Featuring a presentation by Stephen Boucher on winter birding in the Ebro Delta, Spain.
Birds & Beers continues next Thursday, May 9th, from 5 to 9 pm at the usual location, the Royal Canadian Legion at 9202 Horton Road SW in Calgary. At about 7 pm there will be a presentation by Stephen Boucher on a trip he made in November 2023 to the Ebro Delta and the Catalan Pyrenees in N.E. Spain.
Everyone is welcome at Birds & Beers. We meet in the large ballroom. Come early if you want to have something to eat or drink, or just come for the presentation if you wish.
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.
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!
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.
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).
The sixth annual Calgary City Nature Challenge is coming up soon. This four-day bioblitz is an effort to try to record as much of the Calgary and area biodiversity as possible. Cities around the world will be taking part in this effort, and competing to see who makes the most observations and records the most species. As usual, Calgary will be competing to try to increase our own participation and species numbers here.
From CNC Organizer Matthew Wallace:
The sixth annual Calgary City Nature Challenge takes place April 26-29! Over 650 cities worldwide will compete and collaborate to showcase their urban biodiversity! Participate by taking photos of wild plants and animals in your yards, neighborhoods, and favorite parks over the four days. Then, upload your observations to the iNaturalist app or iNaturalist.ca!
There are several public events happening across the city which include pollinator walks, guided birding tours, and park bioblitzes. You can also just head out to explore on your own or with a group of friends.
Participate anywhere within the Calgary Metropolitan Region which includes Calgary, Airdrie, Chestermere, Okotoks, Rocky View County, and Foothills County.
The deadline to upload your observations to iNaturalist is midnight May 5.
Cities will compete to see which can make the most observations, document the most species, and engage the most people. Calgary aims to be the top-performing Canadian city with a goal of over 10,000 observations posted. Make as many observations as you can April 26-29 so get outside and help to put Calgary’s biodiversity on the map!
Check out all of the CNC resources on the following pages:
As birders, we can participate by taking as many photos of birds as we can over the four days. Any identifiable photo is good so don’t worry too much about the quality of your pictures. We also need to document everything, so don’t hesitate to photograph House Sparrows, Black-billed Magpies, and other common species. Then you have until midnight on May 5 to upload your photos to iNaturalist.
An adult Bald Eagle I photographed near the Inglewood Golf Course on the 2023 CNC. Photo by Bob Lefebvre.
While you’re out there, you can also get photos of non-bird biodiversity with your camera. Maybe you won’t know what species you have, but iNaturalist has an artificial intelligence that can help with the ID, and even if you have no idea, other iNaturalist users will help to identify everything.
Green-striped GrasshopperCanadian Beaver (signs of a species also count)Western Terrestial Garter SnakeHunt’s Bumble Bee and Golden Bean (two observations)CoyoteTansy
These were a few of the other species I saw on the 2023 CNC. I didn’t know some of the species identifications until I entered them into iNaturalist. (Photos by Bob Lefebvre.)
Since I have my phone with me when I’m birding, I can use it to get photos of other species which are difficult to get with a big camera (photos by Bob Lefebvre):
Elegant Sunburst LichenBrickwork WoodlouseWormwood Wallflower (not yet confirmed by the iNaturalist community)
I have found it to be a great experience to use iNaturalist to learn more about our overall biodiversity. Like most birders, I am interested in all of nature, not just birds.
Watch this short video about the 2024 Calgary City Nature Challenge:
Matthew has set a goal of having 10,000 observations made over the four days this year. In 2023 we had 9,301, so we are getting closer! We also hope to better our total of 762 species recorded last year.
So check out the project links above and plan to participate in an event, or just head out on your own!
Diane Stinson will present on Canada’s High Arctic.
Next Thursday, April 11th, we will have another Birds & Beers event at the Legion at 9202 Horton Road SW in Calgary. The event starts at 5 pm and at 7 pm there will be a presentation by Diane Stinson on a trip that she and her husband Rob took to the High Canadian Arctic last summer.
Northern Fulmar. Photo by Diane Stinson.
