Posted by Dan Arndt
My last two outings with the Friends of Fish Creek Spring Birding course were at Carburn Park, both on Thursday, April 17 and Sunday, April 20. Both days had their high points, and so I’ll be mixing and matching photos from each of those days here.
While each day we did the route a little differently, the best birds were always in the same spots. On Sunday, we headed down to the Eric Harvie Bridge then walked back along the river with the sun behind us. While there weren’t too many birds near the bridge itself, as we moved northward we found our first Common Goldeneyes, an American Beaver, and shortly thereafter, a lone Muskrat above the beaver’s dam!
We were also treated to some vigorously displaying Downy Woodpeckers, chasing each other up and down from tree to tree. These two especially were really going at it!
We headed up the river, seeing a few Tree Swallows, a few Ring-billed and Franklin’s Gulls, and even heard a lone Song Sparrow calling from across the river before we headed back into the denser foliage. Most interestingly though was a little spot we had found on Thursday which was host to half a dozen Ruby-crowned Kinglets was still holding one little one singing away while the sun shone bright…. unlike Thursday, which was cloudy, gloomy and rather snowy!
Up on the north end of the park we saw the local nesting pair of Bald Eagles in the distance, and both days it appeared that the female was still on the nest, brooding her eggs, while dad hunted for dinner.
The real highlight of the trip on Thursday though was seeing this flock of nearly a hundred swallows, both Violet-green (look for the ones with the white rump band above the tail) and Tree Swallows (all the rest of them, with the bluish-black backs) flying low over the river chowing down on their lunch of freshly hatched insects. While I had initially guessed that we had seen about four or five Violet-green Swallows, looking back over at my photos I was able to find at least 10 individuals, the largest number of that species I’ve seen in Calgary at once!
Of course, they weren’t there in any great numbers on Sunday, which was much warmer, and much nicer weather, but there was a beautiful Mourning Cloak butterfly, my first of the season, sunning itself near the second of the large ponds. It was a great end to a great day!
Thanks again for reading, and good birding!
As a visitor from Australia, I have thoroughly enjoyed looking for wildlife in the parks in the Calgary area. I have found the Carburn Park the most productive area so far and saw many of the birds mentioned here in my walk yesterday (10th May). Also met a guy who saw a mink! Not sure if they are rare, but it sounded pretty special.
Great photos!
I’m glad to hear a Bald Eagle is nesting in Carburn Park.
I was surprised to see your Beaver labelled as an American Beaver. I’m used to it being called the North American Beaver, though I usually think of it as a Canadian Beaver!
Hi Margie,
While the most common name used is the North American Beaver (which I’ll be using from here onward, just for clarity) Canadian Beaver and American Beaver are equally appropriate variations. This one stopped and showed me his passport though. 😉
– Dan