Under overcast skies and persistent drizzle,12 adventurous birders came together for an afternoon exploration of the Ottawa River. With the river's high water level, bird activity seemed very slow. There was no shorebird habitat, and waterfowl were hiding in sheltered bays. Regardless, we tallied a total of 37 species.
We started at Andrew Haydon Park. A trip highlight here was getting extremely close to a juvenile American Brant. At Shirley's Bay Boat Launch, we found a Red-necked Grebe and White-winged Scoter at a distance, Walking around the scrub at Hilda Road we observed an incomplete albino American Robin with small numbers of American Tree Sparrows and Juncos. The sun began to break through the clouds by 4:30pm. That's when we reached the Moodie Drive Quarry Pond. Here among the thousands of Canada Geese, we found 5 Snow Geese, 2 Cackling Geese, 1 Am Coot, 1 Redhead, many Ring-necked Ducks and Ruddy Ducks. Species List Snow Goose Canada Goose Cackling Goose American Brant American Black Duck Mallard Green-winged Teal Redhead Ring-necked Duck Lesser Scaup White-winged Scoter Common Goldeneye Hooded Merganser Common Merganser Red-breasted Merganser Red-necked Grebe Double-crested Cormorant Great Blue Heron Red-tailed Hawk American Coot Ring-billed Gull Herring Gull Great Black-backed Gull Mourning Dove Downy Woodpecker Hairy Woodpecker Blue Jay American Crow Common Raven Black-capped Chickadee White-breasted Nuthatch American Robin European Starling American Tree Sparrow Dark-eyed Junco Northern Cardinal Red-winged Blackbird Tony Beck & Nina Stavlund Always An Adventure Inc. http://alwaysanadventure.ca _______________________________________________ ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists - the provincial birding organization. Send bird reports to [email protected] For information about ONTBIRDS including how to unsubscribe visit http://www.ofo.ca/site/page/view/information.ontbirdssetup Posting guidelines can be found at http://www.ofo.ca/site/page/view/information.ontbirdsguide
