Hello again Ontbirders, 10 intrepid birders joined me for some Ottawa area birding today. The weather was truly hideous with heavy rain and wind. With such wild weather we were hopeful of something great turning up and 6 of us stuck it out from 7:30 am until 3:30 pm. In the end we had no mega-birds, but a decent day with lots of good looks at warblers and shorebirds. Highlights among the 82 species that we observed were: 2 Baird's Sandpipers, 3 Red-necked Phalaropes, 2 Short-billed Dowitchers, 2 Peregrine Falcons and 1 American Bittern at Shirley's Bay, a Caspian Tern and 23 Black-bellied Plovers at Ottawa beach and a nice variety of warblers at Brittania and Shirley's Bay.
I found the 12 Hudsonian Godwits at Constance Bay after the hike ended. More specific directions than I gave in my previous post are: >From Hwy 417 in Kanata, take March Road to Dunrobin Road. Follow Dunrobin Road to Constance Bay Drive. Turn onto Constance Bay Drive and then turn left onto Allbirch. Then left on Bishop's Davis Drive. Then right on Bayshore. Then turn right on Len Purcell. Then left on Whistler. Follow this past its end onto a sand track (driveable). This comes out onto Bayshore at the beach access point. The birds are visible about 1km east of here. Coordinates are 45.510564°, -76.103868°. One of the HUGO's was banded: white over blue left, standard right. A yellow flag bearing the letters AN was attached to the white band. I entered this data into eBird along with a photo of the bird and bands as requested at <http://ebird.org/content/ebird/news/help-solve-the-mystery-of-hudsonian-godwit-migration>. If anyone knows the providence of this bird I would be interested to know more about it. Good birding, Jeff -- Jeff Skevington, Research Scientist Canadian National Collection of Insects, Arachnids and Nematodes Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada 960 Carling Avenue, K.W. Neatby Building Ottawa, ON, K1A 0C6, Canada Phone: 613-759-1647 E-mail: [email protected] _______________________________________________ ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists - the provincial birding organization. Send bird reports to [email protected] For information about ONTBIRDS visit http://www.ofo.ca/
