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- RBA

* Ontario
* Ottawa/Gatineau
* 25 March 2007
* ONOT0703.25

- Birds mentioned

GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE
Snow Goose
Canada Goose
Gadwall
American Wigeon
Northern Shoveler
Northern Pintail
Green-winged Teal
Ring-necked Duck
BARROW'S GOLDENEYE
Pied-billed Grebe
Great Blue Heron
Turkey Vulture
Bald Eagle
Northern Harrier
Northern Goshawk
Merlin
Killdeer
Ring-billed Gull
Thayer's Gull
Lesser Black-backed Gull
AMERICAN THREE-TOED WOODPECKER
BLACK-BACKED WOODPECKER
American Crow
Gray Catbird
American Pipit
Song Sparrow
Common Grackle
Purple Finch
Red Crossbill
Pine Siskin
Evening Grosbeak

- Transcript

hotline: Ottawa Field-Naturalists' Club
date: 25 March 2007
number: 613-860-9000
for the status line : press 2
for rare bird alerts: press 1
to report a sighting: press #
coverage: Ottawa/Gatineau (Can. Nat. Capital Reg.), E.Ont., W.Que.
compiler & transcriber: Chris Lewis hagenius@primus.ca
internet: Gordon Pringle parula@magma.ca

THE OFNC BIRD STATUS LINE @ 8:00pm, SUNDAY MARCH 25, 2007.

This is Chris Lewis reporting.

After another week of winter & spring doing battle for dominance, some
serious signs of spring migration are finally happening.

A few "winter hangovers" were still around - a male BARROW'S GOLDENEYE on
the Rideau River Strathcona Park on the 20th, a female Black-backed
Woodpecker along the Kerwin Rd. trail on the 19th and a male American
Three-toed Woodpecker along the same trail on the 25th.

Now to the spring stuff! On the 24th, at least 500 Snow Geese were found
adjacent to the St. Albert sewage lagoons, and another flock of at least 100
birds were seen along Russell Rd. east of Bourget on the same day.
Despite the still extensive ice and lack of major flooding in the fields
east of Ottawa on the 24th, multiple 1000's of Canada Geese and
Northern Pintails were observed arriving and feeding east of Carlsbad
Springs and Bourget. Two Greater White-fronted
Geese were among the Canada's on the north side of Russell Rd. near Johnson
Rd. on the 25th. Other new arrivals in various locations included Gadwall,
American Wigeon, Northern Shoveler, Green-winged Teal, Ring-necked Duck, as
well as the 1st local reports of Pied-billed Grebe, Great Blue Heron, Turkey
Vulture, Killdeer, Song Sparrow and Common Grackle.

Raptor reports included several reports of Bald Eagles along the Ottawa
River and the Eardley escarpment from the 17th through the 24th. The 1st
Northern Harriers were noted near Bourget on the 24th, an immature Northern
Goshawk caused some consternation among the American Crows in the Clyde
Avenue woods the same day, and another was very vocal along the Kerwin trail
on the 25th. Individual Merlins were reported from Bourget, Carlsbad
Springs, Britannia and the Carlingwood area this weekend.

The activity at the Ring-billed Gull colony at Deschenes is now in full
frenzy. Three Lesser Black-backed were in a field
along Barnsdale Rd. between Moodie Dr. and Twin Elm Rd. on the 25th, and a
1st winter Thayer's Gull was reported among the gulls above the Deschenes
rapids the same day.

In addition to the expected early migrant songbirds which are now
everywhere, an extremely early Gray Catbird dropped in at a feeder in
Manotick on the 21st, a very early American Pipit was on Milton Rd. on the
25th, and a visit to the Eardley-Masham Rd. in Gatineau Park on the 24th
produced good numbers of Purple Finches and Pine Siskins as well as 2 Red
Crossbills and 4 Evening Grosbeaks.

Thank you - Good Birding!

- End transcript