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.
In May, Ethan Denton completed his 2017 Great Canadian Birdathon to raise money for bird research and conservation. He was part of a team with Gavin McKinnon, called the Saw-it Owls. Here are just a few photos of birds the team saw on their birdathon.
Harlequin Duck (male), Lake Minnewanka, May 20, 2017. Photo by Ethan Denton.
Harlequin Ducks (female on left, male right), Lake Minnewanka, May 20, 2017. Photo by Ethan Denton.
Common Loons, Vermillion Lakes, May 20, 2017. Photo by Ethan Denton.
Sharp-tailed Grouse (male) on lek, southern Alberta, May 14, 2017. Photo by Ethan Denton.
Sharp-tailed Grouse (male) on lek, southern Alberta, May 14, 2017. Photo by Ethan Denton.
You can read about Day One of their birdathon on Ethan’s blog, Bird Boy.
The Great Canadian Birdathon (formerly called the Baille Birdathon) is a program of Bird Studies Canada. Participants are sponsored to count as many birds as they can every May. You can contribute to Ethan’s personal donation page here. Gavin McKinnon’s page is here.Please help them to reach their fundraising goals!
Tomorrow, Saturday May 13, is the third annual Global Big Day, organized by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. The hope is that birders all over the world will go out that day and report as many species as they can.
Can you find a Long-eared Owl on the Global Big Day? Fish Creek Park, November 7, 2010. Photo by Bob Lefebvre.
In 2016, 15,953 birders in 145 countries contributed 43,848 checklists, and recorded a total of 6,263 bird species. Your individual contribution this Saturday is important in preserving a record of our local bird life. Here’s how to make your sightings count.
There will also be a random draw from everyone who submits at least three complete checklists on May 13, with the winner getting Zeiss Conquest HD 8X42 binoculars.
The Cornell Lab’s team of birders is raising money by trying to find 300 species of birds in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico in twenty-four hours.You can sponsor the Cornell Big Day team here.
Locally, many birders are making a special effort to get out and put in their three checklists. Dan Arndt and a few others are actually doing a Calgary Region Big Day, trying to see as many species as they can within the local 80-km radius birding circle. You can follow Dan’s progress and see how many species they have (and perhaps learn where some really good birds are located) by following him on his Twitter account. Dan’s handle is @ubermoogle, so follow him, or go to his page on Twitter to see what he posts.
If you are a birder in the Calgary area who uses eBird, you may be confused about where the boundaries for the eBird Counties are. As you enter sightings from various locations in the region, you will see that some are assigned to Calgary County, and some to Drumheller, Banff, Lethbridge, or others. It is not clear at first what these counties represent. Even when we were doing the 2015 eBird Competition we were not sure what to make of the eBird Counties.
It turns out that the boundaries for eBird Counties in Canada follow the federal government’s Census Geographic Units. This is not a well-known political or geographic entity, and the boundaries are not marked anywhere as you travel around. (In the United States, where eBird started, the eBird Counties are the same as the political Counties, which are well-known and have well-marked boundaries.)
However, it is possible to see a map of our County boundaries by going on Google Earth. If you don’t have Google Earth you should download it. It is free, and very useful for birders. You can see satellite maps of the entire world down to a very fine level.
When you are on Google Earth, zoom into the region you want to see, and turn off all the layers except “Borders.” The fine green lines on the map are the county boundaries. (Thanks to Dan Arndt for finding out what the counties are, and how to see the boundaries.)
Southern Alberta, showing eBird County boundaries in green.
Southern Alberta, with eBird County names in yellow and boundaries in green.
Feel free to copy this map as a reference, but I do recommend downloading Google Earth, so you can zoom in to see the boundaries at a finer scale. You can also turn on other layers such as “Places ” and “Roads” so you can see where the towns and highways are.
Below are four detail maps of the north, east, south, and west edges of Calgary county.
The north end of Calgary County.
The east side of Calgary County, along the Trans-Canada Highway. Drumheller County begins immediately east of Weed Lake, and actually includes part of Dalemead Reservoir.
The south end of Calgary County.
The west side of Calgary county.
The eBird Counties do not correspond well to any particular geographic birding region. Many of you may keep track of sightings within the 80-km circle centered on the Centre Street Bridge in Calgary, which is used for the annual May Species Count (and for both the 2005 and 2015 birding competitions). Here is the relevant map for that:
The 80-km circle of the Calgary birding region (red), with eBird Counties in green.
If anyone would like to be able to draw the 80-km circle on Google Earth on their own computer, just email me at birdscalgary@gmail.com and I will give you instructions.
Tonight, Wednesday February 8, 2017, Mike Harrison will speak at the Bird Study Group of Nature Calgary on The Ins and Outs of eBird. If you are an eBird user or want to learn about it, please come out. See this page for details.
