Migratory Bird Day: Fall migration brings hundreds of species to Ottawa shorelines

Published Oct 15, 2023 • 2 minute read

Members of the Ottawa Field Naturalists Club looked for migratory shore birds at Andrew Haydon Park on Saturday, part of the activities of World Migratory Bird Day in Ottawa. Photo by Supplied

Dozens of bird-curious folks turned out to a park by the Rideau River on the weekend in hopes of spotting and identifying some of the hundreds of species of birds that make pit stops in the Ottawa area during the fall migration.

As part of the activities marking World Migratory Bird Day, birders and bird enthusiasts from Bird Friendly Ottawa and the Ottawa Field Naturalists Club were on hand at Adàwe Crossing — the pedestrian and cycling bridge that links the Overbrook and Sand Hill neighbourhoods — to share their knowledge and answer questions about our feathered friends and the threats they face on their travels. A second event took place later in the day along the Ottawa River at Andrew Haydon Park.

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The theme of this year’s fall bird day was water, and experts were keen to point out that Ottawa’s position on the Atlantic Flyway migration path makes it an important stop for many species of waterfowl — not just the variety of noisy gulls and Canada geese that seem to take over every shoreline in the area.

“There are a lot of shore birds stopping over on their migration south so there are a lot of birds in Ottawa this week that aren’t normally here,” said Deborah Doherty, a volunteer with Bird Friendly Ottawa. Some of the species that were sighted Saturday included the red-breasted merganser, lesser scaup, greater yellowlegs and a greater white-fronted goose.

A seagull flies over the Rideau River, as seen from the Adàwe Crossing bridge where Bird Friendly Ottawa hosted a bird walk, one of the events marking World Migratory Bird Day on Saturday. Photo by Gordon Timbury

One little bird she was thrilled to see in her backyard this week was a hermit thrush. Although it doesn’t have as long a migration as a shorebird, it faces similar threats. A previous visit by a hermit thrush to Doherty’s home ended badly, she said, prompting her to get involved with Nature Canada’s Bird Friendly Cities program.

“I really got involved with Bird Friendly Cities because of the threats to migratory birds from window collisions, cats, pesticides, loss of habitat,” she said. “I had one thrush visit that died colliding with my windows so I have now treated my windows. I was excited because this visitor was a perky little live guy.”

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By Saturday afternoon, the weather along the Ottawa River had turned cool and windy, conditions that were not ideal for the day’s second bird-spotting event. But Derek Dunnett, a member of the Ottawa Field Naturalists Society, said the wind would bring more birds in the coming days.

“You could easily think there are not many birds in Ottawa during the year but with migration, you can see 250 species of birds here,” Dunnett said. “They don’t breed here. They breed in the Arctic and other places, but days like today highlight for people that we’re all part of this big interconnected web that’s all across the continent.”

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