Canada’s High Arctic – Diane Stinson Rob and I went to Canada’s High Arctic in August last year. The original itinerary had us exploring Ellesmere and Axel Heiberg Islands, including stops at Devon and Beechy Islands. The wildfires in Yellowknife changed that. Instead, we started in Iqaluit, sailed north along the east coast of Baffin Island through the Davis Strait and Baffin Bay, crossing the Arctic Circle, and into Lancaster Sound. There we explored areas on Devon and Beechy Islands (Franklin Graves), finishing in Resolute. While we didn’t see some of the bird species we were expecting initially, we did see some great birds (largest colony of Northern Fulmar in Canada), as well as major mammals (polar bears, walrus, Bowhead Whales).
The expedition team of experts included Noah Strycker (author of “Birding without Borders” – a book about his global big year in 2015) and three other ornithologists. A historian, an archeologist, a glaciologist, and a marine biology expert all gave excellent talks. Our outings included zodiac cruising, shore walks, and helicopter excursions. We experienced an amazing “Tundra to Table” dinner and the “Polar Plunge,” before exploring Resolute.
Polar Bears. Photo by Diane Stinson.
Everyone is welcome to Birds & Beers! Come for the good food and drinks that are available, visit with your fellow birders, and stay for the presentation!
Mountain Bluebird, photographed by Carole Steeves,Carburn Park, Calgary, 21 March 2024.
The Mountain Bluebirds are back in Calgary and surrounding areas! The “Friends of Fish Creek” birders saw five at Carburn Park on March 21st. The Bluebirds appear to arrive faithfully on the Spring Equinox every year. This picture Carole Steeves took of a Mountain Bluebird sort of sums it up. Imagine you fly all night from the Southern States and, exhausted, you land in Calgary only to be greeted by a cold wind and snow covering all the food. Perhaps I am projecting my own “snow-fatigue” onto this bird in the picture. Hang in there little guy, things will turn around soon. And then it will get bad again, and then better again… this is Calgary after all.
This cold Bluebird is probably stuck eating seeds and old berries it finds. When the weather gets warmer it will switch to its main food source – insects. According to Audobon.com, it especially likes caterpillars, beetles and grasshoppers. Maybe that’s why it makes its home in the open fields around Southern Alberta, a lot of bugs.
Male Mountain Bluebird. Photo NPS/Patrick Myers from Wikimedia Commons.
Years ago my family traveled up to the Ellis Bird Farm near Lacombe expecting to see a flock of Mountain Bluebirds in the spring. It was there that I learned that the bluebirds are very territorial while breeding and, according to their fact sheet, need to nest about 2-3 acres apart. That is why the nest boxes are put on what is called a ‘Mountain Bluebird Trail’. There are many such trails in Alberta and the efforts of volunteers building and monitoring nesting boxes can be read about all over the internet. It’s fun to slowly drive down a Bluebird trail. If you’re lucky you will see the unmistakable bright blue of a Male Mountain Bluebird. They are like a piece of the summer sky come to life. If you see a bird pop out of the nest that is more navy blue with a bright white chest then is probably a Tree Swallow that has taken a nest box.
Male Mountain Bluebird at nest box, SW of Calgary, May 2011. Photo by Bob Lefebvre.
Like the Blue Jay the blue comes from the structure of the feathers and the way it refracts the light. There is no actual blue pigment in the Mountain Bluebirds feathers. This is probably one of the more irritating facts that you can tell a beginner birder – “That bird isn’t really blue you know.” Birders already have a nerdy reputation so let’s use this fact sparingly. It’s interesting though, this bird really is sky blue, as the sky is also just refracted blue wavelengths.
A pair of courting Mountain Bluebirds near Madden, north of Calgary, May 25, 2018. The male has just brought food to the female. Photo by Vincent Tolley.
