A Guide to Albertabird

By Howard Heffler

Nature Calgary is promoting a friendly “big year” birding challenge within Calgary city limits in 2020 (BIRDYYC2020). (See this post for an introduction to the challenge.) This guide to Albertabird is one of a number of posts we will present to help everyone who participates.

What is Albertabird?

One useful tool for those taking part in the challenge is the online discussion forum “Albertabird”. This is a place where birders can share sightings, locations, and photos, so it will be useful to participants in
keeping informed during the year and giving them the best chance to see as many bird species within the city limits as possible. This article is for newcomers to Albertabird. Anyone can join Albertabird or use it as a resource – it is not just for BIRDYYC2020 participants.

The Albertabird email list was started in early 2000. Initially hosted by Yahoo Groups, a switch to the more compatible platform, Groups IO, was completed in late 2019.

This list functions within the guidelines found in the American Birding Association Code of Ethics. The Albertabird Moderators are Gerald Romanchuk, Malcolm McDonald, and Caroline Lambert.

Anyone can look at the site to read messages posted by members. Click this link to go to Albertabird in a new tab. There you can see what the site looks like.

Using Albertabird

To post messages to the list you must be a member. To join, you simply go to the site’s Home page and click on “Apply for Membership in this Group.” You will be asked to submit your email address. You should get a response to your request for membership in a day or two.

You can open the “Messages” page to see the latest posts. You can also go to “Subscription” and set the parameters in a way that suits you. You may elect to receive each message in an individual email or in other ways or to not receive emails. Once you are a member, you can post messages and photos for all to see. You can post either right on the website or by sending an email to Albertabird[at]groups.io.

Albertabird has been a powerful and useful tool for years, allowing birders to share stories and help others learn.

We encourage you to look frequently at Albertabird and to post stories about your adventures during the BirdYYC2020 challenge.

Albertabird Guidelines

The complete guidelines for users of Albertabird can be found on the Albertabird website under “files”.

A few points to remember are:

Do not to hit the “Reply” button when responding to a message unless you are intending to send your comments to all subscribers.
All posts should contain your name and location by city.
Be prepared to share directions to interesting birds, except for species at risk.
Do not share directions on private property until you have permission from the landowner to do so.
Do not post detailed information on a nest location, particularly for species at risk, to minimize disturbance to nesting birds.
The list allows attachments such as photos or files. Files should be kept as concise as possible in the interest of saving storage space
Photos can be attached to the message as a file or pasted into the message. (See the guidelines on the Albertabird website for more details and restrictions.)

Enjoy!

Any questions or suggestions about BIRDYYC2020 contact:
 Howard Heffler: hheffler*@*shaw.ca
 Andrew Hart: andrewhart*@*shaw.ca
 Bob Lefebvre: wbird7*@*gmail.com
 Gavin McKinnon: gmckinnonbird*@*gmail.com

Calgary 2020 Big Year Birding Challenge

Nov11

Posted by Bob Lefebvre

For the past two decades Nature Calgary has sponsored year-long birding competitions every five years. In 2000 and 2010 the goal was to see as many species as you could within the city limits in the calendar year. In 2005 and 2015 goal was the same, but the area used was the 80-km-diameter circle centered on the Center Street Bridge.

Willet, photographed by Brian Elder in Calgary during the 2010 competition. This won first prize in the photography portion of competition.

In keeping with the pattern, we’d like to announce the Calgary 2020 Big Year Birding Challenge. This will be a year-long event, in which participants try to identify as many species as they can within the city limits between January 1, 2020, and December 31, 2020. The challenge is led by Howard Heffler, Andrew Hart, Gavin McKinnon, and myself.

As in 2015, we will exclusively be using eBird to keep track of participant’s progress. Simply name your city limits patch “BirdYYC2020” and include in your patch all the locations for which you have submitted lists that are within the city limits. (If you already have a city limits patch, just rename it.) If you are not yet using eBird you will have to set up a free account first.

There are a lot of good articles on the eBird website about how to sign up, and how to set up patches. It is really quite easy, and the eBird site is also a tremendously useful resource for birders.

We are going to keep this very simple and informal. There will be no entry fees or prizes, no categories for different experience levels, and no waivers to sign. Rather than a competition, it will be a challenge – a personal test for each participant to try to reach new goals, explore new birding locations, and learn more about the birds of Calgary.

Participants are asked to send their name, ebird name and email address to Howard Heffler at: hheffler[at]shaw.ca. This will allow the organizers to communicate with active participants. At the end of the year, we will ask participants to share their species list to allow comparison with the results of the 2000 and 2010 competitions.

In the weeks and months ahead, we will be prepared to answer questions and take suggestions. We will use this blog for ongoing communication and to write helpful instructions for participants. We also will post stories on Albertabird and on Nature Calgary’s website. We encourage all participants to share their adventures and birding tips on Albertabird.

In the 2010 competition, Michael Harrison won with 240 species! (Amazingly, he saw every species while riding his bike, competing in the “Non-motorized Transport” category.) To read about the 2010 competition, see the 2010 blog here.

