Ottawa Area Birding: Up the Valley with JC Birding

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.