Next Friday will be the first Birds & Beers meeting of the new year. We meet at 6 pm at the Horton Road Legion. Everyone is welcome to come.
Royal Canadian Legion, Centennial Calgary Branch#285,
9202 Horton Road SW.
Friday January 13, 2023, 6:00-9:00 pm
Nesting Red-necked Grebes at the Bridlewood Wetland, Calgary, May Species Count 2021. Photo by Bob Lefebvre.
Aftere an hour or so of socializing, eating, and drinking, there will be a presentation by Andrew Hart and Lara Fitzpatrick on the Calgary May Species Count. They will present the history of the count and how it has evolved since its inception in 1976. They will discuss the areas that are covered, how the count is organized, and how and why they have migrated to eBird for data collection. Then the actual 2022 results will be shown, as well as a look ahead to how things may evolve for 2023.
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.
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.
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!
I recently posted about the Calgary Christmas Bird Count, which is a week from today, on Sunday December 18th. Birders, like everyone else, have a lot of committments at this time of year, and we find ourselves a little short of help on some of the field routes. In particular, we need a few people who are good birders and also quite fit, who are able to do long walk through some difficult terrain. One such area is the Paskapoo Slopes near Canada Olympic Park, which has many deep ravines. Last year there was a Barred Owl at the west end of that area, but we missed it! We also need help in the Edgemont Ravines, and possibly in East Calgary at Elliston Park and area (Elliston is not as challenging of a walk). These are all good areas, so you might find something special!
Barred Owl, photographed on Count Day in 2021 near Cougar Ridge. We didn’t know about it until long after the count. Photo by Orlando Pastran, courtesy of Joachim Bertrands.
If you are not up to a long difficult route, or are less experienced, you are still welcome to help out in the field. You will be placed on a team with experienced birders.
For those of you who can’t make it out in the field but watch birds in your yard, we will take as many Feeder Watchers as we can get! We are particularly short in the NE quadrant of the city. Feeder-Watching does not require a long time commitment and can be done in as little as fifteen minutes, or in intervals during the day. Of course, to take part you must live within the count circle.
The Calgary Christmas Bird Count Circle, from Google Earth. Look at all the green space we have to cover!
If you would like to participate this year, or even if you just want more information or may want to take part next year, please fill out the registration form and we will be in contact with you.
Calgary’s Christmas Bird Count (CBC) takes place on Sunday December 18, 2022! CBC began in 1900 and is the world’s longest-running citizen science event. The count has been going on in Calgary since 1952 and is a valuable resource for understanding species and population trends of birds found in Calgary and around the world.
Matthew Wallace will once again be organizing the count and compiling the results. Lara Fitzpatrick and I will assist once again.
Please take a minute to fill out the Registration form here. Unless you are a Feeder Watcher who has already been assigned to a FW Captain, we are asking everyone to register, even if you have participated last year or in many past years. This helps to ensure we have the correct and most up-to-date contact information for each person and reduces the thousands of emails down to a more manageable size. It also helps Matthew to organize the required participant information that is submitted to Audubon and confirm that feeder watcher residences are within the count circle.
Calgary CBC Circle, from Google Earth.
Completing the form will ensure that you will receive information that will follow in the next few days. The form is required for both feeder watchers and field participants. It can be shared with anyone who may wish to take part this year. Please share widely. If you are not sure that you can participate, or if you would like more information about the count, please fill out the form so we can contact you.
Great Horned Owl photographed by Matthew Wallace on last year’s Calgary CBC. December 19, 2021, Tsuut’ina Nation, Calgary.
Count Week Birds: If you come across any interesting birds during count week (December 15-21), please send information to citynatureyyc@gmail.com including any notes, counts, or photos you may have.
At the Bird & Beers event in Calgary on September 9th, Caroline Lambert gave a presentation on the Rocky Mountain Eagle Research Foundation (RMERF), and the work they have been doing for thirty years, monitoring the migratory flights of eagles (and other birds) along the eastern edge of the Rockies. The discovery of this migratory corridor, along which thousands of Golden Eagles travel twice a year, is a fascinating story. A dedicated group of volunteers watches the skies spring and fall and records the birds passing over.
At the Birds & Beers presentation there was a technical problem which prevented the screening of a video about the RMERF. The 13-minute video can be seen here:
The RMERF relies on volunteers to monitor the birds. They welcome visitors to the site during their counts, so you can learn what is involved and work towards becoming a volunteer yourself. It’s a great place to visit! If you are interested in volunteering, or for more information, see the RMERF Website here. If you are not able to volunteer, you can support the Foundation with a donation.
You can follow the RMERF on Twitter and Instagram at @_eaglecount.
The fall season of Birds & Beers begins on Friday September 9th. Birds & Beers is a social get-together for birders at which you can meet and connect with others, have a meal and a drink, and enjoy a short presentation of interest to local birders.
Royal Canadian Legion, Centennial Calgary Branch#285,
9202 Horton Road SW.
Friday September 9, 2022, 6:00-9:00 pm
Everyone is welcome. We begin at 6 pm and the presentation will start just after 7pm. This month, Caroline Lambert will speak about the Eagle Migration Monitoring project that has been ongoing in Kananaskis for 30 years:
Golden Eagle, Coyote Valley OSP, Santa Clara County, CA. Photo by Caroline Lambert
Learn about the eagle migration count in Kananaskis! This count is celebrating its 30th year as a citizen science project contributing to the knowledge of Golden Eagle migration and population dynamics. This talk will cover the history of the count, what it’s like to be out at the count, trends determined so far, and how the count fits with other raptor counts across the continent.
