Friends of Fish Creek Birding Course – Week 4 – Carburn Park

Posted by Dan Arndt

One of the regular parks attended by the Friends of Fish Creek birding courses is Carburn Park. Located just off Deerfoot Trail, it is an oasis of mixed deciduous and coniferous forest in the middle of the urban landscape, and is adjacent to Beaverdam Flats to the north, and the Southland Dog Park to the west. The route we took this week took us from the parking lot, south to a small grove of trees containing a special surprise for us, exploring some bird feeders just off the main trail, then back up along the river before returning to our vehicles by way of the east bank of the middle pond.

For some reason, I was pretty gung-ho about taking photos for the first half of the walk, but once we got near the ponds there weren’t a lot of opportunities given the general shyness of the birds, the close foliage, and shooting into the light, I didn’t really get many good opportunities.

Carburn Park

Our first stop of the morning was at the bridge that crosses the Bow River, and but unfortunately there weren’t too many birds on, or over the water. What we did get was this (relatively) gorgeous Rock Pigeon posing gracefully on this dead tree limb.

Rock Pigeon

Heading south along the river, we had hopes of flushing a Ring-necked Pheasant, or seeing something interesting on the river, or at the very least, getting some interesting birds at the bird feeders, but as they hadn’t been seen on any of the walks this week, we were quite surprised at a trio of Great-Horned Owls at the southern-most point of our walk!

Great-horned Owl

This one thought that he could hide from the shutterbugs clicking away with their cameras…

Great-Horned Owl

Moving over to the feeders and allowing these owls their space, we came upon a large mixed flock of sparrows and warblers in a large Russian Olive tree. Orange-crowned Warblers, Yell0w-rumped Warblers, Lincoln’s Sparrow, Dark-eyed Junco, and even a pair of American Tree Sparrows!

American Tree Sparrow

Our walk continued with a few other nice sightings. Common Mergansers fishing alongside large flocks of Ring-billed Gulls resting on the gravel bars, and even a small flock of Green-winged Teals flushed up by one of the many fishing rafts on the river. One of the Ring-billed Gulls had managed to pluck a small fish from the river, causing all the other gulls around to fly at it in an attempt to steal away an easy meal. Sadly, I don’t think any of them ended up with lunch in all the commotion!

Along the river was also a stretch of about 10 meters that was highly productive, with many Black-capped Chickadees, a few Ruby-crowned Kinglets, another pair of Orange-crowned Warblers, Belted Kingfishers, Northern Flickers and a Downy Woodpecker to top off the list. Around the corner from there was another gravel bar populated entirely by Ring-billed Gulls, and this juvenile posed nicely for us. It wasn’t until it began walking away that we noticed that it was injured, with its tail-feathers skewed off to the side making it seemingly unable to fly.

juvenile Ring-billed Gull

We trudged through the woods getting very good, close looks at a lone Golden-crowned Kinglet, a Red-necked Grebe on the middle pond, and a few Buffleheads on the far north pond. On our way back along the east side of the middle pond, we were assaulted by another small flock of Black-capped Chickadees in search of a handout.

Black-capped Chickadee

As we rounded the bend and neared the parking lot, a few of us were reflecting that we hadn’t seen a Muskrat in any of the ponds. Sure enough, within a few moments, this little guy swam over to the far bank and hung around just long enough for us to get some shots of him.

Looks like we’ll be touring the Elbow River, from Stanley Park through to the Glenmore Dam.

Good birding!

Friends of Fish Creek – Autumn Birding Course – Week 3, Mallard Point

Sep24

Posted by Dan Arndt

This week, the Friends of Fish Creek course set out for Mallard Point. Located at the far east end of Fish Creek Provincial Park, it abuts the largest island on the Bow River in Calgary, Poplar Island, which is off-limits to the public, but is viewable from the pathways on both sides of the Bow River. We started at the Mallard Point parking lot, walked north along the river, crossed over the bridge, and to the south-east, parallel to Poplar Island. In total, we discovered 36 species in our three hours along the river, all of which gave us incredible looks at them and were amazing to see, as always, and remember, if you want to see a bigger version of the photos in the blog, just click for a full-sized version!

