Ontario/Quebec Ottawa/Gatineau 06 January 2010 Hotline: Ottawa Field-Naturalists' Club Phone number: 613-860-9000 For the Bird Status Line PRESS * (star) To report bird sightings PRESS 1 (one) Rare bird alerts are now included in the introductory message Coverage: Ottawa/Gatineau (Canada National Capital Region) E. Ontario, W. Quebec Compiler & transcriber: Chris Lewis [email protected]
On Wednesday January 6, 2010 this is Chris Lewis reporting. Over the past couple of weeks most of the local birding action involved digesting holiday turkey dinners and participating in Christmas Bird Counts. While on the subject of turkeys and bird counts... record numbers of WILD TURKEYS were recorded on the Carleton Place and Pakenham-Arnprior counts on Dec. 27th, the Lanark Highlands count on the 30th, and the Dunrobin-Breckenridge count on January 2nd. Another common feature was the extremely low number of finches across the region, and woodland birding has been very quiet in general. ROUGH-LEGGED HAWKS also remain few and far between but good numbers of BALD EAGLES are around - no fewer than 16 were found on the Pakenham-Arnprior CBC, comparable to the numbers recorded in Ottawa-Gatineau the week before. An adult and a juvenile Bald Eagle were noted flying over the Ottawa River at Remic rapids on January 5th. In other local reports, 2 male and 1 female BARROW'S GOLDENEYE are still on the Rideau River in the vicinity of the Rideau Tennis Club, most recently seen on New Year's Day. A GREAT BLUE HERON (likely the same one found back on Dec. 20th) was seen at a creek near the Aviation Parkway and Ogilvie Rd. on the 1st, and a very late RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET was in the ash woods at the Fletcher Wildlife Garden on the 28th. Nearly 500 BOHEMIAN WAXWINGS were counted on the Dunrobin-Breckenridge CBC on the 2nd, and a flock of at least 40 HORNED LARKS contained 2 LAPLAND LONGSPURS in the Fitzroy Harbour area the same day. A few DARK-EYED JUNCOS and HOUSE FINCHES continue to visit bird feeders around town, and small flocks of SNOW BUNTINGS were reported from rural areas over the past week. Thank you - and Good Birding in the New Year! _______________________________________________ ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists - the provincial birding organization. Send bird reports to ONTBIRDS mailing list [email protected] For information about ONTBIRDS visit http://www.ofo.ca/
