Field Birds
November 24th, 2011
Yesterday I went out with my birding group and found two long-awaited
lifers!
The first was
Snow
Bunting, an arctic songbird. They breed on open tundra, and winter in
rural areas and on shorelines. I'm a little embarrassed that it took me so
long to list Snow Bunting. It's common here, late fall through early spring. I
can only blame it on my dearth of experience with rural birding, plus a dash
of bad luck.
Yesterday made up for it in spades. I fell in love with Snow Buntings. Big
flocks of them swirling over the fields, twinkling salt-and-pepper swarms of
birds. In flight, they're obvious. But when, all as one, they settle down in a
snowy plowed field...they utterly disappear. Their brown and white winter
plumage is a perfect match to the brown and white landscape. Your only hope is
to see movement. When they skitter around en masse in a field, it looks like
the earth itself is moving.
Lifer #2 was
Sandhill
Crane. Did you know we have cranes in Ottawa? I didn't, before I took up
this hobby. I thought of cranes as exotic, Asian birds. There are two species
native to North America, the highly-endangered Whooping Crane, and the more
numerous Sandhill Crane, a large, stately grey bird with a red forehead. Not
to be confused with herons, which are easily seen in just about any stream,
river or pond around Ottawa, our population of Sandhill Cranes is very small
and reclusive, breeding in only one known location: Mer Bleue bog.
Autumn is the time to see them. That's when they leave the bog and gather in
adjacent farmer's fields to feed on waste grain. The sight is a magnet to
migrating Sandhill Cranes, who then touch down and swell the flock. At Milton
and Smith roads, we found 95 of them in one field. Too far away for decent
photographs, but with a spotting scope, we were able to have a good, close-up
look.
Lifelist now stands at 299. The next one is the big one!
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More Autumn Waterfowl
November 14th, 2011
In the past few autumns, a whole flock of migrant
Lesser Scaup have taken
to staging in one of the small, manmade ponds at Andrew Haydon Park. It's fun
to get to see these very wild ducks up close. Over time they become tame,
perhaps taking their cue from the surrounding Mallards, who evince no alarm at
passing humans (but do react to passing dogs.) Last time I was there, a couple
of them even came up on shore, the first time I'd ever seen scaup on land.
(female Mallard behind)
Alas, Lesser Scaup drakes wear their
eclipse plumage late
in the year, and by the time they're fully back in their handsome breeding
plumage, they'll be gone to their wintering grounds. The photos above are both
of drakes, though, being in eclipse, they resemble females. You can just see a
few vague whitish patches on the back and flanks where the breeding plumage is
coming back in.
Two
Brant have been
feeding on the park lawn for the last couple weeks. This small (duck-sized)
tundra goose is a close relative to our familiar Canada Goose. It's not
usually seen on manicured parkland (preferring to eat aquatic plants like
eelgrass), but, like the scaup, these two seem to be taking cues from their
more domesticated relatives.
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Whole flocks of this species sometimes put down to rest on the Ottawa River
during their fall migration.
(Canada Geese behind)
This looks like a female Common Merganser--a common breeder in our area--at
first glance. But its bright red eyes give it away as something more
interesting: a
Red-Breasted
Merganser. See
here
for a look at the drake's unique, spiky-haired breeding plumage.
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Green-Winged Teal
November 11th, 2011
Duck migration is in full swing. I went down to Andrew Haydon Park recently to
enjoy the sight of teal, scaup, and other (relatively) exotic waterfowl,
joining the ubiquitous mallards and canada geese in the western pond.
Every year, it seems, more and more
Green-Winged Teal
show up in Ottawa in migration. I never tire of their beauty.
Teal are dabbling as opposed to diving ducks. They obtain their food primarily
by swimming in very shallow water and picking at the surface, or even while
walking on mud flats. So I was surprised to find a group of three actively
diving! I'd seen mallards diversify that way before, and it was less of a
surprise, since mallards are generalists in a lot of ways. I didn't expect it
from teal.
It was quite a different sight from, say, a diving scaup, which slips
gracefully underwater with scarcely a ripple. These guys went in with tails
spread, wings akimbo, and a loud *sploosh*.
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"Local celebrity" would be an understatement this time
October 23rd, 2011
Ottawa has just seen its first
Razorbill in recorded
history. Razorbill is a seabird--an auk, to be specific--that, under all
normal circumstances, breeds, winters and migrates in salt water habitat. Only
extreme weather during its migration can cause this bird to be blown off
course and end up inland. Which is presumably what happened, with the storm of
a few days ago. (An interesting blog post
here
explores the possibilities.)
I've seen these birds in their usual locale off the Gaspé peninsula,
and
photographed one who swam close
to the dock. No such luck today: the Razorbill on the Ottawa River was staying
far out from shore, viewable only with spotting scope. He was preening and
fishing and seemed to be doing quite well for himself, unaccustomed freshwater
habitat notwithstanding.
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White Admiral
October 19th, 2011
One from the backlog.
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Highlights At Andrew Haydon Park
October 12th, 2011
Most sandpipers breed on the tundra and winter on the coast. But in autumn,
about 20 species worth move through Ottawa in migration, showing up on muddy
river shores and shallow ponds. Andrew Haydon Park is one of the classic
places to find them. I went sandpiper-watching there on Saturday morning, and
found many other points of interest besides.
Greater
Yellowlegs
Greater Yellowlegs
Great Blue Heron executing a perfect landing.
Red Squirrel in the morning light (available as
wallpaper)
White-Rumped
Sandpiper--life bird #294! (Yes, I'm celebrating when I hit 300 :-)
White-Rumped Sandpiper betraying its identity
Great Egret
(wider-angle than my usual, but I liked the perspective of the Sailing Club
behind it.) This graceful species was historically rare in our area, but in
recent years, has become a regular sight along the Ottawa River in fall.
Eastern Chipmunk (with snack)
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A Local Celebrity
September 18th, 2011
Three different super-rare birds have been spotted at Andrew Haydon Park of
late. I went there yesterday morning hoping to run into at least one of them,
and was not disappointed. Lifer #292!
The petite, graceful
Sabine's
Gull breeds in the arctic and winters in the tropics, off the pacific
coast of South America and the southwest coast of Africa. It is typically
quite pelagic (ocean-loving) outside of the breeding season. Ottawa is, to say
the least, not on its usual migration route. Perhaps this juvenile got a
little disoriented?
Size comparison with Ring-Billed Gull (behind):
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Montreal Biodome (4/4)
August 19th, 2011
The last of the (good) Biodome photos, all taken in the tropical ecosystem:
Roseate
Spoonbill. This species' range actually extends up into the gulf region of
the United States.
The
Sunbittern seems a
plain and unassuming fellow...
...until he spreads his wings, that is! The flamboyant "eyespots" are used in
courtship and to startle potential predators. We got to see that second use in
action when a caiman (alligator-like reptile) got a little too close for the
sunbittern's liking.
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Montreal Biodome (3/4)
August 18th, 2011
If you've ever been to the Biodome, you've probably seen a
Grey-Winged
Trumpeter, an extremely tame species found in the tropical ecosystem. They
frequently come out on the path and run around underfoot.
I'm not sure what these
Hyacinth Macaws were up
to, but it looked rather amorous!
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Montreal Biodome (2/4)
August 17th, 2011
The big birds and animals are what most people notice at the Biodome, but it's
actually teeming with small songbirds too--especially in the tropical exhibit.
Most of them stay in the canopy and are hard to see. But this
Green Honeycreeper
was the star of the day. He perched in plain view very close to me.
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Goeldi's Marmoset
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