Greetings Ontbirders, Here's the Ottawa-Gatineau bird sightings summary for the week....... THE OFNC BIRD STATUS LINE @ 6:00 pm, SUNDAY NOVEMBER 26, 2006. This is Chris Lewis reporting. The Ottawa River was again the focus of local attention, with the most recent arrival being an adult male Harlequin Duck discovered on the 25th in the Deschenes rapids. It was still present on the 26th and was seen from the Britannia Yacht Club as well as farther down river behind the Britannia Filtration Plant. A single Red-throated Loon was below the Deshenes rapids on the 26th as well. Other water birds on the river included a male Wood Duck, 2 very late Gadwall and a very late male Redhead at Shirley's Bay on the 24th, numbers of Ring-necked Ducks, Lesser Scaup, Bufflehead, Black Scoters, White-winged Scoters and Long-tailed Ducks scattered among the now common Common Goldeneye along the river throughout the week, a nice congregation of at least 20 Hooded and 44 Common Mergansers at Dow's Lake on the 25th, and a male Barrow's X Common Goldeneye hybrid west of Remic rapids on the 19th. This hybrid may be the same bird that wintered in Ottawa last year. Also back on the 19th a single Greater White-fronted Goose was still in a field at Moodie Dr. and Brophy Rd. An extremely late Common Moorhen was seen west of the Shirley's Bay causeway on the 24th and 15 American Coots were between the islands along the causeway the same day. Also very late were 30 Bonaparte's Gulls at the St. Albert sewage lagoons on the 22nd. Interesting raptors included a Northern Goshawk flying over Forest Park, Embrun on the 26th and a rare dark-morph Red-tailed hawk at the Gatineau airport on the 22nd - this is likely the same bird that has spent the past two winters at this location. Single Long-eared and Northern Saw-whet Owls were reported this past week but seem to have moved on. Northern Woodpeckers are evidently still around - both a male and female American Three-toed Woodpecker were seen along the Kerwin Rd. trail west of Kanata on the 24th and 25th. A female Black-backed Woodpecker was seen here on the 23rd. Observers continue to describe these birds as being uncharacteristically flighty and difficult to relocate. Noteworthy passerines included a couple of late young male Red-winged Blackbirds at the feeders along Hilda Rd. near Shirley's Bay on the 24th and 25th, and at least one Red Crossbill and a small number of White-winged Crossbills flying over the woods at Kerwin Rd. on the 25th as well. Thank you - Good Birding! Chris Lewis Ottawa hagenius@primus.ca