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. Ash-throated Flycatcher, St. Albert, October 11, 2019. Photo by Gavin McKinnon. 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.
Black Swift. Photo by Gavin McKinnon. Vaux’s Swift. Photo by Gavin McKinnon. Western Sandpiper. Photo by Gavin McKinnon. Sabine’s Gull. 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:
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.
Great Gray Owl
“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.
Black-chinned Hummingbird
“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.
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.
Eastern Bluebird
“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.
Bullock’s Oriole at nest
“There were also three Common Nighthawks roosting nearby. On our way back to Cypress we found three Greater Sage Grouse.
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.
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:
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.
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.
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
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.
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!
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.
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!
Tomorrow is the fourth annual Global Big Day organized by the Cornell lab of Ornithology. Birders all over the world are encouraged to go birding and report their sightings on eBird. The goal is to see how many of the world’s 10,000+ species can be found, and to get reports from as many places and as many people as possible.
Global Big Day 2018. Image from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
The first such Big Day in 2015 had 6,085 species reported, which almost doubled the previous best day on eBird. Last year, on May 13, almost 20,000 people from 150 countries contributed more than 50,000 checklists containing 6,564 species. This is truly an important record of the state of the birds in the world.
To take part, just go birding anywhere you want to, and report your sightings on eBird. There is no need to spend the whole day – just spend some time counting birds in your local park, your yard, or anywhere you like.
If you have not used eBird before, it is very easy to get started. All the information you need is on their site. Start here to learn how it works, and then sign in and get started.
Note: If you want to contribute on Saturday but have not yet started using eBird, please just record the information about your outing (the location, the time spent birding, the species you see, and their approximate numbers), and you can enter the data into eBird later. Your sightings will be added to the Big Day. If you have trouble getting started with eBird, email me at birdscalgary[at]gmail.com and I’ll try to help. But read the information on the eBird site first.
The second annual CBC For Kids event in Calgary will be held on Saturday December 9th at Inglewood Bird Sanctuary. This is a great educational opportunity for kids, so if you have a child, grandchild, niece or nephew that you’d like to introduce to birding, register for this free event.
There will be experts on hand to teach the kids how to find and identify birds, but they could always use some more experienced birders to lead the participants on guided walks. If you’d like to help out, contact Zoe MacDougall, Nature Kids Program Coordinator, at naturekids[at]naturealberta.ca.
