On the Threshold

Killdeer

Although the snow has been melting rapidly over the past couple of weeks, the temperature has still been below seasonal and it seems as though we’ve been poised on the threshold of spring for some time now. Winter has been slow to leave, migration has been slow to get under way, and I’ve still needed my winter coat and hat for the mornings when it has only been 0°C.

Despite the winter storm today that has coated everything with a new layer of ice and snow, the past week has given me hope that we have finally turned the corner. American Robins, Red-winged Blackbirds and Common Grackles have been back in large numbers for a couple of weeks now, and I see many of each species on my 1.2 km walk to the bus stop each morning. Since April 4th I’ve managed to add five new species to my year list: Song Sparrow, Great Blue Heron, Wood Duck, Golden-crowned Kinglet and Fox Sparrow.

The Dance of the Pileateds

Red-winged Blackbird

Spring officially arrived in the Northern Hemisphere last Wednesday, but winter refuses to relinquish its grip. The temperature has been below seasonal for the last week, and Ottawa received another 20 cm of snow on Wednesday with more snow flurries on Thursday and Friday. This means there is still at least a foot of snow in the woods and the snowbank next to our driveway is still over 4 feet high. The ice on the Ottawa River is beginning to recede but all the ponds are still frozen. The temperature finally rose to 3°C yesterday after hovering at or below the freezing mark all last week.

Thirty Birds

Common Redpoll

The new year is only five days old and already I have tallied thirty bird species in three outings. Once again, the American Crow was the first bird of the new year, followed by European Starling. I didn’t get the early start I had wanted on New Year’s Day, but I still managed to leave the house around 9:00 and find the Rough-legged Hawk near the intersection of Brownlee and Eagleson Roads right away. Two Red-tailed Hawks near the Trail Road Landfill were the only other raptors I’ve seen so far this year.

At Jack Pine Trail I added both nuthatches, a small flock of Common Redpolls, a couple of American Tree Sparrows and a Northern Cardinal to my brand-new year list, while the Harlequin Duck still present north of Bate Island and the Carolina Wren at Mud Lake provided two easy ticks for birds rarely seen in Ottawa. Two Canada Geese swimming in the channel behind the ridge were a good find, though I have heard that one has an injured wing. By the time I saw the Pine Grosbeaks along March Valley Road I was tired and ready to quit, even though I only tallied 23 species that day.

Return of the Winter List

Snowshoe Hare

It’s that time of year again! The official winter listing period began on December 1st, and once again I am keeping a list of all of the birds I find in the Ottawa area during the months of December, January and February. While a winter list of 90 species or more in the Ottawa study area (a 50 kilometre radius centered on the Peace Tower downtown) is considered excellent, during the past five years I have only averaged 60 species per winter. My best season was last winter, when I tallied 70 species altogether!

Small Geese

Cackling Goose

The weather last weekend was not conducive to spending a lot of time by the river. It was cold, for one thing; the temperature rose only a few degrees above zero each day. It was overcast, for another, which meant no there was no warming sunshine to ease the chill. Worst of all, it was windy – and out along the Ottawa River, the wind coming off the water just blasts the cold right into you. Still, I stopped by Andrew Haydon Park on Saturday in the hope of spotting some interesting birds around the man-made ponds. I still needed Cackling Goose for my year list, and Andrew Haydon is one of the best spots to find this species in the fall. I was also hoping there might be some unusual gulls and waterbirds around too, despite the heavy winds; it was worth a look!

The first spring babies

Canada Goose gosling

I took the day after returning from my trip to Nova Scotia off work to recover from the late night flight, but the weather was so gloomy that I figured it might be a great day to go see what was happening at Mud Lake. This turned out to be an awesome decision, as I saw 45 species, including 12 warblers, altogether. I met Bob Bracken and Chris Lewis on my way to the conservation area; they had their scopes pointed up into a tree on Britannia Street, so I stopped to see if maybe they had a Summer Tanager or an Orchard Oriole. It turned out they had seen a Merlin fly into the tree and were looking for a nest. We decided to meet at Britannia Point and bird the area together.

A Rabbit on Easter Sunday

Easter Bunny! (Eastern Cottontail)

Easter Sunday dawned bright and sunny, and I found it terribly amusing that the first mammal I saw (other than the usual squirrels sitting on my back deck waiting for me to feed them) was an Eastern Cottontail rabbit near the storm water management ponds in my subdivision. This is the first rabbit I’ve seen since early January when one spent a couple of weeks hanging around my street, so I got out of the car to take a few pictures. As it was Easter Sunday, I was briefly tempted to go up to him to see if he’d laid any Cadbury chocolate Easter eggs; then I decided that to do so would seriously damage any credibility I may have gained as an amateur naturalist!

Birding on April Fool’s Day

Snow Goose

April is finally here.  This is the month when it truly begins to feel like spring, yet Mother Nature played a cruel April Fool’s trick on us by sending us a mix of snow and rain on Sunday morning. I managed to get in an hour’s worth of birding before the gray skies began spitting snow, starting first at Sarsaparilla Trail where I found a male Wood Duck, a pair of Hooded Mergansers, a male Bufflehead, and a pair of Ring-necked Ducks on the pond. This was the first Bufflehead I had seen here, bringing the total number of species observed to 75 – up 15 from the 60 I reported in my blog entry about Sarsaparilla Trail.

The Warm Weather Continues

Juvenile Cooper's Hawk

The warm weather continued all last week, so I visited Hurdman Park on three different days hoping to find more butterflies and migrants. On Monday I saw a butterfly right away, likely a Cabbage White, but instead of flying down the path it went into the woods where I couldn’t follow or photograph it. Cabbage Whites overwinter in the pupa stage, so when the warm weather arrives they emerge as adults rather quickly. I usually see them at Hurdman fairly early in the spring, but usually not this early!

I was happy to hear lots of goldfinches and Song Sparrows singing throughout the park. The Song Sparrows are back in large numbers now, and I estimate I saw (and heard) about 20 of them during my walk. I checked the river in a few different places to see if any Great Blue Herons had returned, but they were still absent from the riverbank. The water levels are still rather high, though, so while they may be around, they may not return to this spot until the water recedes.

A Blast of Summer in March

Eastern Comma

Temperatures returned to seasonal during the week after my trip to Algonquin with Deb. I stopped by Hurdman twice during the week, and picked up two new year birds: a pair of Hooded Mergansers on Monday and a single Song Sparrow on Friday. On Saturday the warm weather returned. The temperature reached an unseasonal high of almost 20°C, and the days have gotten progressively warmer ever since.

I decided to visit Sarsaparilla Trail first thing Saturday morning, despite the gray fog that blanketed the area. Several new birds had arrived, including Red-winged Blackbirds, a single Song Sparrow, three Hooded Mergansers, Canada Geese, and Common Grackles. I could only see the edge of the pond closest to the boardwalk; I couldn’t tell if any Great Blue Herons were lurking around the edges of the marsh. At one point a male Purple Finch landed on a tree overlooking the marsh and began singing.  This was one of the highlights of my trip, along with two Eastern Chipmunks scurrying about in the woods.