Ottawa Field Naturalists' Club Ottawa/Gatineau (National Capital Region) E. Ontario, W. Quebec Compiler: Greg Zbitnew at [email protected] or [email protected]
Recent sightings to August 6, 2015 The birding dullness of last week was broken on July 31st when a male ORCHARD ORIOLE appeared in Pakenham, the first Ottawa-area record in many years. Unfortunately it was not relocated despite considerable searching. Incidentally, the search produced quite a good variety of birds, so Pakenham is worth searching again even if the rarity is not found. There were some additional small signs of migration, but nothing exceptional. Weather was fairly typical of the season, warm with some showers, but it is too early in the season for the weather to have much of an effect on migration. Shirley’s Bay continues to have a reasonable but variable variety of puddle ducks as well as REDHEAD. Continuing lingerers such as BRANT at Andrew Haydon and SNOW GOOSE at St. Albert lagoon are giving birders something to look at as they await the fall waterfowl season. Shirley’s Bay continues to be a good spot for SHOREBIRDS. The 3rd was particularly good with the rain giving us the first BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER of the fall, in addition to 10 other species. Other days were not as good. Also on the 3rd, there were 8 species at the Embrun Lagoons and 9 at the Almonte Lagoons. Most of the shorebirds were relatively common species, and again, there was less variety on other days, An exception was a report of SHORT-BILLED DOWITCHER at Almonte on the 5th, but not seen on the 6th. VIRGINIA RAIL and SORA continued their theatrical performances at Shirley’s Bay this week. The rare bird search in Pakenham produced a RED-BELLIED WOODPECKER, also seen in the Winchester area this week. Song volume has diminished further this week, and most of the observations are of the resident birds. There was some interesting passerine activity this week. A singing CAROLINA WREN in Grenfell Glen was observed on a few days, and with any luck will remain there for a while. A BLUE-GRAY GNATCATCHER at Shirley’s Bay on the 31st was unfortunately not seen again. A CAPE MAY WARBLER in Orleans, TENNESSEE and YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER in a few places and LINCOLN’S SPARROW at Andrew Haydon Park were undoubtedly signs of either migration or post-breeding dispersal. One additional sign was two separate reports of PINE SISKIN, one at Constance Bay and the other at Ferme Moore in Gatineau. The OFNC's Birds Committee no longer reports owl sightings on the Internet. We will continue to encourage the reporting of owls to [email protected] for the purpose of maintaining local records. Thanks to everyone who contributed bird observations. Good birding. _______________________________________________ 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
