Search for Barrows Goldeneye

Reports have being going around Ottawa of a lot of unusual birds and today Chris and I were feeling a little stir crazy and decided to check out one of them. A barrows goldeneye had been seen at the Hurdmans bridge. This is a small walking bridge South that crosses the Rideau River South of the 417. We found parking on Donald Street with access to Rivierain Park. This park goes along the river and trails extend towards the bridge.

It was a bitter cold day and we started walking through the park. There was very little open water and we saw a lot of goldeneye and mallards congregating in the patches that were. The park had chickadees, white-breasted nuthatches and even pileated woodpeckers.

Pileated Woodpecker

At the bridge we found so many goldeneye it was hard to count and make sure you've looked at each one to try and see if it had those slight differences. Unfortunately we didn't see anything that we could confidently say was a Barrows Goldeneye but it was a good walk and a nice park with some worthwhile birding.

Common Goldeneye and Common Merganser