Last Sunday, April 14th, 14 birders joined me to search for migrating waterfowl on the flooded fields east of Ottawa. Mainly on the Bearbrook Creek floodplain from Milton and Frank Kenny Roads. Since OFO establishes dates for OFO field trips in October for the following year it is extremely difficult choose a date for this trip. The peak of the Goose, Swan and early duck species migration near Ottawa is usually the last week of March or the first week of April. However it can be a week later, as it was this year, due to the delayed snow melt as a result of the later than usual cold weather. Last Sunday may have been a few days after the peak of the early spring waterfowl migration. We had scope views of about 3,000 Greater Snow Geese but, unfortunately, we could not find any Ross's Geese. Several were found later in the day. We searched for the Tundra Swans that had been present for about a week but couldn't find them. They were likely feeding in the nearby corn fields since they were found on the flooded fields later in the day. We searched for the Pink-footed Goose that had been present since the 13th but it had probably left with most of the Canada Geese on the milder weather a day or two before. We did find one Greater White-fronted Goose but we had poor looks because it was sleeping most of the time in the middle of a group of tightly packed Canada Geese. Other than Northern Pintail, ducks were sparse, we found 10 duck species. We had distant looks at Sandhill Cranes. We found a total of 50 species which is excellent since we made limited effort to find passerines. Highlight of the day was probably two American Bittern that flew low over our heads. Many thanks to Ed Leblanc for finding the Greater White-fronted Goose when, initially, only the top of it's head was visible!
Good birding, Bob Cermak _______________________________________________ ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists (OFO) - 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 Visit the OFO Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/OntarioFieldOrnithologists