Mallard Point

As we all collected at the parking lot, the consistent racket of a group of 12 Greater Yellowlegs just over the ridge in the flood channel of the Bow River that separates Poplar Island from the rest of Fish Creek Park, and these four decided to ham it up for the photographers of the group, posing close in and making sure everyone got a satisfying look at them.

Greater Yellowlegs

We headed up to the river to see what birds we could see on the Bow, or flying over it, but the star of the show was this small Northern Pike, who seemed just as interested in staring at us as we were in staring at it.

She Ain't Pretty (she just looks that way)

Northern Pike

After crossing the bridge and exploring a bit of the east side of the river, we set our eyes on the small pond that originates from a storm water outflow from the Douglasdale community, and found a fairly large group of American Wigeon joined by a solo female Northern Shoveler.

American Wigeon

While I’m not an expert on gulls, I enjoyed the plethora of plumages visible on the gravel bar just south of the second storm-water outflow into the Bow. We saw adult versions of the three most common species of white-headed gulls out there, those being Ring-billed Gulls, California Gulls, and Herring Gulls. I believe we saw juvenile versions of all three of those gulls as well, though I could always be mistaken!

juvenile Ring-billed Gull

juvenile Herring Gull

juvenile California Gull

We continued on south-east, and saw one of the harbingers of the change of seasons; a breeding plumaged male Downy Woodpecker. It seems all spring and summer that these guys simply went into hiding, but the last few weeks they’ve reappeared like magic!

male Downy Woodpecker

One of the highlights of my day at least was seeing this beautiful Orange-crowned Warbler, who, along with a Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Gray Catbird, and about ten Yellow-rumped Warblers were found near the southern-most extent of our walk in the brush, chipping and whistling away while we strained our eyes to find just who was calling in the bushes.

Orange-crowned Warbler

Onward we trekked, and as we neared the furthest point of our walk, we were greeted by another gorgeous sight of a group of Mallard ducks, one of which being a male just coming back into his breeding plumage and showing off the broad violet speculum on his wing while stretching his legs, and in amongst the Mallards was another female Northern Shoveler.

male Mallard duck

male Mallard (bottom left) and female Northern Shoveler (top right)

It seemed a fitting end to the walk as we began to head back that many of our other friends from the summer would see us off. There were no small number of Meadowhawk dragonfly species flitting about as the sun warmed them up, and a handful of damselflies as well, but most noticeable was that their numbers were significantly less than last week, and far less than earlier in the summer. I do hope they hold on a while longer, as I always enjoy seeing and hearing them flit about, but it’s just a matter of time before the temperatures drop and the last of them dies out for another year.

Black Meadowhawk dragonfly

As we neared the bridge, and our walk was nearly at an end, we were gifted with just one more species as this Osprey flew overhead. I sure hope he didn’t see our Northern Pike from earlier in the day!

Osprey

That’s all for now. Next week, Carburn Park!

Friends of Fish Creek Autumn Birding Course begins again – Week 2

Sep17

Posted by Dan Arndt

This fall, Bob Lefebvre and I are running one of the Sunday morning groups this year, and while this is the second week for the group, it’s my first week back from vacation.

Lafarge Meadows, one of the locations I always am finding new birds at, was our location for the day, and in our 5.75 km walk up and down the river bank, dodging golf carts and buses, we managed to see a pretty decent number of species. The annotated map shows our general route, as we headed from the Boat Launch, clockwise following the river, then back north along the paved path.

Our Route

On the ponds at the north end, we were given good close looks at a Great Blue Heron, seen here giving a brief lecture to some unruly Mallards that had taken over its roost. It flushed them away, or at least attempted to, before going back to its business of catching its breakfast.

Great Blue Heron giving a lecture

Attempting to frighten off the surly Mallards

Soon the heron realizes the futility of its ways and goes back to fishing.

As we looked over the pond, we were briefly interrupted by a small group of migrants, including Common Yellowthroat, Orange-crowned Warblers, and a few Lincoln’s Sparrows, before we looked back up over the pond to see some familiar faces (or familiar bills, perhaps?) The always entertaining Bufflehead, ever-present Lesser Scaup, and a lone American Wigeon even made an appearance.

