July 13 2024 (Saturday) Thickson's Point

Leader: Dave Milsom, Cathy Douglas, Brian Wales.

This OFO trip had 23 members and guests registered, but despite a beautiful sunny day, only 10 participants attended.However, they all seemed to enjoy a productive yet relaxing day of birding along the Durham lakeshore. 56 species were seen by the group. From 8 to 10.30 am, we hiked the tarmac trail to Thickson's Point.Highlights were Orchard and Baltimore orioles, many Bank Swallows (large colony nesting in the cliffs), Yellow Warblers and Willow flycatchers, a Green Heron, Great-crested Flycatcher, and a Northern Rough-winged Swallow. At Whitby Harbour we saw Common and Caspian terns, Herring and Ring-billed gulls, Mute Swans, Double-crested Cormorants, and a Belted Kingfisher. After a lunch break at Tim Hortons, we proceeded towards Cranberry Marsh.At Halls Road, we found 4 Sandhill Cranes feeding in a cornfield, a Semipalmated Plover in a wet area, 2 Great Blue Herons and an Osprey. At Cranberry Marsh, we enjoyed several singing Marsh Wrens, a number of eastern Kingbirds, female Mallards with ducklings, Great Blue Herons, a Trumpeter Swan, and several early Fall migrants : 5 Semipalmated Sandpipers, 20 Common and 5 Red-breasted mergansers, a Common Loon and a breeding-plumaged Red-throated Loon. Many thanks to the participants for their cooperation and enthusiasm.We hope to see them again on future OFO fieldtrips.

July 6 2024 (Saturday) Rosetta McClain Gardens

Leader: Jack Alvo, John Nishikawa, Rose Petrich.

Saturday, July 6, six participants gathered on a sunny and comfortable morning at Rosetta McClain Gardens in Scarborough. In a deliberately slow-paced outing, the group found 21 species, a typical number for this location in mid-summer. Songbirds included Northern Flicker, Northern Cardinals, Blue Jays and White-breasted Nuthatches, all of which were vocalizing. A few group members had a brief look at a bright male Baltimore Oriole. Looking out over the lake, we saw Bank Swallows, a Caspian Tern and 33 Double-breasted Cormorants. Some of the birds seen were lifers for some people.

As always, the gardens at Rosetta McClain were stunningly beautiful with flowers in full bloom. Butterflies seen were Monarch, Red Admiral and Cabbage White.

This was one of two outings this month designed to be inclusive and accessible, particularly for people who have a mobility-related disability. Unfortunately, some registrants were unable to come. These outings are being put on jointly by Ontario Field Ornithologists (OFO), Toronto Ornithological Club (TOC), and Accessibirdies. Co-leaders were Rose Petrich, John Nishikawa, and Jack Alvo. Also present were another two members of the planning group: Monika Croydon and Accessibility Leader Holly Barkley, who is also the founder of Accessibirdies.

June 18 2024 (Tuesday) Happy Valley

Leader: Kevin Shackleton.

Trip Report. 30 people registered at one point and then some people cancelled at the last minute. Some people went to the "pin" in the description of the start location and were at the wrong place, despite my written directions which were easy to follow. I spent about 10 minutes describing the history of Happy Valley and reviewing the song of the Hooded Warbler so people would know what they were listening for this morning. We spent the bulk of our time in the NCC Happy Valley Forest and walked about 3Km over well marked trails in two hours. I asked people to use their Merlin app and one of them heard the Hooded at the same time as I did. We heard a second one further on and I tried to call it in without success. People said me mimicking the song helped them hear it when it sang again. We had 26 species in that tract, including 14 Ovenbirds and 5 Brown Creepers, two of which were seen as we ended that portion of the morning.
Some people left the group at this point as the up and down nature of the tract was too much for their knees. We moved to the newer York Region Forest Happy Valley Tract just north of the NCC property. We spent about 50 minutes looking and listening to open country birds where one of the group saw a life Mourning Warbler. There were Clay-coloured, Field, Chipping, Song and a rare Lincoln's Sparrow here. We also had Bobolink, Eastern Meadowlark and Baltimore Oriole. There was a request for a washroom break at this point so I took part of the group to Tim Horton's in Schomberg.
For the last hour or so, I took the remaining 12 of the group to the Goldie Feldman Tract on the 17th SR in King. The forest birding was slow, but we added Barred Owl, a life bird for one of the group, Warbling Vireo and Winter Wren. We finished up at about 12:36 pm with 39 species. I felt that as the trip was billed as the Happy Valley Forest the participants should see all parts of it. In the past it has gone through Nobleton and to the Schomberg sewage lagoons.

Kevin Shackleton

June 2 2024 (Sunday) Glen Morris

Leader: Jason Pizzey, Jenny Pizzey.

