In the crisp morning hours of April 5, 2005 renowned bird photographer Tony Beck led a field trip to the future Canadian Poets’ Park. Participants included Richard Scott (then of the NCC) and Councillor Maria McRae. These lines from Archibald Lampman’s “Solitude” set us on our way:

Sometimes a hawk screams or a woodpecker
Startles the stillness from its fixed mood
With his loud careless tap. Sometimes I hear
The dreamy white-throat from some far-off tree
Pipe slowly on the listening solitude
His five pure notes succeeding pensively.

Then, in just two hours we observed (seeing or hearing) no fewer than twenty-one species of birds:

Song Sparrow, American Tree Sparrow, House Sparrow, American Kestrel, Red-winged Blackbird, Ring-billed Gull, Wood Duck, Cedar Waxwing, Dark-eyed Junco, Mallard, White-breasted Nuthatch, American Goldfinch, Canada Goose, European Starling, Northern Cardinal, American Robin, Mourning Dove, Common Grackle, Brown-headed Cowbird and Black-capped Chickadee.
And, the prize sight of the outing: an adult Cooper’s Hawk! Tony assured us that, if we would come back a month later, we’d be able to observe a whole set of different birds. He believes that the habitat is good for summer nesting species (Clay-coloured Sparrow and Field Sparrow) that might be uncommon or rare in the Ottawa area. He noted various berry bushes in the meadow that birds feed on and stressed that it is the combination of woods and meadow that brings about the diversity in wildlife. These berries provide food for a great variety of migrating and over-wintering species, making this an attractive staging area.

He suggested placing some Wood Duck housing in the forest near the edge as this could attract Eastern Screech-Owls for nesting.

Here is a picture of some of the participants,

and another of cedar waxwings — with thanks to Jim Robertson.