Bufflehead

Lesser Scaup

American Wigeon

As we trekked southward, into the fray with golf carts whizzing by us and the noise of what seemed like hundreds of visitors to some other festivities in the park, we veered off toward the river, where we saw no small number of Double-crested Cormorants, Lesser Yellowlegs, and even at least two Osprey, hunting for fish over the Bow River.

Double-crested Cormorant

Lesser Yellowlegs

Osprey

Even deeper into the brush and further from the trail we happened across a few more warblers in the trees, including this Yellow-rumped Warbler, and a pair of House Wrens angrily chipping away at us.

Yellow-rumped Warbler

While we tend to focus on the birds on the blog, we all have a soft spot for butterflies, and this Milberts Tortoiseshell that posed quite nicely for everyone was no exception. It also marked the beginning of our trek back to the north, with the sun at our backs.

Milberts Tortoiseshell

As we were once again inundated with the golf carts and busy pathway, we kept our heads clear and our goals in sight, checking the ponds and sloughs on each side of the path as we went, and we turned up quite a few nice surprises. Each of them was more striking, with the Pied-billed Grebe surfacing now and again in an algae-choked pond, a pair of juvenile Ruddy Ducks in amongst the American Coots, and another Green-winged Teal flocking in with some more precocious Mallards!

Ruddy Duck

Green-winged Teal

Pied-billed Grebe

Finally, as the finish line was in sight and our long walk had ended, we found ourselves staring long and hard at this intrepid Cooper’s Hawk, soaring on the thermals in search of its next meal.

Cooper’s Hawk

Next week: Mallard Point!

Q & A: Odd-looking Birds on the Light Standards

Sep15

By Bob Lefebvre

Here at the Birds Calgary blog, we receive a lot of questions from bird-friendly folks throughout the province. We are sharing some of them with our readers as just another way to spread bird knowledge.

If you have a question, email us at birdscalgary@gmail.com. We may post your question and our answer. We won’t print your name or email address without permission.

Here’s a question we received last September, but which is relevant again this year.

Q: Hi. There are birds that sit on the light standards on 16^th Ave NE over the tracks alongside Deerfoot Trail. They appear to be sleeping when I drive by at 8 AM, I am curious to know what they are. There have been 2 or 3 on the westbound side and usually one on the eastbound side. Thanks.

A: It’s hard to say what they are without some idea of the size, shape, or colour of the birds. But I’m familiar with the area, and I think you might be referring to the “odd” birds that are sometimes seen there, which look long, slim, long-necked, and black. If so, those are Double-crested Cormorants. Their silhouette looks like this (photo taken in Fish Creek Park last week [September 2011]):

In better light they look like this, also taken last week [September 2011]:

Double-crested Cormorants are waterbirds that dive for fish and crustaceans. They are often seen holding their wings out to dry off after a dive. There are quite a few in the area of the weir on the Bow River, but they will soon be heading south.

Q: It’s definitely the Cormorants – last year there was just one, but now there are 2 or 3 on the westbound side and one on the eastbound side of 16th. They are always there in the morning but not always on my way home at 4:30. It’s quite high up so I can’t see much details from the car but definitely have the yellow beak and dark feathers.

(Note: In the past three weeks I have been seeing up to 35 cormorants in the area of Harvie Passage (the old weir on the Bow River) often perched in trees or on light standards along Deerfoot Trail.)

Travel Tuesdays – Southeast Alberta Big-ish Day

Sep11

Posted by Dan Arndt

Alberta has such a wide variety of environments that I’m constantly finding new areas, new regions, and entirely new birds around the province. One area that I have never spent any significant time in was in the south-east corner of the province. In fact, the last time I ventured east of Strathmore was in 2005, when I visited Dinosaur Provincial Park in my under-grad to do some prospecting in some of the private access coulees with a friend of mine working on his Ph. D.

I had hoped to visit Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park this summer, or at least Writing-On-Stone Provincial Park, time got away from me and other priorities came up. Thankfully, fellow blogger David Pugh, over at “A Calgary Birder” had some free time on his hands and asked me along to visit some spots he had heard good things about.