The Mountain Bluebirds are in a hot competition for nesting cavities. They fight Tree Swallows, House Sparrows, other Mountain Bluebirds and worst of all – the European Starling. Yes, these aren’t your blue birds of song, flitting around Cinderella and landing on available shoulders. Reading about them on the internet the adjective “aggressive” comes up a lot. The Mountain Bluebirds are tough fighters scraping out a living. Needless to say, their population numbers fluctuate and although they are currently listed as ‘Least Concern’ their peak in population was in the 1940’s. According to the Nature Conservancy of Canada they have decreased by approximately 26 per cent between 1966 and 2014. Their scrappy, fighting spirit will be needed, as well as the help from the nest box volunteers.
This one is a male Tree Swallow. You will see more Tree Swallows than Mountain Bluebirds on the Bluebird Trails. Calgary, 2008, Photo by Bob Lefebvre.
Note: In addition to a number of migrating Mountain Bluebirds that have been seen along the Bow River in the past two weeks, there was a pair of Western Bluebirds seen at Carburn Park up until March 30. This species is rarely seen in Alberta, and this is likely the first sighting ever in the city.
Recently the Birds Calgary site was infected by malware bots. These caused many of the links on Birds Calgary to re-direct to sites in Japan and China that sell various things online. There was never any danger to users of the blog (but don’t buy from those sites!) but many readers told me they couldn’t connect to pages they were trying to go to.
The malware has successfully been removed and anti-malware software installed which should prevent any future problems. You may still notice that links are not directing properly for a while, since it takes time for Google’s bots to re-index everything. I am doing what I can to speed up this process. But in any case, everything should work properly within a month.
Register now for Brooks (May 17-19) and Writing-On-Stone (May 24-26) Bird Counts 2024
Posted by Bob Lefebvre
Registration is now open for these two southern Alberta counts. Calgary birders will need to arrange camping or hotel accommodations ahead of time, so register soon. Note that our local Calgary May Species Count is on the same dates as Writing-On-Stone one, but some of you may want to try helping out with that one down in the very south part of the province for a change of pace (I will have information on the Calgary count closer to that weekend).
Ferruginous Hawk, photographed in southern Alberta in 2018. Photo by Bob Lefebvre
From Debra Hornsby, who organizes the count along with Donna Wieckowski:
2024 marks the 25th anniversary of the Brooks count –- come celebrate this milestone with us! To register, click here: Brooks and Writing-on-Stone 2024 registration form. Registration will close on April 30, 2024.
We will hold pre-count meetings on the Fridays before each weekend. At these meetings we will assign count areas, distribute maps and checklists, go over count protocols, introduce your fellow birders, and answer questions. Please plan to be there. We will also host informal gatherings on the Saturday evenings – a great opportunity to get together to swap birding stories and win some fun prizes! A full schedule for both weekends can be found in the brochure below.
Because weather is sometimes inclement on the Brooks weekend, we have reserved a meeting space at the Heritage inn (note new location). We are asking each participant in the Brooks count to contribute $12.00 to cover meeting room costs. If you plan to join the Brooks count, please e-transfer $12.00 per person to Donna Wieckowski astolat@shaw.ca no later than May 15. Cheques and cash also accepted. Thanks!
If you have any registration questions, or if you have trouble with the form, please email me. Happy to help! Thanks for your support and happy birding!
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. 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.
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.
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.
Featuring a presentation on the East African wilderness.
Birds & Beers will resume next Thursday, March 14, at the Royal Canadian Legion at 9202 Horton Road SW. Doors open at 5 pm, and we meet in the big ballroom. Enjoy food, drinks, and visiting with your fellow birders. At 7 pm there will be a presentation by Melanie Seneviratne on the wildlife of East Africa.
Secretary Bird. Photo by Melanie Seneviratne.
Here is the presentation description:
Join me as I delve into the heart of East Africa’s wilderness and share with you my amazing journey through Tanzania’s untamed landscapes. You will see where every moment unfolds in a mesmerizing tapestry of safari adventures, awe-inspiring wildlife encounters, and vibrant birding.
Little Bee-eater. Photo by Melanie Seneviratne.
We will also see some African mammals, like these lions.
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.
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.
This House Finch is pretty orange. Photo by Pat Bumstead.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.
