Ottawa Field Naturalists' Club (OFNC) – Weekly Birding Report Sightings within a 50km radius of Parliament Hill - including eastern Ontario and western Quebec *Compiled by Al Caughey at sightings@ofnc.ca <sightings@ofnc.ca>* "Sort-of" Update for the week ending on 2026.09.24 (season 1; episode 34) This summary comes to you from Munster Germany after a 3-day visit to the Borkum (an island in the Wadden Sea off the northern coast of Germany). Tomorrow, Heather & I will be heading to Amsterdam for a couple of days. Unfortunately, I've lost access to my web interface that allows me to easily summarize what is being seen, where and without my laptop, I'm struggling to get it back. So this weeks update will be considerably more sparse than usual (perhaps some will prefer it this way... let me know!) The star bird bird in the area continues to be the Little Blue Herron at the Winterset Pond in Kanata. Beyond that, I cannot easily tell you what's arrived or departed or where to find the most active hotspots within the circle. We're now well into the migration transition window when summer insectivores and shorebirds have largely moved through the area and when northern migrants, waterfowl, and hardier passerines should be entering in full force. In terms of the weather forecast for the coming week: Sept 24 – 26: north winds & cool nights should encourage nocturnal travelers (sparrows, late warblers, thrushes) to push south Sept 27 – 29: winds should shift to the east/southwest & cloudy conditions could slow flight of smaller songbirds forcing them into lower vegetation to forage. Sept 30 – Oct 1: rain and low-cloud cover should create classic grounding conditions and cause birds to drop into shorelines, etc. Meaning that there could be lots of good finds in the coming week Current Notable Birds: *Snow Goose*: reports at Almonte Lagoons on Sep 19 *Greater White-fronted Goose*: reports at Hidden Lake Trail, Fox Run Storm Pond, Almonte Lagoons, & Carp River Watershed Reclamation Area between Sep 20-24 *Cackling Goose*: reports at Didsbury Road Scrape - Carp Watershed Restoration Area, Andrew Haydon Park, Richmond Sewage Lagoons between Sep 19-21 *Yellow-billed Cuckoo*: reports at Britannia Ridge & Greenbelt Pathway West between Sep 19-20 *Little Gull*: a single report at Pinhey's Point Historic Site on Sep 23 *Franklin's Gull*: continuing at Britannia CA & Parc Brébeuf between Sep 19-21 *Little Blue Heron*: tonnes of reports continuing at Didsbury Rd Scrape - Carp Watershed Restoration Area [Ottawa] between Sep 19-25 *Golden Eagle*: a single report on Berry Side Road on Sep 22 *Least Flycatcher*: a single report at the Richmond Sewage Lagoons on Sep 25 *Eastern Towhee*: reports at Britannia CA--Woods & Burnt Lands Provincial Park on Sep 20 *Northern Waterthrush*: reports at Britannia Ridge, Petrie Island & Nepean Creek Trail between Sep 19-25 *Virginia Rail*: reports at Hwy 7 Storm Pond on Sep 24 *Sora*: reports at Hwy 7 Storm Pond between Sep 21-24 *Northern Yellow Warbler*: reports at Didsbury Road Scrape - Carp Watershed Restoration Area & Britannia CA between Sep 21-23 *Nelson's Sparrow*: reports at Hwy 7 Storm Pond & Baie McLaurin between Sep 19-25 And, I fear I've missed some. As always, send questions, comments or photos to sightings@ofnc.ca. Your feedback is appreciated. Again, sorry for the technology failure. Hopefully I can resurrect my connection for the next update. In the meantime, good birding, Al