The American Birding Association produces a birding journal titled North American Birds. NAB is a quarterly publication consisting of thirty-four regional reports, organized in taxonomic order and produced by some of North America’s top birders. Alberta is part of the Prairie Provinces Region and we need your help. Recently a few birders, biologists and ornithologists formed a team and have taken on the role of submitting reports to the regional editors on behalf of Alberta. Our goal is to submit reports that cover the entire province and reports comprised of records that have supporting documentation such as photos, audio or video.
If you have any rare or notable bird records, please contact James Fox at fox.james.ed[at]gmail.com. Rare or notable has a few meanings; it can mean an unusual species or exceptionally high numbers or a species out of range for that given time of year. If you have seen any of the birds on this list from the Alberta Bird Record Committee, then for sure it’s a rare bird. If you’ve seen a bird but it’s not on the list and you think it might be rare, contact James.
Purple Sandpiper at Inglewood Bird Sanctuary, Calgary. A rarity, seen on fewer than eight occasions in Alberta (one occasion in this case). Photo by Dan Arndt.
The mission of the journal is to provide a complete overview of the changing panorama of North America’s birdlife, including outstanding records, range extensions and contractions, population dynamics, and changes in migration patterns or seasonal occurrence. The North American Birds regional network represents the tip of an iceberg whose main mass consists of North America’s largest, widest and best-established networks of field birders. The network extends to regional editors, sub-regional editors and then to many thousands of local field birders. By sending in your records to the Alberta compilers, you’ll be ensuring that Alberta’s data is part of the bigger picture and you’ll be part of the team!
Hooded Warbler, Fish Creek Park, Calgary. Reported less than eight times in Alberta. Photo by Dan Arndt.
The Calgary Christmas Bird Count (CBC), organized annually by Nature Calgary, will be held next Sunday, December 18. If you would like to participate, either by joining a group of birders in the field or by counting birds at your feeders, please see this Nature Calgary page for details.
There are many CBCs in the Calgary region. For a complete list, with contact emails for the organizers, see this page.
How many Pine Grosbeaks can you find in your CBC territory? Photo by Tony LePrieur, Weaselhead Nature Area, December 11, 2016.
This year, for the first time, there will be a CBC for Kids in Calgary. It will be held at the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary on Saturday, December 17. There will be an indoor introduction to birding before the count. You must accompany your child for this activity.
The first CBC for Kids was held in California in 2007, and they are now common across North America.
If you can take your child, grandchild, niece or nephew out for a couple of hours next Saturday it will be a great way to introduce them to birding! Register by emailing naturekids(at)naturealbetrta.ca.
The third annual World Shorebirds Day is September 6, 2016. Birders are encouraged to count shorebirds from September 2-6. You can register a location where you intend to go birding that week, and then make a careful count of the shorebirds (and other birds) you see there and submit the results to eBird or to the official website of World Shorebirds Day.
Long-billed Dowitchers, Frank Lake. September 12, 2013. Photo by Dan Arndt
There are plenty of great shorebird locations in the Calgary area so register your spot and help this citizen science project. Only with better knowledge of the numbers and distributions of these long-distance migrants can we help to conserve them.
Western Grebe with chick. Photo by Dan Arndt, May 29, 2016.
One of the many hazards these diving birds face is from discarded fishing lines and equipment. In 2014 we found a dead Western Grebe on the shore of the Glenmore Reservoir in Calgary. (Something had been feeding on it.)
Dead Western Grebe, Glenmore Reservoir, Calgary, May 19, 2014. Photo by Dan Arndt.
On inspection, one of its legs was tangled in fishing line as you can see here.
Here I am holding up the dead Western Grebe, May 19, 2014. Photo by Dan Arndt.
Please help to monitor the Western Grebe’s habitat, and please keep their habitat clean!
Common Nighthawk, southern Alberta – Photo by Dan Arndt
WildResearch is seeking volunteers to survey for Common Poorwills and Common Nighthawks across Alberta. Due to their nocturnal habits, little is known about nightjars in Canada, and there is concern that their populations are in decline. Common Nighthawks are listed as Threatened under the federal Species at Risk Act. Common Poorwills have been assessed as Data Deficient by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Species (COSEWIC). Sign up for a survey route to help us learn more and conserve these unique species!
Torpid Common Poorwill in the Okanagan – Photo by Mark Brigham
Anyone with a vehicle and good hearing is capable of conducting a WildResearch Nightjar Survey! Signing up for a WildResearch Nightjar Survey route will require approximately two to three hours of surveying and one hour of data entry. Each route is a series of 12 road-side stops and needs to be surveyed at dusk once per year between June 15 and July 15. Routes are located along existing Breeding Bird Survey (BBS), and we would love to have help from existing BBS volunteers! Surveys will follow a new standardized national nightjar survey protocol. Data will be made publicly available on Bird Studies Canada’s NatureCounts portal.
