BIRDQUEST2004

A 1st summer, White-faced Ibis, has been causing quite a stir, at the end of Rivington Street in Carp.
Birders and photographers alike have raced to get a glimpse of this never before seen, Ottawa bird.
He was fairly skittish the first few days but now as long as you approach the river’s edge slowly, the ibis, lets you get fairly close.
You gotta love the light that you get on an overcast day, it just sets off the colors of this Ibis.

The red eye, slightly pinkish legs near the knee joints and pinkish facial skin are the field mark that peg the identity of this bird.
Also this week a lovely breeding plumage Eared Grebe has been spending time between the Embun Lagoons and the Casselman Lagoons. He is
fairly wary for those of us who want to photograph him but is easily visible. Digiscoping would be an easy way to get a photo. The day we went to see the Grebe, it was associating with a family of Ruddy Ducks. The photo below required some extensive post-processing but
I am pretty happy with the results, considering the distance.

It nice to see these rarities showing up from time to time, now bring on another Whooping Crane,

Thanks, Ben Dilabio for finding this bird.

On Saturday, August 31st, Rick Poulin found a group of American Golden Plovers at the intersection of Twin Elm Road and Barnsdale. I got by just before dark to have a look, without my camera. I had never seen a group this large in all my years of birding. A very cool sight.

I really hadn’t planned on going back and was just about to go with Sue and the dog for a walk at the park, the phone rang. Rick was calling to let me know that a pair of Pectoral Sandpipers had just landed amongst the Plovers.

Normally I would have gone for the walk but I needed a Pectoral Sandpiper for my big year, so off I went.

Arriving at the spot, it didn’t take long to see that the Plover numbers had increased from 14 the night before to 23. Also present was a Short-billed Dowitcher, 4 Killdeer, a Horned Lark, 2 Pectoral Sandpipers and over a hundred Ring-billed Gulls.

As a group of us were watching the birds a Peregrine Falcon zoomed in, trying for an easy meal. I managed a few shots but when I processed them the sky color was horrible, so I Photoshopped in a blue sky.

We decided to take a drive to the Almonte Sewage Lagoons, where the highlight was a Red-necked Phalarope. There were Pectoral, Least, Semi-palmed Sandpipers and many of both Yellowlegs.

In the field there were hundreds of Clouded Sulphurs and a lone Giant Swallowtail. And after many years of trying I finally got an image of an Eastern Tailed Blue with its wings open.

Ciao for now