Of course, 240 is a very high total – about 265 species are seen within the city limits in a typical year, but many of those are one-day wonders. In a challenge like this, you should set a reasonable goal for yourself. My goal is to see more than 180 species, which is the best total I’ve had since I started using eBird in 2012. I would love to get 200!

A challenge like this is a lot of fun and gets you really involved in the local birding community. I hope you join us!

Please see the guidelines below for more information.

Calgary 2020 Big Year Birding Challenge

Nature Calgary is promoting a friendly “big year” birding challenge within Calgary city limits in 2020.

Background

There have been two “big year” competitions in Calgary; 2000 and 2010.

(There were also “Calgary Region” competitions in 2005 and 2015.)

Scope – an eBird “Patch” challenge

Challenge yourself to find as many species of birds as you can within the Calgary city limits in 2020!

All sightings must be within the city limits. See link below.

Calendar year 2020.
Open to all.
No sub-categories for participants.
No entry fee or prizes.
No waivers.
- Nature Calgary field trips would have waivers exactly as per current practice.

Objective – a friendly competition

Share sightings.
Promote interest in birds and birding.
Enjoy Calgary’s natural areas.
More field trips.
Compare results with 2000 and 2010.

Challenge Guidelines and Procedures

The organizers are proposing the following guidelines and procedures to make the challenge more enjoyable and rewarding for all participants.

Participants “register” by adding an eBird patch (or re-naming their existing Calgary city-limits patch.) with the name: “BirdYYC2020” by January 1, 2020.
Participants are asked to send their name, eBird name and email address to Howard Heffler at: hheffler[at]shaw.ca. This will allow the organizers to communicate with active participants. At the end of the year, we will ask participants to share their species list to allow comparison with the results of the 2000 and 2010 competitions.
We recommend that participants re-name their patch back to their own city-limits patch after the challenge year is completed.
Participants MUST share eBird lists and make sightings on eBird visible. The purpose is to allow all participants to chase sightings by others. Specifically: on eBird, under My eBird, select Preferences; Data privacy – elect to NOT hide your eBird data.
Anybody at any time can see who is leading and his/her total number of sightings to date by looking on eBird at patch totals.
We have created “BirdYYC2020 RBA”, a WhatsApp group for sharing instant updates on unusual birds within the city limits of Calgary. To join the group, send a message to Gavin McKinnon (403) 519-8703.

Helpful Hints and Participant Expectations

There are about 200 hotspots in the Calgary “county”. All the ones within the city-limits (90) begin with the prefix “Calgary” or “Fish Creek PP”.
Over the next few weeks we will develop detailed procedures and instructions for things such as:
- how to set up an eBird patch,
- how to set up eBird alerts,
- how to join Albertabird,
- how to use WhatsApp,
- how to use the mapping tools, and
- other topics that might arise.
We hope to make a seasonal list of birds to help participants target specific species during each season.
Some species will be identified as “reportable” so you know what will be of special interest to everyone else.
Of course, we will do what we can to ensure participants respect private property, drive and act safely and responsibly, and follow ABA ethical guidelines: especially as it relates to protecting sensitive species.
We have maps of the city boundary in PDF format available.
Here, also, is an online Google map of Calgary.

Any questions or suggestions contact:

Howard Heffler: hheffler[at]shaw.ca
Andrew Hart: andrewhart[at]shaw.ca
Bob Lefebvre: wbird7[at]gmail.com
Gavin McKinnon: gmckinnonbird[at]gmail.com

The Road To 300: Success!

Oct26

When we last checked in on Gavin McKinnon’s quest to find 300 species of birds in Alberta in 2019, he was at 291 species. That was at the end of July (see this post). Since he had already seen almost all of the more common species, progress was expected to be slow for the rest of the year, as he would have to track down rarities that showed up during fall migration.

I’m happy to report that Gavin did reach 300 species on October 11th! He was slowly adding new species until he reached 299. On October 9th an Ash-throated Flycatcher was reported in St. Albert. This is the first confirmed record of this species ever in Alberta. It is native to the SW United States and the Pacific northwest. On October 11th Gavin travelled to St. Albert and saw and photographed the bird.

Ash-throated Flycatcher, St. Albert, October 11, 2019. Photo by Gavin McKinnon.

Not only was this bird #300 for Gavin and a first Alberta record, but it was a life bird for him. A great way to reach his goal!

Here are few of the birds that got Gavin within striking distance of 300. He tried to photograph as many of the species he saw as he could.

Western Sandpiper. Photo by Gavin McKinnon.

By October 12th Gavin had reached 303 species, which is where he stands today. He has also seen a total of 370 species in Canada this year, which is tied for the third-highest total in the country. Here are links to those eBird pages:

Top 100 eBirders in Alberta. Top 100 in Canada.

You can see previous posts with photos and updates of Gavin’s Big Year here:

January and February

March and April

May

The Road to 300: June

Aug5

Posted by Bob Lefebvre

I was away quite a bit in July so there’s lots to catch up on here. First of all, here is an update on fifteen-year-old Gavin McKinnon’s effort to find 300 species of birds in Alberta in 2019.

