May and June are the busiest months if you are trying to find new species for the year. Here is an update with photos of some of the birds Gavin McKinnon has added to his list in May. He is trying to record 300 species within Alberta in 2019.
Sharp-tailed GrouseEared Grebe Red-breasted Merganser Pectoral Sandpiper Least Sandpiper Gray-cheeked Thrush Red Knots and Black-bellied Plovers Wilson’s Snipe Dusky Grouse Lazuli Bunting Snowy Plover Piping Plover
As of the end of May, Gavin had 216 species in Alberta. It will be interesting to see how many species he has at the end of June – although that is halfway through the calendar, I have been told by people who have attempted this before that you have to be at about 240 by June 30 to have a good shot at 300 species, depending on how many “easy” ones you missed in the spring and can get in the fall.
Local photographer Judi Willis found this Yellow Warbler and its nest this week in the Calgary area.
Yellow Warbler. Photo by Judi Willis
Here is one of the pair in the nest:
Yellow Warbler on Nest. Photo by Judi Willis
This is a pretty typical spot for a Yellow Warbler nest – usually in a fork of branches in a bush like this willow, and commonly only ten feet off the ground or so. The nest seems large for a Yellow Warbler, with a lot of material hanging down (animal hair?).
Here are some beautiful birds photographed by Raymond Toal in a garden in Beaver Mines, in the far SW corner of Alberta, near Waterton Park. All photos taken on May 26, 2019 by Raymond Toal.
Here is an update on Gavin McKinnon’s quest to reach the 300-species club in Alberta in a calendar year. You can read more about this and see some photos from January and February in an earlier post here. All photos by Gavin McKinnon.
Northern Pintail
Gavin had about 75 species at the end of February, and by March 31 he had almost doubled that to 147 species. You might think it would be easy to get to 300 if you were almost halfway there by the end of March, but after the bulk of the spring migration is over in late May it gets much tougher to add new species. You need to be pretty close to 300 species (about 240-250) by the end of June to have a good chance to get to 300 by year’s end. It will be interesting to see how high his number gets in the next few weeks. As of this writing, on May 23rd, he is at 209 species in Alberta. (Gavin has a Canadian total of 282 species so far this year,the eighth-highest total on eBird. He has made some trips outside the province, including a recent one to Point Pelee.)
Some of Gavin’s highlight species in Alberta in March and April were Eurasian Wigeon, Boreal Owl, Virginia Rail, Hudsonian Godwit, Purple Finch, and Peregrine Falcon. Here are some more photos.
Here are some birds that Tony LePrieur photographed at Frank Lake on April 27. All of these species can still be found there throughout the breeding season, along with dozens more. All photos by Tony LePrieur.
American Avocet, Frank Lake, April 27, 2019. American Coot, Frank Lake, April 27, 2019. Willet, Frank Lake, April 27, 2019. Black-necked Stilt, Frank Lake, April 27, 2019. Killdeer, Frank Lake, April 27, 2019.
The next day, after an overnight snowstorm in Calgary, there were quite a few migrating songbirds at Carburn Park. Tony was able to get some great shots of Yellow-rumped Warblers.
Yellow-rumped Warbler, Carburn Park, April 28, 2019.
These are the Myrtle subspecies of Yellow-rumped Warbler. The Audubon’s subspecies has a yellow throat and lacks the dark mask. Most of the ones we see here are Myrtles heading for the boreal forest. Audubons breed farther west, but we do see both on migration.
Yellow-rumped Warbler, Carburn Park, April 28, 2019. Yellow-rumped Warbler, Carburn Park, April 28, 2019.
There are still flocks of Yellow-rumps moving through the city now. Keep an eye out in parks and even in your yard!
Tomorrow is eBird’s Global Big Day, during which birders all over the world are encouraged to submit their sightings on eBird to create a one-day snapshot of the state of the world’s birds. All you have to do is go birding anywhere and submit your sightings on eBird! Even a few minutes of birding will help to contribute to the Big Day. Click the link above to read all about it.
Last year over 30,00 people submitted lists, recording over 7,000 species of birds. Let’s see if we can top this!
The Cornell Lab has also started doing an eBird Big Day in the fall. The first one was on October 6, 2018. Over 6,000 species were recorded, including these rare Greater Sage-Grouse photographed by Gavin McKinnon. Gavin was the only birder to report this species on the Big Day.
Greater Sage-Grouse, undisclosed location. Photo by Gavin McKinnon. Greater Sage-Grouse, undisclosed location. Photo by Gavin McKinnon. Greater Sage-Grouse, undisclosed location. Photo by Gavin McKinnon.