Here is our short and sweet trip report for the Glen Morris area on a soggy morning.
June 2, 2024 Leaders: Jason and Jenny Pizzey

5 people attended in the steady rain, thanks to them for being troopers, Jenny and I were expecting to bird alone. This included 2 brand new birders from Kitchener, who were brought along by a member. We wish we could have had a better day to fully introduce them to our pastime. The day started at Grass lake, where we watched a lone sandhill crane in the marsh and singing swamp sparrows. Try as we might, we did not hear or see any other marsh birds. We then proceeded to walk the roadway offering great looks at several savannah sparrows, bobolinks and distant looks at the singing meadowlarks. These species were much appreciated by the attendees who were targeting them on our trip. Our second stop was the rail trail in Glen Morris where we were greeted by singing warbling vireos, yellow warblers and a few cliff swallows nesting under the bridge. It was decided at this point to cut our trip short, everyone being drenched and chilly. 28 species over the couple hours we were out wasn't too bad, considering the conditions! https://ebird.org/tripreport/247818

May 26 2024 (Sunday) Porcupine Lake

Leader: Roxanne Filion, Pierre Noel.

OFO Field Trip: Porcupine Lake and area (26 May 2024) Trip leaders: Roxane Filion and Pierre Noel Support & eBird list: Gary Dowe

The fog lifted on Porcupine Lake just before 7am as 15 of us started the morning looking at waterfowl, sparrows, warblers and swallows at White Waterfront Conservation Area. More people joined us and we visited a few other locations. Songbirds were active along the Porcupine Lake trail. The leaves were out earlier than usual and made it difficult to locate birds, but encouraged us to appreciate the various songs and calls. Many in our group managed good views of Black-and-white, Chestnut-sided, Magnolia, Bay-breasted and Yellow Warblers, American Redstarts, Philadelphia and Red-eyed Vireos, and Veery. The highlight of the day was finding a Summer Tanager, a very rare bird for the area and a first record for Timmins. Many of us were delighted to watch this beautiful bird sing and feed along poplar branches. Thank you to the 24 people who joined us throughout the day. We had a wonderful time, saw and heard 65 different species of birds, and met many new bird enthusiasts!

Roxane

May 26 2024 (Sunday) Carden Alvar

Leader: Jean Iron, Dawn Sherman, Ron Tozer, Eric Baldo.

OFO Trip to Carden Alvar 26 May 2024

Welcome to the 31st OFO trip to Carden Alvar. This trip is dedicated in memory of Ron Pittaway who led the first OFO Carden Alvar trip in June 1992 and for the next 27 years. Ron discovered this amazing area while doing Loggerhead Shrike surveys for the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and he devoted many years to help preserve it. Many thanks to today's co-leaders Ron Tozer, Dawn Sherman and Eric Baldo.

With 35 eager participants, we walked Wylie Road from the cabin to Sedge Wren Marsh. The open grasslands on the east side of Wylie and of Windmill Ranch on the west side, now part of Carden Alvar Provincial Park, were at their finest with wild blooming flowers: Prairie Smoke (pink), Paintbrush (orange) and Balsam Ragwort (yellow). Highlights included hearing and seeing Carden Alvar grassland specialties: Eastern Meadowlark, Bobolink, Upland Sandpiper, Eastern Towhee, Brown Thrasher, and Grasshopper, Savannah, Vesper, and Field Sparrows, and more.

We watched and listened to Wilson's Snipe doing its beautiful display flight over us on Wylie Road. We could see the spread tail. Air passing through its outer spread tail feathers created the accompanying lovely winnowing sound. We heard and saw Orchard Oriole, rare for this area, and we had wonderful views of Eastern Bluebirds and Tree Swallows.

At Sedge Wren Marsh we heard Sora, Virginia Rail, Alder Flycatcher and Ruffed Grouse drumming. The road was flooded so we could not continue farther north than the yellow rail bridge. Two American Bitterns performed a display flight over Sedge Wren Marsh while another was booming. We heard and saw 3 Black-billed Cuckoos.

A relaxing picnic lunch at Kirkfield Liftlock energized us for the afternoon's sightings. Our target was the critically endangered Eastern Loggerhead Shrike. Carden Alvar is one of only two main core breeding areas in Ontario, and its population continues to decline. We had excellent scope views of two in their preferred habitat: open grassland with scattered hawthorn bushes and grazing cattle. We enjoyed seeing several herds of curious cattle on some ranches.

We continued to Canal Lake and the causeway where we saw a Common Loon, Common and Caspian Terns, and Ospreys on their nest platforms. On Prospect Road, our highlights were Common Gallinule, 2 American Kestrels, a Double-crested Cormorant, several Ospreys and many Marsh Wrens chattering and perching on cattails.

We ended our trip at about 4:35 p.m. when Ron Tozer tallied our 91 species for the day. Thank you everyone for your enthusiasm and good spotting. We spent a wonderful day experiencing the Carden Alvar at its finest.

