Note: Sightings in this post are mostly from Quebec, but within the "official" Ottawa area (50 km from the Parliament Buildings).
Oh the irony. When I read that a second hawk owl for our area had been spotted north of St-Pierre-de-Wakefield, I felt glad that I didn't have to go "way up there" for the species. But the bird east of Ottawa, which was the one I'd planned to see, promptly disappeared, so today found me negotiating the twisty and not always clear road (307) up to and past St-Pierre. The irony got stronger, too, as I was unable to find the owl. Some Maryland birders, who'd arrived much earlier than I and who'd scoured the area, also came up empty-handed. A fine but somewhat distant adult NORTHERN GOSHAWK offered some consolation by flying over Lac McMullin. This was my fifth accipiter in four days. Before Tony Beck's Great Grey Owl post, I would have said that the others were all SHARP-SHINNED HAWKS. It now seems very likely that the young bird I saw at the yellow-headed blackbird spot near Limoges (and posted to Ontbirds) was actually his Cooper's. My apologies for the mistake. In my defence, the bird I saw was close but heavily obscured by branches. The others were definitely sharpies, including a fly-by (age unknown) at Ottawa's Jack Pine trail yesterday and a beautiful perched adult at 5 meters in a line of conifers in the open area west of Merivale Rd and opposite Colonnade Rd (again in Ottawa). I continued my day by going to Gatineau Park Parking Lot P16. It is located at the end of Pine Rd off Highway 105 and is the trailhead for ski trail #50. Parked cars overflowed the full lot for what seemed like a kilometer. Obviously everyone wanted to take advantage of the fresh snow and good temperatures. A couple of distant but calling PINE GROSBEAKS flew by as I was getting my skis out of the car. There was a BARRED OWL at the Herridge Lodge, 5 km in on #50. He was displaying Great-grey-like obliviousness, ignoring the dozens of skiers who were admiring him. Apparently he's a fixture here, usually being found round the back of the "lodge" (cabin would perhaps be a better description) near the outhouses. Look hard if you go. He's "obvious" once you see him, but his lack of motion and cryptic colouration makes for great camouflage. There's a feeder at the lodge, but today nothing unusual was visting it. Unfortunately for birders who aren't keen on the activity, you have to ski a minimum of 5 km to get here. The trail is generally easy, but there's one very big hill and a small but tricky hill with a hairpin bend. Directions to Goshawk and Hawk Owl (still there?) spot: north of St-Pierre-de-Wakefield along Hwy 307 approx. 1.5 km past the Lake McMullin sign. Paul Matthews, Ottawa From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sun Jan 22 20:15:08 2006 Return-Path: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Delivered-To: [email protected] Received: from simmts6-srv.bellnexxia.net (simmts6.bellnexxia.net [206.47.199.164]) by king.hwcn.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0A6ED63CBB for <[email protected]>; Sun, 22 Jan 2006 20:15:08 -0500 (EST) Received: from KOKO.post.queensu.ca ([69.159.80.162]) by simmts6-srv.bellnexxia.netESMTP <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> for <[email protected]>; Sun, 22 Jan 2006 20:15:07 -0500 Message-Id: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> X-Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 5.1.1 Date: Sun, 22 Jan 2006 20:15:05 -0500 To: [email protected] From: Peggy Hauschildt <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed Subject: [Ontbirds]Wolfe Island Jan. 22/06 X-BeenThere: [email protected] X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 23 Jan 2006 01:15:08 -0000 Sharon David, Carol Noel, and I birded Wolfe Island today for approximately 4 hours under bright, sunny skies and mild (for January) temperatures. While the birds weren't abundant, we did manage to spot a number of species including 3 SNOWY OWLS, 1 EASTERN SCREECH OWL in its red phase, 2 BALD EAGLES, 8 MUTE SWANS, 6 TRUMPETER SWANS, 1 AMERICAN KESTREL (female), 2 BUFFLEHEADS, as well as many COMMON GOLDENEYE, and MALLARDS. All-in-all, it was a good day. Many thanks to Sharon for her expert knowledge. Cheers, Peg Peg Hauschildt Kingston, ON