You can see a band on the leg of the bird in the second photo. These birds are part of a program by the Calgary Zoo to try to at least help this species hang on to its very restricted range in Canada. Here is a news article about this program.
Not everyone will see a rare bird tomorrow, but every sighting of any species counts!
How many bird species could you see in Alberta in a Calendar year? The answer is that an average of about 330 species have been reported in the province on eBird in recent years. Of course no one birder sees or hears them all, so only a very few birders, if any, get to a total of 300 species in any year.
It takes a special effort to see or hear that many species. You have to make sure you get all the regular birds, regardless of where in the province their normal range or migration route is, and still you have to chase some rarities to get to 300.
In 2019, Gavin McKinnon, a fifteen-year-old Calgary-based birder, is going to try to get to 300 species. He is already a very accomplished birder, who leads field trips for the Friends of Fish Creek and the Wild Bird Store. Last year he recorded 273 species in Alberta, so he knows what a challenge it will be. Gavin will also be travelling outside the province quite a bit, and you can miss some good birds when you are away.
Throughout the year we will be posting photos of some some of the birds that Gavin has seen and photographed. Here are the highlights from the first two months of the year, during which Gavin had about 75 species.
Long-eared OwlCommon MerganserRed-bellied Woodpecker, a rarity seen in Magrath, near the US border.Horned LarkNorthern Pygmy-OwlEvening GrosbeakShort-eared OwlSnowy OwlAmerican Three-toed WoodpeckerRusty BlackbirdTundra Bean-Goose, an extreme rarity seen in Lethbridge.Harlequin DuckPine SiskinCommon GoldeneyeBuffleheadBlack-capped ChickadeeTrumpeter Swan
The next Birds & Beers event in Calgary is on Thursday May 2, at the Horton Road Legion, from 6 to 9 pm. We will be in the big auditorium this month, and will have a special presentation: “The Raptor Allure of Windy Point” by Peter Roxborough.
Bald Eagle. Photo by Daniel Arndt.
Local birders are aware of the Golden Eagle migration monitoring that has been conducted for many years at Mount Lorette in Kananaskis country, but few are aware that Windy Point, in the Sheep River Valley west of Turner Valley, also offers fantastic raptor watching on migration. Peter Roxborough will do a presentation on this amazing birding spot.
The Legion is located at 9202 Horton Road SW. Everyone is welcome to attend Birds & Beers. As is usual when we have presentations, these begin after 7 pm. So come at 6 pm (or earlier since the kitchen will be busy), order a meal and have a drink, visit with your fellow birders, and then stay for the presentation. If you can’t make it early drop in later for the show.
Upcoming Birds & Beers events are scheduled for Thursday May 30 and Thursday June 27, at the same time and place. There will be presentations at both of these events too.
I’ve had Eurasian Collared-Doves in my SE Calgary neighbourhood since 2009, and they have nested in the area for several years. For the last three years a pair have nested within sight of my house.
The doves are non-migratory but do gather together in small flocks in the winter, and I don’t usually see them around the yard. The nesting pair arrived back on March 17, and perched in our apple tree for a while.
Eurasian Collared-Dove pair, March 17, 2019. Photo by Bob Lefebvre Eurasian Collared-Dove pair, March 17, 2019. Photo by Bob Lefebvre
I have since seen the pair around quite a bit and heard the male calling and displaying. They nest at mid-level in spruce trees and I think I know which spruce they are nesting in, but it’s very hard to find the nest. I’ve never yet seen the nests or young of this species.
Eurasian Collared-Dove pair, March 17, 2019. Photo by Bob Lefebvre Eurasian Collared-Dove pair, March 17, 2019. Photo by Bob Lefebvre
On November 27th Gord Smith photographed this sparrow in his yard in NW Calgary. This is a Brewer’s Sparrow (Timberline subspecies). This is rarely reported in the city, or this late in the year anywhere in its northern range. They should all be in the SW USA or northern Mexico by now.
Brewer’s Sparrow, NW Calgary, November 27, 2018. Photos by Gord Smith.
Brewer’s Sparrows are related to Clay-colored and Chipping Sparrows which also breed locally. The similarity to these in non-breeding plumage is apparent. Had this bird been in my yard I don’t think I would have known what it was. Gord was familiar with the species, and the ID has been confirmed by Richard Klauke.
Brewer’s is the smallest North American sparrow, and in this last photo you can see just how much smaller this bird is than a House Sparrow!