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May 20 2024 (Monday) Ottawa Spring Migrants

Leader: Bernie Ladouceur.

May 20 2024 (Monday) Ottawa Spring Migrants

Leader: Bernie Ladouceur.

Twelve participants, including the leader, found 62 species. This half-day trip explored the Lac Desch?nes IBA, focusing primarily on the Britannia Conservation Area and Shirley?s Bay, arguably the two best birding locations in Ottawa.

We met at the Lincoln Fields Shopping Centre where we had a surprise flyover of Bobolink. We started at the Britannia Conservation Area (Mud Lake), where we would spend the majority of our time. We began by viewing the Conroy Island nesting area that is on the Quebec side of the Ottawa River. The breeding species here include likely in excess of 1,000 Ring-billed Gulls, 100+ Double-crested Cormorants, and double-digit numbers for breeding Great Egrets and Black-crowned Night Herons, In all, we found 53 species, including 12 species of warbler. We were able to get good views of Tennessee, Northern Parula, Bay-breasted, Blackburnian, Chestnut-sided, and Blackpoll Warblers. On the other hand, singing Canada Warblers were not so cooperative. There were 7 Bonaparte?s Gulls among the multitude of Ring-billed Gulls at Britannia Point.

While we were at Britannia, we receive word of a flock of possible Arctic Terns roaming Lac Desch?nes (which is really just a widening of the Ottawa River). We hit it just right. Within 10 minutes of arriving at the Shirley?s Bay boat launch, 35 Arctic Terns appeared close to shore (with a bonus Black Tern among them) affording the best views that most of us have ever had of this species in Ottawa. It was a lifer for a number of our participants.

Having dropped one of the stops on our itinerary in favour of spending more time with the Arctic Terns, we decided to head for the Dunrobin Shore public beach, where there had been a few flocks of White-winged Scoters and a single Brant earlier in the day. None of those birds was there, so we had to be satisfied with a Wild Turkey walking the beach.

Thanks to all who participated. A trip list follows:

Canada Goose

82

Wood Duck

17

Mallard

7

Wild Turkey

2

Pied-billed Grebe

2

Mourning Dove

3

Chimney Swift

3

Spotted Sandpiper

1

Bonaparte?s Gull

7

Ring-billed Gull

712

Herring Gull

1

Black Tern

1

Arctic Tern

35

Double-crested Cormorant

50

Black-crowned Night-Heron

3

Great Egret

8

Great Blue Heron

1

Turkey Vulture

3

Osprey

2

Cooper?s Hawk

1

Downy Woodpecker

2

Northern Flicker

2

Great Crested Flycatcher

4

Eastern Kingbird

3

Warbling Vireo

6

Red-eyed Vireo

9

Blue Jay

5

American Crow

3

Black-capped Chickadee

10

Tree Swallow

3

White-breasted Nuthatch

1

House Wren

3

European Starling

6

Gray Catbird

4

American Robin

1

Cedar Waxwing

40

House Sparrow

2

House Finch

2

American Goldfinch

5

Chipping Sparrow

1

Savannah Sparrow

2

Song Sparrow

9

Swamp Sparrow

1

Bobolink

1

Baltimore Oriole

4

Red-winged Blackbird

37

Brown-headed Cowbird

1

Common Grackle

2

Tennessee Warbler

3

Common Yellowthroat

1

American Redstart

15

Northern Parula

2

Bay-breasted Warbler

3

Blackburnian Warbler

1

Yellow Warbler

21

Chestnut-sided Warbler

3

Blackpoll Warbler

3

Pine Warbler

3

Yellow-rumped Warbler

1

Canada Warbler

2

Northern Cardinal

4

Rose-breasted Grosbeak

1

May 18 2024 (Saturday) Tiny Marsh

Leader: Kevin Shackleton.

9 people showed up at the Tim's in Elmvale, not the 19 registered. We were at Tiny Marsh just after 7 a.m. We were advised by a local participant that the woodland trail to the west was inaccessible due to flooding. We did the N/S dike and a short woodland section to the east. We had about 13 Black Terns and one Sandhill Crane in flight. The 3rd Concession of Tiny gave us Canada Warbler and Scarlet Tanager, by sound only. A Bald Eagle was seen in transit to Wasaga Beach. There were two Piping Plovers at Beach 1. Collingwood Harbour had about 20 Purple Martins at the martin house. No Upland Sandpiper at the airport. Stayner lagoons were reasonably productive with the best bird of the day a Wilson's Phalarope. I believe it was a female. A few of the group left at the airport and I was down to three at McKinnon Road. We ended the trip there at about 4:45 p.m. having traveled about 150 kilometres. I believe we had about 96 species and I seem not to have recorded a Blue Jay on our travels.

Kevin Shackleton