[two_third]We’d like to thank all those who stopped by our tent last Sunday to chat with us about the Lac Deschênes Important Bird Area. We enjoyed sharing our passion for our birds and wildlife!

On both the Ottawa and Gatineau sides of the Lac Deschênes Important Bird Area, we set up information tables, a small children’s area with bird identification activities, and binoculars and spotting scopes to view the IBA.Our tents were along the National Capital Commission’s bike paths and parkways – the latter of which are closed to car traffic on Sunday mornings in the summer – during the popular Sunday Bikeday or Vélo-dimanche   event. On the Ottawa side, we were located at the Deschênes Rapids Lookout on the Ottawa River Parkway. On the Gatineau site, you could find us at the Conroy Island lookout, east on the NCC Bikepath from the parking lot at the end of Rue Vanier in Aylmer.

Despite the rain, we were lucky enough to spot several species of large birds, including Great Egrets, Peregrine Falcon, Double-crested Cormorants, Common Terns, an American Bittern, lots of Ring-billed Gulls and some travelers from the far north, Least Sandpipers. The event was our first opportunity to tell people about this unique natural site right in the heart of the National Capital Region. And what better place to do so than within sight of the IBA and all of the birds that use the site?
On hand to help us out were volunteers from our partner organizations on the Lac Deschênes IBA initiative – the Ottawa Field Naturalists and the Club des ornithologues de l’Outaouais. Alongside our partners, we’re raising awareness of the birds and other wildlife that inhabit our local IBA through events like the Sunday Bikedays. We’re also working with our partners and key stakeholders to develop a Conservation Plan for the Lac Dechênes IBA, which will help to identify the state of the IBA, the pressures it is facing [link] and the collective responses that are required to address those pressures.

Find out more about the IBA, what you can do to help protect it, and activities you can do in the IBA to enjoy the area safely and responsibly.

If you missed us last weekend, come visit us  another Sunday! We’ll have our tents set up and binoculars/scopes trained on local birds from 9am to 12pm at the same sites on August 26. We hope to see you there!

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Cyclists stop in at the Lac Deschênes IBA on the Ottawa side

Donald Dallaire, Sylvie Roy, Rodolphe Dubois and Jacques Savard of the Club des ornithologues de l’Outaouais and Nature Canada’s Ted Cheskey on the Gatineau side of Lac Deschênes IBA.

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