{"id":2156,"date":"2016-03-22T00:04:44","date_gmt":"2016-03-22T00:04:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eontbird.ca\/?p=2156"},"modified":"2016-03-23T12:44:23","modified_gmt":"2016-03-23T12:44:23","slug":"greenland-road-hawkwatch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eontbird.ca\/?p=2156","title":{"rendered":"Greenland Road Hawkwatch"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hi there,<\/p>\n

In March, over a span of 7 days, birders have surveyed for raptors from Greenland Rd., roughly 800 meters west of Thomas Dolan. Constance Creek is in the valley below, sandwiched between two ridges: Carp Ridge to the SW and Dunrobin Ridge (Greenland Road) to the NE. As far as hawkwatching in Ottawa goes, this is the place to be. Results so far:<\/p>\n

Black Vulture: 0<\/p>\n

Turkey Vulture: 36<\/p>\n

Osprey: 0<\/p>\n

Bald Eagle: 19<\/p>\n

Northern Harrier: 3<\/p>\n

Sharp-shinned Hawk: 1<\/p>\n

Cooper’s Hawk: 7<\/p>\n

Northern Goshawk: 3<\/p>\n

Red-shouldered Hawk: 5<\/p>\n

Broad-winged Hawk: 0<\/p>\n

Red-tailed Hawk: 10<\/p>\n

Rough-legged Hawk: 8<\/p>\n

Golden Eagle: 9<\/p>\n

American Kestrel: 1<\/p>\n

Merlin: 2<\/p>\n

Peregrine Falcon: 0<\/p>\n

Unknown Accipiter: 1<\/p>\n

Unknown Buteo: 0<\/p>\n

Unknown Falcon: 0<\/p>\n

Unknown Eagle: 0<\/p>\n

Unknown Raptor: 2<\/p>\n

Some notes regarding the tally so far:<\/p>\n

Golden Eagle<\/strong>: for those keen on viewing this species, Greenland Road has turned out to be a surprise hotspot! We have tallied 9 birds so far this season and just today we set our high count: 4 birds. This is by far our highlight and provides a nice draw to the site.<\/p>\n

Given that some of the raptor species observed from the site are well within their breeding range, we have found it difficult to confidently discern migrants from local breeders; I personally have found that this rings especially true for Turkey Vulture, Red-shouldered Hawk, Cooper’s Hawk, Northern Goshawk, Northern Harrier and Bald Eagle. In any case, distant raptors provide visitors with identification challenges and opportunities for developing a specific birding skill set. I highly recommend visiting this site on days when southerlies are in the forecast. It seems that the bulk of our raptor observations occur between 11:30 AM – 3:30 PM; with the estimated bulk of our eagle observations averaging between 1:00 – 3:30 PM.<\/p>\n

There is an eBird hotspot for the site, located here:\u00a0http:\/\/ebird.org\/ebird\/canada\/hotspot\/L2697365 <\/a>We also have a Facebook group: “Ottawa-Gatineau Hawkwatchers.”<\/p>\n

Photos<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Eagles-Galore-at-Greenland-Road\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Figure 1<\/strong>: A kettle of eagles (1 Golden and 4 Bald) late in the day on 17 March 2016. Credit: Richard Waters.<\/p>\n

\"Golden<\/a><\/p>\n

Figure 2<\/strong>: A composite of a low-flying Golden Eagle as it surveyed the valley below! 22 March 2016. Credit: Tom Devesceri.<\/p>\n

\"Golden<\/a><\/p>\n

Figure 3<\/strong>: Golden Eagle number 2 of the day at 1320 h on 22 March 2016. Credit: Tom Devesceri. \"Golden<\/a>Figure 4<\/strong>: Golden Eagle number 4 of the day on 22 March 2016. Our last eagle of the day. Last seen at 1445 h. Same bird as seen in Figure 2. Credit: Tom Devesceri.<\/p>\n

\"Merlin<\/a><\/p>\n

Figure 5<\/strong>: A Merlin makes a pass just N of Greenland Rd. 22 March 2016. Credit: Tom Devesceri.<\/p>\n

\"Red-shouldered<\/a><\/p>\n

Figure 6<\/strong>: A Red-shouldered in a glide (over a ridge): long wings and tail; hunched shoulders; bowed hands. Viewing conditions were at times very poor (lighting and distance) and identifications had to be made solely by GISS. Lucky for us, this long-distance subject continued to near us and then rode thermals in a patch of excellent lighting….see: Figure 7…<\/p>\n

\"Red-shouldered<\/a><\/p>\n

Figure 7<\/strong>: Adult Red-shouldered Hawk. A truly dapper bird. 22 March 2016. Credit: Tom Devesceri.<\/p>\n

\"Northern<\/a><\/p>\n

Figure 8<\/strong>: Bird ‘A’….my trouble bird of the day. Bird ‘B’ is a light, long and lean Cooper’s. Backlit and at a distance. A large, heavy Accipiter….but not a gos’….a big female Coop. I was caught off guard by its heavy build and its slow, exaggerated quasi-display flap. It looked and ‘felt’ like a gos in the field! 22 March 2016. Credit: Tom Devesceri.<\/p>\n

Thanks for dropping by. Good birding \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Jon<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi there, In March, over a span of 7 days, birders have surveyed for raptors from Greenland Rd., roughly 800 meters west of Thomas Dolan. Constance Creek is in the valley below, sandwiched between two ridges: Carp Ridge to the SW and Dunrobin Ridge (Greenland Road) to the NE.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eontbird.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eontbird.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eontbird.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eontbird.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eontbird.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2156"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/eontbird.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2156\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2180,"href":"https:\/\/eontbird.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2156\/revisions\/2180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eontbird.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eontbird.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eontbird.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}