Greetings Ontbirds people, Today, in fact THIS MORNING (March 27), the annual spring flooding of the agricultural fields east of Ottawa (Bear Brook, the Cobb Lake Creek floodplain, and areas east of Bourget along the South Nation River) began. During the short time that the fields remain flooded at this time of year, these areas can spectacular for waterfowl & raptor viewing. Numerous rarities have been discovered here over the years, including Greater White-fronted Geese, Ross's Geese, Greater & Lesser Snow Geese, etc.
Between 9:00 AM and 1:00 PM today we visited Milton Rd. (Bear Brook area east of Carlsbad Springs), Johnston Rd. (east of Bourget...this road, by the way, was navigable at the beginning, but was flooded and impassable by the end of our visit!), and the Pendleton/Ettyville area (south of Bourget). At both the Milton Rd. and Johnston Rd. locations the numbers of Canada Geese approached 10,000. Among the 100's (maybe up to 1000) of Northern Pintails, 6 other species of puddle ducks were observed including small #'s of Wood Duck, Green-winged Teal and American Wigeon (Milton Rd.) 15 Greater Snow Geese were with the Canada's (Johnston Rd.). Raptors included Northern Harrier, Red-tailed & Rough-legged Hawk, an adult Red-shouldered Hawk (Bourget), a couple of American Kestrels.... ...and the highlight of OUR morning was... EAGLES - 3 Bald Eagles (2 @ Milton Rd. and 1 @ Johnston Rd.), and an ADULT GOLDEN EAGLE (Milton Rd.), 1st seen in flight and subsequently perched in the same tree as one of the adult Bald Eagles for at least 10 minutes. Quite interesting was the pursuit of the Golden Eagle by a tight flock of approx. 150 N. Pintails which repeatedly circled the eagle in a "ball", seeming to deliberately follow/chase/distract it (???)...Bizarre! Killdeer are also back in good numbers, as well as abundant Red-winged Blackbirds & Common Grackles and smaller #'s of Brown-headed Cowbirds...Hopefully more migrants to come as the forecast continues to be for mild weather over the next several days. DIRECTIONS: BEAR BROOK (Milton Rd.) - take Hwy 417 east from Ottawa to exit 96 (Carlsbad Springs), north to Cty Rd.# 26 (Russell Rd.), east on Russell, then north on #85 (Milton Rd.) BOURGET (Cty. Rd. #26 and Johnston Rd.) - continue along #26 east through the town of Bourget for ~ 20 km. Johnston Rd. is on your right. PENDLETON / ETTYVILLE - continue farther east along the #26 to Cty Rd. #9, then right (south) onto Plantagenet Concession #9. Proceed through Pendleton & Ettyville to reach the flooded fields farther to the south. Good birding! Chris Lewis (with Bob Bracken, Paul Mirsky, Jan Slumkoski & others) Ottawa [EMAIL PROTECTED]
