Biggest week of American Birding - Day 2 - May 9 - Ottawa NWR & Magee Boardwalk
We all agreed to meet for breakfast at 6am and and plan our day. After a very filling breakfast at the hotel - we started our 2nd day of birding.
It was a short 20 minute drive from the hotel to Ottawa NWR - our goal was shorebirds - we where especially interested in seeing either Black Bellied or Golden Plovers that had been reported the last few days in the area.
Ottawa NWR
We next traveled the 4 mile driving tour looking for our target species for the day.
As we proceeded along the tour road being we heard the calling of many common yellowthoart and yellow warblers and even saw a few...and as we rounded the corner of the first 'pond - wetlands area' we saw several cars parked and many people with scopes...a sure sign something good was near...turns out the everyone was viewing a eagle nest,,,,that had several adults where tending..no young eagles where seen..but the adults kept carrying fish to the next...so some must have been present. After viewing the nest for several - we continued on our shorebird species trek.
We eventually entered an area with several flooded corn fields and again observed many birders with scopes scanning the field. we stopped and joined the growing crown and where not disappointed - as on the one field we observed greater & lesser yellowlegs, 100's of dunlin, least sandpipers, semi-palmated sandpipers, American pipit's and solitary sandpipers.
I was hard, but after a while we decided to move on.....and at our next stop we observed black bellied plovers, Common, and Caspian terns, and a Sandhill Crane.
We had heard a report of and American Avocet in the area and decided to 'chase' after this species - as it was a life bird for several in the group.
As luck would have it, in the last pond before the exit we discovered not only the Avocet - but several Trumpeter Swans as well (another life bird for several in the group).
We ended our Ottawa tour with a total of 45 species and then proceeded to the broad walk as the rain started to fall.
Ottawa NWR
 |
| Visitors Center |
| Typical Habitat at Ottawa NWR |
When we arrived a light rain was starting to fall....and lasted only about 1 hour. We toured the visitors center and walked the raised boardwalk around the grounds....adding white crowned sparrow and several other species to our growing list.
We next traveled the 4 mile driving tour looking for our target species for the day.
As we proceeded along the tour road being we heard the calling of many common yellowthoart and yellow warblers and even saw a few...and as we rounded the corner of the first 'pond - wetlands area' we saw several cars parked and many people with scopes...a sure sign something good was near...turns out the everyone was viewing a eagle nest,,,,that had several adults where tending..no young eagles where seen..but the adults kept carrying fish to the next...so some must have been present. After viewing the nest for several - we continued on our shorebird species trek.
We eventually entered an area with several flooded corn fields and again observed many birders with scopes scanning the field. we stopped and joined the growing crown and where not disappointed - as on the one field we observed greater & lesser yellowlegs, 100's of dunlin, least sandpipers, semi-palmated sandpipers, American pipit's and solitary sandpipers.
| Dunlin |
| Solitary Sandpipers |
I was hard, but after a while we decided to move on.....and at our next stop we observed black bellied plovers, Common, and Caspian terns, and a Sandhill Crane.
| Caspian Tern |
We had heard a report of and American Avocet in the area and decided to 'chase' after this species - as it was a life bird for several in the group.
As luck would have it, in the last pond before the exit we discovered not only the Avocet - but several Trumpeter Swans as well (another life bird for several in the group).
| American Avocet & Trumpeter Swan (photo by L Black) |
We ended our Ottawa tour with a total of 45 species and then proceeded to the broad walk as the rain started to fall.
The
rain and mild winds from the east means that not many migrating birds
arrived - but we still walked the boardwalk and where treated to a
fledgling pair of Great Horned Owls sitting in a tree just above the
boardwalk that afforded great views. There was a report of a Mourning
Warblers - but none in our group spotted it. We ended the day with a
total of 68 species and a 2 day total species count of 86...and looking forward dinner and a good night's rest.
No comments:
Post a Comment