Gavin had 216 species at the end of May, and as I mentioned last time, you need to get to at least 240 by the end of June to have a good shot at 300. Gavin had a great month in June, and finished the first six months of the year with 278 species. Here are photos of some of the new species he added in June, along with his descriptions of where he saw them and some of the other notable species. Gavin did quite a bit of travelling with his dad looking for rarities, which sometimes necessitated camping in the back of their car.

“On the first of June we were out at Winchell lake and Horse Creek Road marshes where I got half a dozen new songbirds plus Great Gray Owl. The following day We went to Dinosaur Provincial Park where we heard Yellow-breasted Chat. I also added Rock Wren and Lark Sparrow there. The following weekend we went up to Cold lake where I got 35 year birds, the highlights being Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, Black-throated Green Warbler, lots of Connecticut Warblers and a Great Crested Flycatcher. The next day I was able to see a flock of five White-rumped Sandpipers along the rocky shore of Lower Kananaskis Lake as well as a singing male Townsend’s Warbler. A few days later I got the chance to see a Black-chinned Hummingbird that was visiting Pat Lucas’ feeders near Hillcrest Mines.

“Between then and Cypress Hills I got to see Clark’s Grebe and Great Egret. On our way to Cypress we made two stops, one for McCown’s Longspur and another for Burrowing Owl.

“I got three year birds within my first hour at Cypress Hills: White-winged Scoter, Dusky Flycatcher, and a pair of Eastern Bluebirds that have been nesting along the southern border of the park.

“In the afternoon I was able to see a pair of Bullock’s Orioles and after about an hour of checking the Bullock’s Oriole tree I found a nest with two chicks.

“There were also three Common Nighthawks roosting nearby. On our way back to Cypress we found three Greater Sage Grouse.

“At night we were driving around the Graburn Road area and we were able to detect two Common Poorwills, one heard only, but the second one swooped in front of our headlights.”

Below is a photo of the car where they camped on some of these trips.

Camping in the car for birding. — The camping setup in the car.

Here are more photos of some species Gavin added to his list in June.

I will do another update when Gavin Gets to 300 species. Not to keep you in suspense, at the end of July he had 291 species. Of course, as the year goes on it becomes harder and harder to add new birds to the list, but Gavin hopes to reach 295 by the end of August.

You can also follow his progress on eBird by viewing the list of top 100 eBirders in Alberta on the “Explore” tab. Here is a link to that page. You can also check out the top 100 in Canada, where Gavin is at an amazing 362 species, the second-highest total in the country!

You can see previous posts with photos and updates of Gavin’s Big Year here:

January and February

March and April

May

The Road To 300: May

Jun22

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.

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.

You can see photos and updates for January and February here, and March and April here.

The Road to 300: March/April

May25

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.

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.

Stay tuned for the next update on Gavin’s Big Year!

Global Big Day, Saturday May 4

May3

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.

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!

The Road to 300: January/February

Apr23

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.

Red-bellied Woodpecker, a rarity seen in Magrath, near the US border.

Tundra Bean-Goose, an extreme rarity seen in Lethbridge.

October Global Big Day This Saturday

Oct4

For the last four years, eBird has held a Global Big Day in May to try to count as many of the world’s bird species as possible in one day, with citizen scientists counting birds all over the world. May is the height of spring migration in the northern hemisphere, and the count has been extremely popular and successful. This year eBird is holding another Big Day on Saturday October 6th, when many birds in the northern hemisphere are on migration, and spring is under way in the southern hemisphere.

Global Big Day

Image from the eBird Global Big Day page.

All you have to do to participate is to submit an eBird list from any birding you do on October 6. There is information on the Global Big Day page on how to set up an account if you haven’t already done so. You can also watch the results come in from all over the world during the day on this page.

Get out on Saturday and participate in this event! If you can’t get out, send a list from your yard. Every little bit helps!

Take Part in Global Shorebird Counting

Sep7

Posted by Bob Lefebvre

The fall shorebird migration through the Calgary area is now underway. Thursday September 6 was World Shorebirds Day. Every year for a week around this date you can take part in Global Shorebird Counting. This program allows birders to contribute, as citizen scientists, to knowledge of the distribution, population trends and abundance of shorebird species. The count this year began on September 5 and continues to the 11th.

Shorebirds

You can count shorebirds anywhere in this time period. You could find a good shorebirding hotspot, but you can also go to any local park where you usually bird and just make sure to count the shorebirds you see there. There are usually some anywhere along the Bow River and at places like the pond at Confederation Park.

You have to register your location (see this page) but reporting is easy if you use eBird since the programs are linked. Once you submit your checklist to eBird, you have until September 30 to share it with the Global Shorebird Counting account.

Try to help out with this project, and follow the results on their web page!

Birds Calgary

A birding blog for Calgary, Alberta and area

Archives

A Guide to Albertabird

Calgary 2020 Big Year Birding Challenge

The Road To 300: Success!

The Road to 300: June

The Road To 300: May

The Road to 300: March/April

Global Big Day, Saturday May 4

The Road to 300: January/February

October Global Big Day This Saturday

Take Part in Global Shorebird Counting

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