami.  We caught up with them, it had started to rain again.  Time to go home and stop birding for the day,  Well not really our last bird was a Rock Pigeon on Pinecrest.

33 species for mid October is not bad.  

Thank you Bill and Barb and Connie for your photos and thank you Eleanor for doing the ebird list.

Species Noted

1. Canada Goose
2. Black-capped Chickadee
3. American Crow
4. Ring-billed Gull
5. White-throted Sparrow
6. Dark-eyed Junco
7. American Goldfinch
8. American Robin
9. House Finch
10. Purple Finch
11. Yellow-rumped Warbler
12. Northern Cardinal
13. Common Raven
14. Mallard
15. Downy Woodpecker
16. Blue Jay
17. Ruby-crowned Kinglet
18. White-breasted Nuthatch
19. American Black Duck
20. Double-crested Cormorant
21. Green-wing Teal
22. Scaup (sp)
23. Merlin
24. European Starling
25. Pied-billed Grebe
26. Wood Duck
27. Common Merganser
28. Common Goldeneye
29. Hooded Merganser
30. Song Sparrow
31. Blue-wing Teal
32. Bald Eagle
33. Rock Pigeon