[Ontbirds]Ottawa - E. Bluebirds, Savannah Sparrow, Wilson's Snipe

[Patrick Blake]

I'll start this report with a very exciting sighting for me on my way home from work.  I was coming down Prince of Wales Drive near Barrhaven, following alongside the Rideau River, where I spotted two adult OSPREYS hunting at two different spots along the river.  Later in the afternoon, I relocated one of them near the Chapman Hills Conservation Area on Prince of Wales Drive.  This is likely the same one that I heard was spotted further downriver near Nicholl's Island at Manotick.

I returned to Earl Armstrong Road to search once again for the E. BLUEBIRDS that I had seen this past weekend.  Luck was on my side yet again, and I found an adult male and female along the fence line.  I parked there and watched the two flit around from the ground to the fence, then to a nearby bush and back to the fence.  At one point the male perched on the post directly across the road from where I was parked and posed for at least twenty beautiful photos.  All the while this was going on, I was aware of a WILSON'S SNIPE calling somewhere off in one of the fields beyond the tree line.  The call was the unmistakably "sci-fi UFO" sound the snipe makes when it is doing its courtship flight.  Unfortunately I did not actually see the bird, but the courtship call continued the entire time I was parked watching the bluebirds - probably thirty minutes or longer.

I continued on down Earl Armstrong to High Road and parked at the end of the road.  There I found another male E. BLUEBIRD and three SAVANNAH SPARROWS foraging along the roadside.  Of course, the usually AM. ROBINS and RED-WINGED BLACKBIRDS were also in the field, as was a single SONG SPARROW and a number of EUROPEAN STARLINGS.  The sun was setting at this point, so I headed back home.  Before I left, however, I saw what I am confident was an E. KINGBIRD on a tree limb.  The tail was too long to be a red-wing, and it was bobbing its tail while it chirped.  In the fading light I did see through my binoculars a dark cap and upper body with a whitish underbody.  I can not be 100% on this, but the behaviour, shape, and size, were right for a kingbird.

DIRECTIONS: MapQuest "Earl Armstrong Road & High Road."  Watch along the side fence posts for E. bluebirds and maybe even E. meadowlarks.
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