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Join the New Year’s Day Bird Count!

Dec27

Fish Creek Provincial Park half-day count needs more birders!

Posted by Bob Lefebvre

Each year on January 1st there is a half-day bird count done in Fish Creek Provincial Park. Team of birders go out to sevearal locations in the park, and we count all the species we can find, and the numbers of each. We find around 35-40 species on average.

Great Horned Owl
The resident pair of Great Horned Owls in our section of Fish Creek Provincial Park, 2008. Sometimes we find one or two of the owls on the count, and sometimes not. Photo by Bob Lefebvre.

Jim Washbrook has organized the count for several years, and he invites interested birders to contact him to join one of the field teams. You can email Jim at jwashbrook1{at}gmail.com.

The Fish Creek count is not an official Christmas Bird Count (CBC). CBC’s take place each year within a fixed 15-mile diameter (24 km diameter) circle. CBC circles cannot overlap, and the Calgary count circle, which lies just north of Fish Creek Park, was established in 1952. Due to the long east-west geography of the park and its proximity to the Calgary circle, there is no way to fully enclose the park within another CBC circle.

The Calgary area showing the CBC circle, with Fish Creek Park (more or less!) outlined just south of the circle.

The Fish Creek Count was started in 1994 to document the changes in bird populations within the park in winter. As you can see below, species numbers, number of participants in the count, and of course temperature, can fluctuate from year to year.

FCPP New Year's Day Bird Count

Jim would like to increase the number of participants so that we can fully cover all the areas in the park. You will be placed in one area, with a team led by an experienced birder. Teams meet in their areas and begin at 9 am, and finish by noon. Maybe this year all the teams can again meet to compare notes afterwards, as we always did pre-pandemic. It looks like the weather will be pretty good, so it will be a great opportunity to come out and give it a try! And it’s a great way to kick-start your birding year!

Shaganappi Point and Edworthy Park – A New History

Jan31

Posted by Bob Lefebvre

Many Calgary birders are familiar with the book Treasures Of The Trail, a beautifully illustrated nature guide to Edworthy Park, Lawry Gardens, and the Douglas Fir Trail. It was published in 2002 by the Edworthy Park Heritage Society. Now the society is planning to publish a new history of the area with much previously unpublished information. You can pre-order a copy, and once enough people have ordered it, publication will go ahead and you will then be contacted for payment. It is $30 for the new book and a copy of Treasures Of The Trail will be also be included! A great value, especially for those of you who do not have a copy of the older book.

Here is the information about this from the society:

Shaganappi Point and Edworthy Park: A New History by the Edworthy Park Heritage Society.

Edworthy Park
C.P.R. Quarry  outcrops along the Douglas Fir Trail. Photo courtesy of Anna Sanders © Anna Sanders, Edworthy Park Heritage Society

The Society has written an extensive history of the park area with much previously unpublished information gathered from historic newspapers, diaries, and archives across Canada.

Part I discusses Indigenous and Métis culture and history of the area, including the three Blackfoot names for this ancient territory, plus whether there was a Métis settlement at Shaganappi. Was there an indigenous trail in the area? And much more…

Part II discusses settlement, colonization history including unpublished information about the Government of Canada quarries at Shaganappi Point (Quarry Road Trail), and the C.P.R. quarries (next to the Douglas Fir Trail), the Thomas Edworthy quarries and the four brick plants of the park, the struggle between William Pearce vs. John Lawrey, the “old lime kiln”. It has many fine black and white photos and  a few hand-tinted vintage postcard photos.

Very few copies of the book will be published and we expect to almost sell out through pre-orders. In order to raise the money to print it, we are taking pre-orders.  The book is only available in a package with the Society’s nature guide, Treasures of the Trail,  included as a bonus, free of charge. It is $30 per copy plus postage where applicable. To pre-order, please send us an email at: eparkhs[at]gmail.com We will acknowledge your pre-order. If we have enough funds to print it, we will then contact you for payment. (P.S. The book will not be put on the internet).  Please support the Society and its new book!

Treasures Of The Trail
Treasures Of The Trail