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Join the 2024 Calgary Christmas Bird Count!

Nov2

Please register to take part in the field or at home

The Calgary CBC will be on Sunday December 15. We need birders to take part out in the field counting birds, as well as Feeder Watchers counting in their yards. All participants, whether new or returning birders, must register so we have up-to-date contact information, and, for Feeder Watchers, correct addresses.

Redpoll
Redpoll (at the time, Common Redpoll) taken by Lou Zaganelli on the 2023 Count.

Here is everything you need to know about the Christmas Bird Count, from organizer Matt Wallace:

I am inviting you to take part in the upcoming 2024 Calgary Christmas Bird Count (CBC) happening on December 15!

As you likely know, the CBC is the longest-running citizen science project which began in the year 1900 as a way to encourage people to appreciate birds while helping to conserve them through data collection. The Calgary event began in 1952 and is one of the largest CBC events in Western Canada with nearly 400 people participating annually. 

Consider this event to be the annual census of our winter birds in Calgary! It requires lots of people and effort to conduct this event, so we are always looking for birders of all experiences and abilities to take part. We really aim to use this event as a way to build up our community of nature enthusiasts and would love for you to share the event information with your friends, family, colleagues, and community.

Skip the details below if you’re ready to sign up and hit the registration form here: https://forms.gle/cNMoCPZZ9FNNrq3Q8

There are a few ways to participate:

Field Teams:

  1. We have 38 circle sections and assign people to survey designated sections. All birds are identified and counted, and it usually runs the entire day depending on our participant’s availability. Bird submissions are made via eBird and shared with our CBC Compiler account. We also accept field templates from people who prefer to use them.We have section leaders who work with their groups to determine meeting locations, targeted areas, summarize effort data, and submit it back to our compilation team. We are looking for both field participants and field leaders (both returning and new). 

Feeder Watchers (FWs):

  1. People (individuals and families) observe birds visiting their yards and feeders for a minimum of 30 minutes on count day. FWs submit their data using a pre-formatted template which we provide. FWs are very important for our count as they help to fill in the data gaps where our field teams can’t access due to time or privacy. FWs must reside within the count circle, but we will confirm your address to ensure you are eligible to participate.

Data Entry/ Analysis: 

  1. Anyone interested in helping us to compile data is welcome! I often receive hundreds of emails with data templates, photos, and stories of the CBC. I manage but would love to have an assistant to help with this!
  2. We continue to expand on our ways of showcasing the hard work of our volunteers. We have approximately 20 years of data (30 binders or so) which includes the detailed “section data” for the Calgary count. Yes, we submit all of the cumulative count “Circle” data to Audubon each year, but the section data is of interest to us on a local scale for showing how changes in our landscape and may influence bird populations.We would like to get all of this data entered prior to the 2024 count so that we can provide some additional infographics and analysis at the results presentation in January 2025. 
  3. In addition to the data entry, we would love anyone with skills in GIS and data visualization to join our compilation team in producing the final report (for media and the community).

So, all that’s left to do is register so I have your contact information, and we will be in touch soon! We look forward to you joining our CBC and thank you! Please feel free to contact me directly if you have any questions citynatureyyc@gmail.com. 

Register Here: https://forms.gle/cNMoCPZZ9FNNrq3Q8

Naturally, Matt

Moulting Is Not Revolting

Oct27

By Cathy Warwick

No! Of course moulting is not revolting, it is a natural part in the seasonal cycle of being a duck. No need to be embarrassed and hide away. Wait a second, maybe there is a need, since they can’t fly anymore to get away from predators!

Did you know many ducks moult once a year, in late summer or early fall? This means they shed most of their primary feathers all at once to grow new ones. The process can take about 20-30 days and during that period they lay low since they become flightless. If you have ever seen a pile of feathers and thought a coyote had lunch, it may not be so. The duck feathers can come off quickly and dramatically.