Learn how you can get involved in tracking the birds at this beautiful location in Kananaskis.
Midnight tonight marks the beginning of the Calgary BiodiverCity Challenge 2022. The four-day event runs from Thursday June 9 through Sunday June 12.
Like the City Nature Challenge which was held at the end of April, the BiodiverCity Challenge will include all observations submitted to iNaturalist that were made within the region over the four-day period. You don’t have to join the project – although you can! – all observations in the region and time period will be included.
A Yellow-headed Blackbird seen during eBird’s Global Big Day in NE Calgary, May 14, 2022. Photo by Bob Lefebvre
The region includes the city of Calgary, plus Cochrane, Glenbow Ranch Provincial Park, Airdrie, Chestermere, and Okotoks.
The Calgary BiodiverCity Region 2022
Like the City Nature Challenge, the idea is to document as many species of wildlife as possible. The date of the City Nature Challenge is in early spring here (it is a worldwide event), but the time frame of the BiodiverCity Challenge was chosen to better represent the maximum number of species that can be found at our location.
Here is a link to the Project Page on iNaturalist Canada. Join the project to be kept informed of the progress in this year’s count, and of the details of next year’s count when they are available.
This year there will be a friendly competition between Calgary and other cities (including Edmonton) to see who will have the most participants and observations. So get out and take lots of photos this weekend to document the biodiversity of the Calgary region! You have until June 19th to upload them to iNaturalist.
The next Calgary Birds & Beers meeting will take place this Friday, June 10th. There will be a presentation about eBird by Gavin McKinnon.
Royal Canadian Legion, Centennial Calgary Branch#285,
9202 Horton Road SW.
Friday June 10, 2022, 6:00-9:00 pm
Horned Grebe. Photo by Gavin McKinnon.
After 7 pm, Gavin McKinnon will give a presentation on “eBird: The Review Process and How to Make Better Checklists.” Gavin will discuss all of the features that eBird has to offer. He will give regular eBirders a better idea of how observations are reviewed, and will talk abut how to make your checklists more valuable.
This information should prove to be useful for all birders, whether they use eBird or not. Gavin will also allow lots of time for questions and answers.
Everyone is welcome; food and drinks are available. We meet in the back rooms at the Legion at 6 pm. If you can’t make it at 6, the presentation will be at about 7:15.
The event continues until midnight on Monday May 2.
Posted by Bob Lefebvre
The first two days of the City Nature Challenge are complete and so far we have over 400 species reported from over 2,500 observations. I’m sure many observers (like me) have taken quite a few photos that they haven’t had time to post to iNaturalist yet, so the numbers for the first two days will increase, and we still have two days to go. Participants have until 9am on May 9 to upload their photos, so please don’t think you can’t participate because you won’t have time. Try to take a few photos of each organism so it is easier for the iNaturalist AI and for other participants to identify.
Eurasian Collared-Dove I photographed in my yard on April 30. It may take a few days before I get a chance to upload this and other photos to the project, but I have until May 9 at 9 am to do so. Photo by Bob Lefebvre.
You can take photos of any living thing – birds, other animals, plants, even bacteria if you are able to! Good quality photos are important, but for many birds and animals the photos only have to be good enough to identify, which is often easy even with distant or blurry photos, so don’t hesitate to capture a bird’s photo because you can’t get a perfect shot. Common species like House Sparrows and dandelions should be recorded as well as more “interesting” species.
A centipede I photographed in my yard yesterday using my phone. Based on the iNaturalist Artificial Intelligence I believe it is a Brown Centipede, but if it is another species the worldwide network of iNaturalist users will correct me. Photo by Bob Lefebvre
This is a planet-wide event with hundreds of cities taking part. There are forty-two Canadian municipalities participating this year. Of course every city has a different set of species, but we can “compete” to see how many people take part, how many observations we make, and how many species we record – even if it’s not a level playing field. In Calgary we have taken pride in leading the country in the number of observations we have made during past CNC’s.
This year, we have a little work to do to catch up to Toronto for total observations. The stats at the top of the page are for the whole country. (See the iNaturalist project page for Canada.)
The Canadian cities with the most observations as of Sunday morning, May 1, 2022.
You might also like to see how the worldwide challenge is going – some incredible numbers from La Paz, Hong Kong, and (as always) Cape Town. See the page here for a complete list of cities and their progress.
In case you have any questions about how the challenge works, here is a quick FAQ from the City Nature Challenge main website.
Please get out and help to log the biodiversity of the Calgary area!
Take part in the Fourth Annual Calgary CNC From Friday through Monday.
From today, Friday April 29 through Monday May 2, you can participate in this worldwide Citizen Science project by recording your observations of plants, animals, insects – any living thing, or signs living things – on the iNaturalist app or website. It is very easy to do with a smartphone or by uploading photos to the website.
All the information you need in on the CityNatureYYC2022 webpage. This is a free event and open to all. Simply go out and take photos of any wild animals or plants The geographical area has been expanded to encompass the Rocky View and Foothills counties surrounding Calgary, including Airdrie, Cochrane, Chestermere, and Okotoks.
The goal of Bioblitzes like this is to document the biodiversity of an area over time, so we can work to preserve and protect the natural world. So please document as many things as you can – everything is important. The goal for Calgary is to have 10,000 observations in the four-day period. Take as many good photos as you can (up to four of each organism can be included). You will have a week or so to upload all your observations after the challenge. Good Luck!