Our route was planned, and we headed out at just after 4:30 in the morning with plans to visit Kinbrook Island Provincial Park, Many Islands Lake, Cypress Hills, Pakowki Lake, and a few other stops along the way.

We arrived at Kinbrook Island Provincial Park campground at just after sunrise. The sloughs on each side of the road in were buzzing with insects, and a few Yellow-headed Blackbirds as well as the ubiquitous Red-winged Blackbirds were feasting. We managed to spot some early peeps for the day, along with some Spotted Sandpipers, a few Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs, and we even managed to find some Long-billed Dowitchers in the early-morning light.

After a brief drive through the campground listening for warblers, we stopped at the south end to look over the lake. American White Pelicans, hundreds of eclipse plumage ducks, and even a Common Loon were visible from the point, but I think one of the best birds of the day (so far) was this lone Brown Thrasher, who was mixed with a small flock of Yellow-headed Blackbirds feeding on insects beside the road.

Brown Thrasher – My second ever sighting of this impressive bird.

One final stop at the far south end of the campground was a row of low brush along the lake front, which was inhabited by no less than ten Western Kingbirds, the same number of Eastern Kingbirds, some Wilson’s Warblers, and a few other species of flycatchers, like this (seemingly dark) Western Wood-Pewee.

Western Kingbird

Western Wood-Pewee

Eastern Kingbird

After a very successful first stop, we moved out and headed further east to Medicine Hat and points eastward. Just outside of Suffield, I spotted what appeared to be a raptor in the field sitting on the ground, presumably dispatching its prey. I hesitated only for a moment, but thought it would be a great photo opportunity, so we turned around to get a closer look. On the second pass, David and I scanned the field like hawks ourselves, until we both, almost simultaneously blurted out “Burrowing Owl!?”. The brakes were applied liberally, and as we both scrambled with our gear, it seemed our sudden stop had spooked a few of them, who flew off in various directions. Two brave holdouts remained, with one coming quite close to inspect us, then returning to the burrow. The other, a juvenile, attempted to hide in the tall grass at the edge of the clearing.

Burrowing Owl – This brave owl inspects the curious trespassers.

Can you spot the second owl in this photo?

After spending about a half hour watching these beautiful little owls from a distance, we decided it was time to continue onwards. We rolled through Medicine Hat without incident, spotting many different birds as we drove, but nothing new for the day until we turned north. The terrain was visibly different than even the farmers fields near Calgary, and the birds present were distinctly “prairie” species, unlike those nearby which are a mix of boreal, grasslands, and foothills species. The first major indicator of this was the massive Ferruginous Hawk that we passed as we headed to Many Islands Lake. Sadly, I didn’t get any shots of the bird until it was too far off to distinguish. As we got onto some of the side roads though, we did find a small slough, along with its iron-fisted dictator overseeing its subjects, which included Mallards, Northern Pintails, and Green-winged Teals primarily. The dictator of which I speak is the majestic and impassionate Peregrine Falcon, ruler of these wetlands.

Always managing to look regal, Peregrine Falcons are one of my favourite raptors.

As we neared Many Islands Lake, the variety of the sparrows was made up of old familiar faces, some less familiar ones, and some brand new ones to both David and I. First, the Savannah Sparrows were numerous, but nowhere near as widespread as the Vesper Sparrows. Topping off the list though were no small number of Lark Buntings, which we were certain were some strange morph of Vesper or Lark Sparrows… turns out we were both dead wrong! Another old familiar face were the many and numerous Horned Larks, always posing perfectly for the camera.

Savannah Sparrow

Lark Bunting

Horned Lark

And while we tend to focus on the birds we see on our outings, one cannot ignore the sheer number of Pronghorn Antelope at the SE corner of the province. In the span of the day, we saw no less than 40 of these beauties, but none came quite as close as this large male.

Pronghorn Antelope

At Many Islands Lake we saw hundreds of ducks, shorebirds, and even managed to separate out a pair of Hudsonian Godwits among the numerous Marbled Godwits out on the islands, along with a few Willets, Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs, and Killdeer. Unfortunately they were too far out, and the sun far too hot, to allow for any acceptable photos. Atmospheric aberration at 500mm on a 30+ degree day is stunningly messy.

