Ontario Ottawa/Gatineau 09 December 2008 Birds mentioned:
Snow Goose Cackling Goose Lesser Scaup White-winged Scoter Black Scoter Bufflehead Common Goldeneye Barrow's Goldeneye Common Merganser Red-breasted Merganser Wild Turkey Common Loon Pied-billed Grebe Bald Eagle Rough-legged Hawk Ring-billed Gull Herring Gull Iceland Gull Glaucous Gull Lesser Black-backed Gull Snowy Owl Northern Hawk Owl Short-eared Owl Northern Shrike CAROLINA WREN Golden-crowned Kinglet NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRD Cedar Waxwing White-winged Crossbill Hotline: Ottawa Field-Naturalists' Club Phone number: 613-860-9000 For the Bird Status Line PRESS * (star) To report bird sightings PRESS 1 (one) Rare bird alerts are now included in the introductory message Coverage: Ottawa/Gatineau (Canada National Capital Region) E. Ontario, W. Quebec Compiler & transcriber: Chris Lewis [EMAIL PROTECTED] At 11:00 am on Tuesday December 9, 2008 this is Chris Lewis reporting. A mixed bag of weather and bird reports ended the first week of December. Lingering waterfowl included a blue morph Snow Goose on the Rideau River at Prince of Wales and Fairpark Dr. on the 6th, a Cackling Goose at Eagleson and Brownlee Rds. on the 5th, and small numbers of Lesser Scaup and a few Bufflehead as well as 2 female Black Scoters on the Ottawa River at Andrew Haydon Park from the 4th to the 6th. A female plumaged White-winged Scoter was seen again in the same area on the 3rd. A couple of female Red-breasted Mergansers were at Shirley's Bay on the 6th among a small number of Common Goldeneye and Common Mergansers, and on the 7th a female Barrow's Goldeneye was spotted on the Rideau near Billings Bridge. Back on the 1st, 17 Wild Turkeys were counted at Limebank and Leitrim Rds. Single Common Loons were seen at different locations on the Ottawa River on the 3rd and 6th, and a late Pied-billed Grebe was swimming in a flooded stream along Dunrobin Rd. on the 3rd. Britannia Bay continues to be attractive to Bald Eagles - an adult and an immature bird were seen here on the 7th, Rough-legged Hawks now seem to be fixtures in farm fields, and varying numbers of Iceland and Glaucous Gulls have been found at both Andrew Haydon and the Trail Rd. landfill. The ice along the shore at Andrew Haydon hosted large numbers of gulls this past week with Herring Gulls in the majority, although good numbers of Ring-billed Gulls are still around and an adult Lesser Black-backed Gull has been seen among them with some regularity. Snowy Owls were again reported in a variety of locations, a Northern Hawk Owl has been present in Gatineau, Quebec for at least a week and Short-eared Owls are still being seen along Earl Armstrong Rd. south of the international airport on the more user-friendly evenings. Northern Shrikes were reported from a few suburban areas during the past week. A CAROLINA WREN appeared at a backyard feeder by the Britannia Conservation Area on the 7th and a NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRD found on Grandview Rd. on the 6th was seen again on the 8th, not not checking out a feeder but Christmas decorations. A handful of Cedar Waxwings at Shirley's Bay and small flocks of Golden-crowned Kinglets and White-winged Crossbills along the Sarsaparilla Trail in the Stoney Swamp were also seen last weekend. Thank you - Good Birding! _______________________________________________ ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists - the provincial birding organization. Send bird reports to ONTBIRDS mailing list [email protected] For instructions to join or leave ONTBIRDS visit http://www.ofo.ca/information/ontbirdssetup.php ONTBIRDS Guidelines may be viewed at http://www.ofo.ca/information/ontbirdsguide.php
