7 birders participated in today's BPQ Field Trip to Parc National de Plaisance, west of Montibello, Quebec, on the north shore of the Ottawa River. All we can say is thank goodness it wasn't scheduled for yesterday!
All we were left with from yesterday's storm was the wind which, in some spots was still quite strong and a little cool. There was no rain on the trip and sunshine eventually broke through later in the morning.
It is likely that the heavy winds and rain of yesterday may have forced a lot of birds to move on to safer ground but the old phrase "nice weather...if you're a duck" held true as we ended the day with 12 species of water fowl.
Although the species count was not high, the volume of birds was, particularly with American Robins and Red-winged Blackbirds being seen in huge numbers throughout the day.
There were a few nice surprises on the trip including a Pileated Woodpecker, 3 Common Ravens and 4 sparrow species. Here is our complete list of 31 species for the day. Many of the number counts are roughly estimated due to several large and constantly moving flocks.
500+ Canada Geese, 25 Wood Duck, 12 Gadwall, 15 American Wigeon, 20 American Black Duck,
200+ Mallard, 15 Green-winged Teal, 20 Ring-necked Duck, 25 Scaup sp. (far off & difficult to ID),
1 Common Goldeneye, 150+ Hooded Merganser, 3 Common Merganser, 8 Great Blue Heron, 1 Turkey Vulture, 1 Red-tailed Hawk, 250+ Ring-billed Gull, 1 Belted Kingfisher, 1 Hairy Woodpecker, 1 Pileated Woodpecker, 6 Blue Jay, 20 American Crow, 3 Common Raven, 20 Black-capped Chickadee, 3 White-breasted Nuthatch, 200+ American Robin, 12 European Starling, 8 American Tree Sparrow, 2 Song Sparrow, 4 White-throated Sparrow, 6 White-crowned Sparrow, 300+ Red-winged Blackbird - Sheldon
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