Not only do they become flightless, they become difficult to identify. Their beautiful and colourful plumage becomes a beige-gray bore before moulting begins. Typically this is in the summer months. This outfit is called their ‘eclipse plumage’ and it isn’t a favourite of birders. The term eclipse refers to the boring plumage darkening their usual colours. If you do an internet search for any type of waterfowl the pictures will show them in their breeding plumage, striking and unmistakable. Meanwhile you are peering through the binoculars at a beige lump wondering why birding is so difficult. We’ve all been there. At that point you can start looking for eye rings and tail shapes, which gets challenging. Or you also have the option of saying ‘oh a duck’ and watching them paddle around a bit.

Mallard Moulting
A photo by Diane Stinson showing a Mallard that is moulting. Mallards are easy to identify at this stage of moulting.

I was surprised to learn that the Blue Jay moults all its head feathers at once. I have never seen that out in the wild and I suspect it’s because they hide away during this phase. It is such a radical difference from their usual spiky crown, They look like a tiny vulture with bugged out eyes. It only lasts for a week but you get the feeling if any bird were vain, it would be the Blue Jay. It’s amazing how much shape and bulk the feathers give birds, look at the difference between the two pictures of the Blue Jay, it’s hard to believe it’s even the same bird. 

Blue Jay Moulting
Blue Jay: Before on left (moulting) and After (beautiful crown feathers are grown in) Photos: Diane Stinson.

The larger birds and waterfowl are more inconvenienced by their moult season than smaller birds. Their feathers take longer to grow in. They often moult right before migration to have a nice strong set of new feathers to take them south. I imagine they are in the air now with their new outfits, ready to party in Mexico.

A Fiesty Hummingbird

Sep22

By Cathy Warwick

The Rufous Hummingbird is one of several hummingbirds that visit Calgary, and certainly the most feisty. They are very territorial and are known to chase away other hummingbirds from feeders, and have also been seen chasing squirrels and chipmunks. Although the idea that such a cute, eight centimeter bird can be frightening is comical, their shocking speed and poky looking beak would have me running for cover!

This summer I had the good luck to watch a Rufous Hummingbird for a solid ten minutes. I watched it stretch its tail feathers and stick its tongue out while it was perched on a branch. Prior to that I had been chasing after it as it flitted around, finally I just decided to sit down and see if it would show itself, a wise decision as they can go about 45 km/hr. I managed to look at it while it took a break from its endless battle with another Rufous Hummingbird. I saw that it had some green on it, as well as the rufous red, it was a female or immature male. The fully grown male is a nice coppery colour all over with a shimmery chin. Hummingbirds are hard to identify, firstly they are so fast you are lucky to see any markings and secondly they often have a range of plumage that is shared with other hummers. I used the Merlin app to be sure.

These tough little birds travel up to 3000 miles during migration. All the way from Southern Mexico to Alaska, so far for a tiny bird, maybe it can just soar on the winds. It doesn’t seem to be the type to let the wind do all the work though, the one I saw was constantly beating its wings while flying. According to All About Birds they fly up through California, then Washington and BC. After that they go east and fly down the Rockies, completing a clockwise circle. So for Calgary they will come through on their way south especially during August.

Rufous Humminbird
A female or immature male Rufous (Photo from Wikimedia Commons/Tom Koerner).

To attract a Rufous Hummingbird to your yard consider planting Honeysuckle, like my sister-in-law who saw them frequently this summer. They will take a while to find it but once they do they will come back yearly. The Atlas of Breeding Birds of British Columbia mentions that they will band Rufous and note the same bird at the same feeder on the same day, year after year! Our Honeysuckle died over the winter and we had a Hummingbird on our deck looking in the back window, as if it wanted to complain to the manager. 

A Hummingbird feeder is also an option. There are a lot of resources on the internet that explain how to set one up and what to use as a solution. I’ll just mention that you need to change the solution at regular intervals to provide optimum fuel for them. A Hummingbird is a finely tuned organism whose heart beats 1,260 times per minute, vs. a human’s 80ish beats. Perhaps consider putting out multiple small feeders so the Rufous lets other hummingbirds also feed.

I hope you had a chance to see this small bird with an outsize personality this summer!

Rufous Humminbird
A male Rufous Hummingbird aka “Mr. Feisty”
(photo from Wikimedia Commons/Tom Koerner/USFWS).