From Many Islands Lake, we headed south through Medicine Hat, and decided for a brief stop at Red Rock Coulee, between Medicine Hat and Pakowki Lake, turning up a few more Horned Larks, Rock Wren, and our first distinctively clear looks at a Lark Sparrow.

Rock Wren

Vesper Sparrow

Between Red Rock Coulee and Pakowki Lake, we stopped at a few drainage ditches that ran under the road through culverts, and came across a pair of Loggerhead Shrike. Another bonus bird for the day!

Loggerhead Shrike

Pakowki Lake gave us good views of Pectoral, Baird’s, and even a lone Stilt Sandpiper. It was a fortunate find, but not so fortunate for the bird who appeared to be suffering from a broken wing. Out on the lake further we spotted Western Grebes, American Avocets, many more Least and Semipalmated Sandpipers, Killdeer, and Willets.

Stilt Sandpiper

Leaving Pakowki Lake, we stopped in at Foremost to fill up for gas and spotted a kettle of Common Nighthawks flying overhead. I had no idea they grouped up into such large groups to migrate. David and I estimated at least 40 individuals flying overhead, and at least half that many had already passed before I looked up to investigate that odd “PEENT!” call that they’re so well known for.

We finished the day at Frank Lake in the fading light, adding Clark’s Grebe, Great-horned Owl, and a few others to our list before calling it a day and heading home. In total, our species list came to 104 for the day, with a handful of lifers for the both of us, and many great new places to explore!

Travel Tuesday – Alberta Birds of Prey Foundation, Coaldale, AB

Aug28

Posted by Dan Arndt

One of my favourite trips in the wonderful book “Day Trips from Calgary” by Bill Corbett, is the magical and amazing Alberta Birds of Prey Foundation, located in Coaldale, Alberta. The drive itself is wonderful and offers plenty of opportunities for birding the dozens of lakes, sloughs, and fields in the two and a half hour trip into southern Alberta, but the grounds of the visitor centre would turn any non-birder into a confirmed bird lover.

You don’t even have to go in to the centre to get your bird fix. Surrounding the visitor centre are a series of ponds and marshes that are home not only to shorebirds, but also to passerines, flycatchers, and even large numbers of waterfowl.

A few of these Common Yellowthroat were seen just outside the visitor centre just before it opened.

Three or four Greater Yellowlegs were picking food out of the water just west of the visitor centre.

“But neither of these are birds of prey!” I hear you shouting. You’re right, they’re not. So, without further ado, on with the show!

Last year, the visitor centre housed a juvenile Swainson’s Hawk, which was penned near the front desk.

Juvenile Swainson’s Hawk

This year though, we were greeted by Basil, the Burrowing Owl, who cooed and huffed, but investigated us with as much curiousity as we had about him.

Basil the Burrowing Owl

There is a huge portion of the Birds of Prey Foundation that is devoted to rehabilitation of injured or orphaned birds of prey. Some of the current residents are recovering from their injuries, such as the Broad-winged Hawk and the Rough-legged Hawk in their care. Both of these birds are recovering from wing injuries, and will require rehabilitation for quite some time before they can be released back into the wild.

Broad-winged Hawk

Rough-legged Hawk

A few others birds on display are of unknown affinity, and I wasn’t able to track any of the volunteers down to ask them for clarification, but they’re beautiful birds nonetheless.

Northern Harrier

Long-eared Owl

Ferruginous Hawk

Great Gray Owl

Others are permanent residents of the centre, and are part of breeding programs that are incredibly successful. Both the Merlins and Burrowing Owls are successful parents, and have regularly fledged offspring for quite a few years.

Merlin

Burrowing Owl

Arguably just as important as the rehabilitation, breeding, and even the care of these gorgeous raptors are the educational animals that they keep on hand, (and in some cases, in hand!) for public events, or even just for a private moment or two with visitors to the Birds of Prey Foundation visitors centre.

