persisted right through to the last morning of the Congress when 
the buses were still filled to capacity. 
Also, each morning at 6:30 a.m., another bus load of fresh 
air enthusiasts headed out to a location along the Ottawa or the 
Rideau for a stroll to enjoy the early morning and work up an 
appetite for breakfast and the lectures to come. 
On Thursday, June 26, the entire Congress took the day off 
and devoted itself to a wide variety of excursions. The most 
popular of these was Birdwatching for Fanatics. This trip, 
starting at 4 a.m. and lasting 12 hours, had so many partici¬ 
pants (62) that two buses were necessary. One group spent most 
of the day birding on the Quebec side of the Ottawa River, while 
the other stayed strictly on the Ontario side. The Quebec group 
managed to beat out the Ontario group in the friendly competi¬ 
tion for most species by the score of 114 to 95. 
Other local excursions included a half-day of relaxed bird- 
watching along the Carp Ridge and surrounding area, a visit to 
the Stony Swamp area for butterflies, a botanical tour of Gatin¬ 
eau Park, a trip to examine the wetland ecology of Alfred Bog, a 
bird banding field trip to Innis Point and another field trip to 
learn about blackbird studies being conducted in Ramsayville 
Marsh. 
Further afield, day trips were organized to visit the 
Petawawa Forest Research Institute, the Queen's University Bi¬ 
ology Station at Chaffey's Locks, the Raptor Research Centre at 
Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, the city of Montreal, the Thousand Islands 
and Kingston area, and also to go whitewater rafting on the 
Ottawa River. 
Fortunately, the weather was cooperative on the day off 
and the trips generally went quite smoothly with only the occa 
sional minor hitch, such as the lady who turned up in high heels 
for the Alfred Bog trip! She seemed to think that any self- 
respecting bog came equipped with a boardwalk. 
More than 50 people led or assisted in the leading of 
excursions, many of them going out on two or more occasions. 
Most of them were Ottawa Field—Naturalists Club members. Their 
enthusiasm and their terrific dedication and cooperation were 
vital to the overall success of the 1986 International Ornitho¬ 
logical Congress. As members of the local organizing committee, 
we wish to express our thanks to all those of our friends who 
contributed their time and energy towards sending 1400 ornitho¬ 
logists home with a warm feeling about Ottawa. 
We wish to thank Lynn Ball of The Ottawa Citizen for kindly 
providing the photographs for this article and granting us 
permission to use them. n 
I 13 