Rufous Hummingbirds can been seen on their breeding grounds in Calgary in the Weaselhead Nature Area, Griffits Wood Park, and other parts of the west end of the city. They arrive here on about May 10 and can be seen until September.

City Nature Challenge Events

Apr23

Register now for CNC events this weekend.

The City Nature Challenge is unique in that anyone can participate anywhere in the area from April 26-29. But if you want to take part with an organized group there are many events being offered.

To contribute to the CNC you have to post your observations on the iNaturalist app or website. If you would like to learn how to use iNaturalist, or if you need a refresher or have any questions about the CNC, organizer Matt Wallace is offering a tutorial tonight, Tuesday April 23, at 7 pm. This will be done over Zoom. Here is the link to the meeting.

CNC Map
The CNC area includes Calgary, Cochrane, Airdrie, Chestermere, Okotoks, Foothills County, and Rocky View County. Any iNaturalist obserations made in this area from April 26-29 will contribute to this project.

Matt has organized a number of events throughout the weekend. These include all-day blitzes, birding walks, and more specialized events such as pond study and a pollinator walk. Click the link below to see all the events!

Register for CNC events on this page!

For Nature Calgary members, there are three events on Sunday April 28 which are not full. These include a Birding Blitz on St. Patrick Island near the Zoo, a Bryophyte Blitz in the Weaselhead, and a Plant Walk in Glenbow Ranch Provincial Park. See this page to register.

City Nature Challenge

More information from Matt Wallace:

April 26-29 take photos of wild plants and animals in your yards, neighborhoods, and favorite parks. Then upload your observations to the iNaturalist app or to iNaturalist.ca before Midnight May 5. This is the sixth year I have organized the Calgary CNC and it has grown immensely. There are over 700 cities involved worldwide and we are competing with them to see how many observations we can make, the number of species we can document, and the number of people we can get to participate. The two metrics I am most concerned with for our area are the number of observations and the participants. 

My personal goal for CNC is that we can make a combined 10,000 observations or more during the four days. I also hope that we can make 250K observations by 2025 (We are currently at 169,000 observations just in Calgary). If each of us were to make even 10 observations over the weekend, we could make the CNC target and could be the top-performing Canadian city (49 participating Canadian cities this year).

The area which you can participate in during CNC includes: Calgary, Cochrane, Airdrie, Chestermere, Okotoks, Foothills County, and Rocky View County. Participate in groups, at events or even go exploring on your own. Heck, make a “big day” out of the four days if you’re up for the challenge. I have helped to organize around 15 events across the region all happening Friday-Monday which can all be found on the website below.

Types of subjects we love to see shared on iNaturalist include Birds, Plants, Butterflies, Insects, Fungi, Lichens, Mosses, Mammals (pretty much everything and anything but NO people or pets).

See my previous 2024 CNC post here.

Have a fun weekend and help this project reach its goals!

The Elusive Brown Creeper

Mar17

By Cathy Warwick

The last time I saw a Brown Creeper I was cross-country skiing at Confederation Park and had stopped at the top of a hill to catch my breath. I was near a stand of Spruce trees and noticed a piece of the bark was moving. Of course it wasn’t the bark – it was a tiny brown bird moving up the tree. The Brown Creeper is not a well-known bird largely because they lay low, extremely low. They are elusive and mysterious but when you see one its behaviour and look is unmistakable. If you decide to add it to your Life List and go out looking for one, good luck! You’re going to need it. Another strategy is to read this article to familiarize yourself with the Brown Creeper for the day you see one, then you can point to it and yell “a Brown Creeper!”

Brown Creeper
Brown Creeper. From Wildreturn at Wikimedia.com

First of all they are tiny, their body is about the length of a thumb, add to that their long brown tail. Secondly they have amazing camouflage, they have brown feathers on the top of their body, perfectly suited to hide against a spruce tree. Their underside is a white colour, this countershading camouflages them when flying. Their stealth colouring is only undone by their song, a high pitched tssst sound. That’s where you come in with your phone at the ready, the Merlin Bird ID app open. It can identify a Brown Creeper and then you can look for it by its song. 

