OFO Northern Edition 2026 - North Bay Ontario
Day 3, am - Beaucage Park Road & Margaret Drive with Angie & Ken Wiliams and Renee Levesque
We picked up my granddaughter, Kathryn, who joined us for the day. We drove Beaucage (just past Sturgeon Falls). We met at the Tim Hortons and met the local expert Renee and spoke a bit. Then joined our leader who just happens to be the North Bay conference organizer and her husband--Angie and Ken Williams. We birded along a gravel road, we checked the lake and found Greater Scaup and Common Goldeneye. Closer to the cars, a Rusty Blackbird.
Second stop yielded a Ring-neck Duck and on the trees -- Hairy
Woodpecker, White throated Sparrow with a Great Egret flyby.
Third stop, Renee's friend gave permission to go on her property.
Here we had American Goldfinch, Mallards, Common Goldeneye, 2
Great Egrets (the people from the north were super excited about
this) and Great Blue Heron. We stopped by a gate to the
reservation and saw pretty much the same species, except one
person saw a Red Crossbill (Ken). I drew Kathryn attention to
what I thought we were tent caterpillar webs, but no, they were
Fall Web worms. As we were winding down the trip, we looked up
and saw 3 Bald Eagles- 2 juvenile and one adult.
We had a picnic lunch overlooking Lake Nipissing. As we finished
up 5 motorcyclists came in on very clean shiny motorcycles. I
asked who had the best and the big black motorcycle owner said
his . All these guys were out to give the motorcycle there 500 k
weekend run.
Day 3, pm - Cache Bay & Verner Lagoons with April McCrumb & Zoe Watson
We drove on to Cache Bay, we were early and did
some exploring, met up with 2 gents from Englehart, near the
Hilliardton Banding Station. They had joined the conference for
the day. We likely had met before when we visited the banding
station 2 years ago when we attended the Ontario Nature
Conference in Sudbury. We got there early so we scanned the water
before the meet up and we played the mobbing tape and brought
inWhite-crowned Sparrows. (at this point I am thinking hold me
back). We met up with the group -- trip leaders April MacCrum and
Zoe Watson. Back to the government dock and there we saw Pied
Grebe, Wood Duck and Teal, Double Crested Cormorant, Goldfinch
and Northern Harrier. While on the dock, Bill was photographing a
Great Blue heron and lucky him got a photo of the Heron catching
a fish and he remarked how quickly the fish was gone. I asked him
if he could identify the fish!!!
The leaders said we were going to try for Sandhill Cranes that
were at least 30 minutes at Verner. We were told we could drive
up the road to the lagoon. Initially we saw about 40, we were the
lead car, we took lots of photos, but then they flew and there
other Sandhill Cranes, a much bigger flock, flew with them. While
driving to the lagoons, Bill andI saw a small flock of shorebirds
flying, great we are going to see shorebirds. Out of the car we
saw 1 Killdeer, Mallards, Lesser Scaup, Shoveller and Green-wing
Teal, above us we saw American pipits.
Saturday Banquet
The legion ladies made Spaghetti
with meatballs (mild spices) with parmesan cheese, rolls and a
salad with checkerboard strawberry cake. Barb and I sold 50:50
tickets and raised about $200. Ann G won a prize, and there were
4 door prizes and the two Barbs at our table won one each - a
special North Bay map.
They live streamed from Leamington; we heard about the young
birder camp and we all old birders would like an old birders
camp. Three young birders spoke about their experience with Jeff
& Angela Skevington & company leading them. Very
enthusiastic young people. We were all very tired from the long
day of birding and were very regretful we left before the keynote
speaker, Amar Ayyash, author of "The Gull Guide to North
America. We were just too tired. Hopefully it will be available
on the OFO Youtube channel.
Beaucage Park Road and Margaret Drive, North Bay, Ontario, CA (46.368, -79.698), Nipissing, Ontario, CA Oct 3, 2026 8:49 AM - 11:05 AM Protocol: Traveling 3.55 kilometer(s) 28 species (+2 other taxa) Canada Goose 13 Mallard 19 Ring-necked Duck 60 Greater Scaup 46 Normally here this time. Counted. Common Goldeneye 37 Ring-billed Gull 6 American Herring Gull 5 gull sp. 4 Common Loon 2 Great Egret 2 White heron-ish bird in flight. Black legs and feet. Great Blue Heron 1 Bald Eagle 3 1 adult and 2 juveniles Belted Kingfisher 1 Hairy Woodpecker 3 Northern Flicker 1 Blue Jay 11 American Crow 2 Common Raven 2 Ruby-crowned Kinglet 2 Golden-crowned Kinglet 1 European Starling 11 American Robin 1 Red Crossbill 1 American Goldfinch 13 Dark-eyed Junco 4 White-crowned Sparrow 4 Song Sparrow 2 Red-winged Blackbird 5 blackbird sp. 28 Yellow-rumped Warbler 2 View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S400140950
Cache Bay--Government Dock Road, Nipissing, Ontario, CA Oct 3, 2026 1:42 PM - 3:57 PM Protocol: Traveling 15.48 kilometer(s) 25 species Wood Duck 6 Blue-winged Teal 5 Several teals, small, blue, seen by several observers Northern Shoveler 1 1 singular northern shoveler on sewage lagoon, long wide bill, brown, identified by multiple observers Mallard 3 American Black Duck 2 Green-winged Teal 2 Ring-necked Duck 2 Lesser Scaup 6 Common Goldeneye 1 Sandhill Crane 40 Several groups of sandhill cranes flying from fields Killdeer 1 Ring-billed Gull 2 Pied-billed Grebe 7 Several pied billed grebes seen at multiple locations, small, corresponded with field marks of pied billed grebe, multiple observers Double-crested Cormorant 4 Great Blue Heron 1 Northern Harrier 1 Belted Kingfisher 1 American Kestrel 1 Merlin 1 American Pipit 50 Lapland Longspur 20 Group of 20 fly by, corresponded with field marks, seen by multiple people Dark-eyed Junco 2 White-crowned Sparrow 7 White-throated Sparrow 2 Yellow-rumped Warbler 2 View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S400420943