Barn Owl – though not considered “native” to Alberta, they are occasionally reported here.

The Short-eared Owl is quite possibly my favourite owl species.

Spirit, the blind Golden Eagle

Lauren and Alex Jr., one of the Burrowing Owl mascots of the Birds of Prey centre.

Don’t we just look SO happy together?

It’s hard to narrow down from the dozens of pictures that I took here to figure out just which ones are the best and which ones to post. Even looking over the post now, I know I’ve missed a few species and quite a few great photos that would represent them, but really, it’s worth going and visiting for yourself. They’re open this season until September 10, 2012, and will reopen to the public early next May. Why are you still reading this? Get down there and visit them for yourself!

Travel Tuesday – Elk Island National Park

Aug21

Posted by Dan Arndt

While this blog usually focuses on the birds in and around Calgary, many folks travel for work, for pleasure, or just to see new great birds in other areas of the province. In the last year, I’ve been up to Elk Island National Park twice, and each time has been absolutely amazing. I look forward to my next visit, and hope it’ll be sooner than next summer, but time is always fleeting and it can be hard to justify a trip without other things to do up there. Plus, with the Friends of Fish Creek Autumn Birding Course starting up in a few weeks, many of my weekends are spoken for!

The Beaver Hills region of Alberta, which includes Elk Island National Park, are a unique topographical area formed by the retreat of the glaciers at the end of the last ice age. As they melted and stagnated, they formed what is known as “kame and kettle topography”. Why is this important to birds, you might ask? These kettle lakes are home to tens of thousands of gulls, shorebirds, and a water source for the surrounding boreal forest that established along the top of the “kames” which are regional topographical highs. In many cases, these are up to a hundred meters higher than the surrounding landscape, and gently sloped on either edge, forming something similar to the foothills style landscape that we’re so used to around Calgary.

Over Heritage Day long weekend, we spent three days up there relaxing by the lake, enjoying the calm, serene waters, and weathering the sometimes frighteningly extreme weather.

This storm cell over Astotin Lake was so severe that we were asked to evacuate our campsite and take shelter in our vehicle.

Thankfully, the weather lightened up over the next two days allowing for some good sightings of some beautiful and amazing birds, some of which paid us many visits at our campsite over the weekend. This juvenile Yellow-bellied Sapsucker was part of a family group that spent every day in the trees nearby.

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

Western Tanagers are some of the most colourful birds we get in Calgary, and it was great to find not one but two breeding groups on hiking trails in the park.

Western Tanager

The main campground is located a stone’s throw from Astotin Lake, which is home to dozens of Red-necked Grebes. Last year, there must have been nearly two-hundred just near the shoreline in late September, but this year, since it was a bit earlier, the numbers weren’t quite so high. The population was still healthy this August, as this adult shows.

A Red-necked Grebe finds his favourite fish breakfast.

Shorebirds were present in small numbers as well, though I would expect by this time, their numbers are much higher, and will continue to climb until late September as migration steps on its perpetual course. A few Semipalmated Sandpipers and Least Sandpipers seemed to be flocking with, and stalking, this Long-billed Dowitcher, who in turn followed around a Greater Yellowlegs every time it was startled and flew off in another direction.

Long-billed Dowitcher

Greater Yellowlegs

Semipalmated Sandpipers (centre, left) and Least Sandpiper (front right).

One of my favourite shorebirds was present on the shores of Astotin Lake, and seemed to be the mother (or maybe father?) of at least three juveniles that tentatively poked their heads out of the long grasses every few minutes. This Killdeer kept a wary eye on me and would fly away any time I moved toward it, or toward the young ones, so I simply sat on a picnic table and waited for him to come to me.

Killdeer

Some of the other birds present in good numbers were a couple of flocks of American White Pelicans, Song Sparrows, and even a few Eastern Phoebe made their presence known.

American White Pelican

This Eastern Phoebe looks downright evil with the flash reflection in its eye!

By far though, the flocks that outnumbered all other birds combined were the huge numbers of Barn Swallows swarming over the lakes, and the massive flocks of Franklins and Bonaparte’s gulls, both quickly losing their breeding plumage and entering their winter molts.