If you get a good enough look you will see its curved bill, perfect for digging in the bark where other birds can’t get to. It eats the insects, their eggs and pupae, hidden in the bark. In photos you can see its relatively long feet, which help it hang on to the bark as it creeps upward in a spiral. Once they have checked out a tree they will fly to the base of the next and start up that one. I wonder if the nuthatch, going down and the creeper, going up, have ever bumped their little heads together. What an adorable mishap that would be.

Brown Creeper
A colourful Creeper photographed in Elliston Park, January 23, 2017. Photo by Bree Tucker.

The Brown Creeper needs live trees to forage on and dead and dying trees to nest in, they use the whole forest lifecycle (allaboutbirds.com). The English traditional park of rolling green lawns with large trees studding it is horrible for wildlife. In our city it’s nice we have some Creeper friendly ‘messy parks’ like Weaslehead and Fish Creek. 

Brown Creeper
A well-camouflaged Brown Creeper, Bebo Grove, Calgary, January 15, 2015.
Photo by Dan Arndt.

Hopefully five years from now when you actually see a Brown Creeper on a tree you can recall the name of it. Maybe the fact that it is ‘creeping’ up the tree will twig your memory and you can yell out its name. Your advanced birding badge will be on its way if you succeed.

More about the Brown Creeper on All About Birds.

The House Finch

Feb25

By Cathy Warwick

House Finch
Male House Finch. Photo from Wikimedia Commons.

If you are walking around Calgary and hear a bird singing its heart out in a long trilling song, it is most likely a House Finch. These small birds are identified by their brown bodies, heavy beaks and the red colour on the male. It’s hard to believe that these now ubiquitous birds were fairly rare in Calgary, until as recently as the 1990’s! In theory most of us can remember a time when there were no House Finches around. In practice I barely remember the 90’s. Look at a group of birds at any feeder now and you will probably see some. The females have a striped body, and I find if you look for the stripes you can tell them apart from the House Sparrow fairly readily.

House Finch
Male House Finch (left) showing off his reddish rump, with a sleepy female House Finch. Photo by Bob Lefebvre.

The House Finches origins start in the Southwestern US and Mexico. In the 1940’s someone tried to rebrand them as a ‘Hollywood Finch’ and sold them to pet stores in New York. In what way are they symbols of Hollywood I’m not sure, it was a different time back then. The Migratory Bird act came into effect, and all of a sudden pet store owners had illegal birds in their store. What do you do with a bird you don’t want? You open the window and let it fly away! If that bird is a tough and hardy finch, it will spread across North America.

The House Finch is prone to an eye disease called Mycoplasmal Conjunctivitis. If you see one with red puffy eyes don’t bother running out with tiny little cucumber slices, that bird is too far gone. According to Project FeederWatch you should take down your feeder for a couple days and then wash it. This will stop the spread of the disease to other House Finches.

These birds are fairly strict vegetarians, they fill up on seeds, buds, roots and foliage. Their colour is believed to be related to how well they are fed, if you see an orange male it could be that he isn’t getting all the nutrients he needs. Studies show the females choose the redder males. The male House Finch is responsible for feeding the young so it’s important to choose one that is a good provider. According to allaboutbirds, during courtship the male mimics regurgitating food to the female, showing off how good a feeder he is! These are monogamous birds, and very social, so really what you are seeing around the feeder are just a bunch of couples hanging out together. 

House Finch
This House Finch is pretty orange. Photo by Pat Bumstead.
House Finch
And here is a very yellow male. Photo by Bob Lefebvre.

What I love about them is their song that seems so out of place on a cold day. Listen for a “zzz” buzzing sound that is part of the up and down warble and it sure to be a House Finch. You can look for the singer and you will see a little brownish bird way up in the heights of a tree singing, perhaps lamenting its ancestors’ move from Mexico. Or perhaps it’s trying to win back its Hollywood moniker with a winning solo.

More about the House Finch on All About Birds, including audio.

Help Us Count Birds on December 17!

Dec10

More Birders Needed For the Calgary Christmas Bird Count.

Many of our regulars are away or busy with other events this year, so we have a bit of a shortage of birders to help with the count, which is next Sunday. We can use experienced birders who could lead the effort in a section of the city, or help with a field team in a section. Even if you are a novice birder you can help assist a field team. The more eyes the better! Plus we are always looking for more people to count birds at their backyard feeders. That can take as little as 30 minutes.

House Finch
House Finch. A common backyard bird, but they all need counting! Photo by Bob Lefebvre.

You can register to participate in the count at this page. You may use this form even if you just want more information and may not take part this year. If you have any questions, you can email me at birdscalgary@gmail.com.

Thanks for helping out in this long-running Citizen Science project!

Bob Lefebvre

Calgary Christmas Bird Count 2023

Nov23

Register to participate now!

The Calgary CBC will take place on Sunday December 17. If you want to take part either as part of a Field Team or as a backyard Feeder Watcher, please fill out the registration form. People who particpated last year will have already received this by email. Please only register once!

CBC Coordinator Matthew Wallace has created a CBC2023 Registration Form for all participants to fill out. We know that it’s a bit of a pain to have to fill this out annually. However, it drastically reduces the number of emails Matt receives and helps him to keep all of the information better organized (and updated if there are changes to your contact information). Please feel free to share the form with anyone you know who may be interested in taking part! The form is for ALL participants (Field Teams and Feeder Watchers).

Note that to be a Feeder Watcher, recording birds in your yard, you have to live within the Count Circle, which does not include the entire city. We will inform you if you resgister as a Feeder Watcher and your address lies outside the circle.

Great Horned Owl
Great Horned Owl photographed by Matthew Wallace on last year’s Calgary CBC. December 19, 2021, Tsuut’ina Nation, Calgary.

Below is more information about the count from Matt Wallace:

Calgary Count Day: Sunday, December 17, 2023

As you know, we have two divisions for people to participate. Field Teams and Feeder Watchers. Both are critical roles for us to be able to get adequate coverage of the circle area. Below is a brief summary of the roles. I also want to thank both Lara Fitzpatrick and Bob Lefebvre for agreeing to assist with compilation of all of your data submissions!

Field Teams:
Field Teams are composed of a circle Section Leader and section teams which help to survey a specific region of the circle. Leaders are generally carried forward from previous years but we often require a handful of NEW leaders to assist in circle areas which are unable to participate in any given year. The teams of volunteers communicate with their leaders to find out where they will survey. Sometimes this is as a group and other times teams are split up to cover their section. Each year we try our best to get everyone who has expressed interest in joining field teams out in the field and in an area of the city that they are interested in (BUT this is not always possible due to having too many people in one section and not others). Participants who are assigned to teams will be contacted by their Section Leaders to coordinate meeting locations or objectives (i.e. areas to search) in early December. Any late registrations will be offered spots where we are lacking participants. Trust me when I say we’ll do our best to get you in a zone that’s interesting but please have an open mind and be willing to travel if needed.

Field Team Data Submission: Once again, we are using eBird to submit our information: bird data (All birds identified and counted). Effort Data is collected by the section leaders for the entire team and is submitted via email using a template.

On the form this year I included a “Comments” section where you can express any interest in potentially being a new field leader.

Feeder Watchers:

FWs are responsible for counting birds at their properties on count day (Dec. 17). Feeder Watchers must reside or be participating at a residence within the count circle for us to be able to use the data. The minimum time required for counting birds is 30 minutes over the course of the day. This can be as a single session or broken up at various times throughout the day. Counting for longer than 30 minutes is encouraged! There is a specific methodology into how birds are counted as an FW. So if you register to be an FW, we will send out instructions into how this works prior to the count. 

Feeder Watcher Data Submission: FW data is collected using templates and submitted back via email. 

Count Week (December 14-20):

The CBC is essentially a census of all of the birds within our area. Occasionally, we can miss a couple rare birds so count week is an opportunity to scout locations and pick up any birds we may have missed. If you see any interesting birds during this period, please email me directly [citynatureyyc@gmail.com] so that we can include them as “Count Week” birds or notify section leaders to try and find them on count day!

We Need YOU For the Christmas Bird Count!

Dec11

Posted By Bob Lefebvre

I recently posted about the Calgary Christmas Bird Count, which is a week from today, on Sunday December 18th. Birders, like everyone else, have a lot of committments at this time of year, and we find ourselves a little short of help on some of the field routes. In particular, we need a few people who are good birders and also quite fit, who are able to do long walk through some difficult terrain. One such area is the Paskapoo Slopes near Canada Olympic Park, which has many deep ravines. Last year there was a Barred Owl at the west end of that area, but we missed it! We also need help in the Edgemont Ravines, and possibly in East Calgary at Elliston Park and area (Elliston is not as challenging of a walk). These are all good areas, so you might find something special!

Barred Owl
Barred Owl, photographed on Count Day in 2021 near Cougar Ridge. We didn’t know about it until long after the count. Photo by Orlando Pastran, courtesy of Joachim Bertrands.

If you are not up to a long difficult route, or are less experienced, you are still welcome to help out in the field. You will be placed on a team with experienced birders.

For those of you who can’t make it out in the field but watch birds in your yard, we will take as many Feeder Watchers as we can get! We are particularly short in the NE quadrant of the city. Feeder-Watching does not require a long time commitment and can be done in as little as fifteen minutes, or in intervals during the day. Of course, to take part you must live within the count circle.

Calgary CBC Circlle
The Calgary Christmas Bird Count Circle, from Google Earth. Look at all the green space we have to cover!

If you would like to participate this year, or even if you just want more information or may want to take part next year, please fill out the registration form and we will be in contact with you.

REGISTER HERE for the Calgary Christmas Bird Count.

If you had previously registered, you will be contacted this week.

Last year, our Feeder Watchers had some good birds:

Fox Sparrow, the first ever on our count, found in the yard of Feeder Watcher Lucy Batycky. Photo by Bob Lefebvre.

Northern Saw-whet Owl
Northern Saw-whet Owl on the 2021 Calgary CBC. Photo by Alan Covington.

Register Now For the Calgary Christmas Bird Count 2022!

Nov20

Posted by Bob Lefebvre

Calgary’s Christmas Bird Count (CBC) takes place on Sunday December 18, 2022! CBC began in 1900 and is the world’s longest-running citizen science event. The count has been going on in Calgary since 1952 and is a valuable resource for understanding species and population trends of birds found in Calgary and around the world.

Matthew Wallace will once again be organizing the count and compiling the results. Lara Fitzpatrick and I will assist once again.

Please take a minute to fill out the Registration form here. Unless you are a Feeder Watcher who has already been assigned to a FW Captain, we are asking everyone to register, even if you have participated last year or in many past years. This helps to ensure we have the correct and most up-to-date contact information for each person and reduces the thousands of emails down to a more manageable size. It also helps Matthew to organize the required participant information that is submitted to Audubon and confirm that feeder watcher residences are within the count circle.

Calgary CBC Circle
Calgary CBC Circle, from Google Earth.

Completing the form will ensure that you will receive information that will follow in the next few days. The form is required for both feeder watchers and field participants. It can be shared with anyone who may wish to take part this year. Please share widely. If you are not sure that you can participate, or if you would like more information about the count, please fill out the form so we can contact you.

Great Horned Owl
Great Horned Owl photographed by Matthew Wallace on last year’s Calgary CBC. December 19, 2021, Tsuut’ina Nation, Calgary.

Count Week Birds: If you come across any interesting birds during count week (December 15-21), please send information to citynatureyyc@gmail.com including any notes, counts, or photos you may have.

You can check out this recap video by Matthew Wallace of the Calgary Christmas Bird Count 2021. There was also a post on this blog about the results: Calgary Christmas Bird Count Final Results.

Bohemian Waxwing
Bohemian Waxwings seen on last year’s Count. Photo by Arthur Wieckowski, December 19, 2021.

Happy Birding and Happy Holidays!