Common Nighthawk nestling – Photo by Elly Knight
To sign up for a survey route, check out the available routes in your area at www.nightjar.ca. Learn more about the program and find the survey protocol at http://wildresearch.ca/programs/nightjar-survey/. Email Elly Knight at nightjars.ab@wildresearch.ca for more information.
Common Nighthawk, Inglewood Bird Sanctuary, August 2010 – Photo by Dan Arndt
The highlight of the January Birds & Beers meeting was the presentation of the prizes for the eBird Calgary 2015 Birding Competition. Almost all of the winners were able to make it, and it was a lot of fun to reward the winners for their accomplishments. (All photos by Wayne Walker except where indicated.)
Some of the birders at the January Birds & Beers. Fifty-three people attended.
Dan Arndt and I presented the prizes. Preliminary remarks.
Ruth and Phil Ullman – 1st place, Yard Challenge, with 88 species.
Lorrie and John Anderson – 2nd place, Yard Challenge, 61 species.
Aidan Vidal – 1st place, Youth category, with 241 species, and 3rd place in Latecomer Challenge, with 46 species after August 1st, 2015.
Ethan Denton, 2nd place, Youth category, 235 species, and 2nd place in the Latecomer Challenge, 49 species.
Brian Elder, 1st place, Experienced category, 275 species.
Blake Weis (left) and Ray Woods (right), tied 2nd place, Experienced category, 257 species.
Brian Elder also won the Big Day Challenge, with 153 species recorded on May 27, 2015.
We also recognized Blake Weis’s incredible achievement of 638 complete eBird checklists submitted in 2015.
George Best won for Bird of the Year. He found the Golden-winged Warbler in Griffith Woods Park.
Bob, Dan, and the prize winners. Missing were Aphtin Perratt and Chris MacIntosh, who tied with Graeme Mudd for 1st in the Beginner category with 225 species, and Bernard Tremblay, who won the Latecomer Challenge with 52 species added after August 1st.
It was a lot of fun to get together and reward the winners, and to hear them talk about their birding year. Many of the competitors have told us that they really enjoyed the experience and learned a lot, whether discovering new birding locations, where to find particular species, patterns of bird movements, or using eBird as a tool and a resource. I hope we have helped some of the competitors to become better birders and to get involved in the local birding community. The use of eBird increased greatly in our region in 2015 and we hope to see this continue.
Many thanks to our sponsors who donated prizes or money for prizes: Nature Calgary, The Wild Bird Store, Friends of Fish Creek Provincial Park, Burrcan Holdings, Phil Evans, Lynne Colborne, Richard Schulze, Lynn Wilsack, Susan Thierman, Phil Cram, and an anonymous donor.
Each winner received a framed photo certificate listing their accomplishment (each with a different photo). Here is a sample (photo by Bob Lefebvre):
Each 1st-place winner in the Year List categories received a 24″ by 36″ canvas print of a bird photograph of their choice. The winner’s selections were not yet ready for the prize presentation. Four will be awarded: Youth winner Aidan Vidal, Experienced winner Brian Elder, and two for the three people tied as winners of the Beginner category – a shared one for Aphtin Perratt and Chris MacIntosh (a birding couple) and one for Graeme Mudd.
Other prizes awarded included 2016 Bird Photo calendars by Dan Arndt, copies of the book Looking For the Wild by Lyn Hancock (personally signed by Gus Yaki), vouchers good for one season of the Friends of Fish Creek birding course, and gift certificates of various amounts to be used at the Wild Bird Store or Robinson’s Camera.
Here is a list of the winners and their prizes:
Category
Winner
Species
Prize 1
Prize 2
Prize 3
Latecomer -1
Bernard Tremblay
52
$50 Robinson's
Calendar
Latecomer -2
Ethan Denton
49
$25 Wild Bird Store
Latecomer -3
Aidan Vidal
46
$25 Wild Bird Store
Yard -1
Ruth & Phil Ullmann
88
Bird Feeder
$75 Wild Bird Store
Calendar
Yard -2
Lorrie & John Anderson
61
$75 Wild Bird Store
Calendar
Youth -1
Aidan Vidal
241
Canvas Print
Book
Youth -2
Ethan Denton
235
$75 Wild Bird Store
Book
Youth -3
Simone Pellerin-Wood
175
$75 Wild Bird Store
Book
Beginner -1
Aphtin Perratt & Chris MacIntosh
225
Canvas Print
Book
FFCPP Course (X2)
Beginner -1
Graeme Mudd
225
Canvas Print
Book
FFCPP Course
Experienced -1
Brian Elder
275
Canvas Print
$50 Robinson's
Experienced -2
Blake Weis
257
$75 Wild Bird Store
Experienced -2
Ray Woods
257
$75 Wild Bird Store
Big Day
Brian Elder
153
$50 Robinson's
Most Lists
Blake Weis
638 lists
$50 Wild Bird Store
Bird of the Year
George Best
Golden-winged Warbler
$100 Robinson's
Book
At the end of the prize presentation, we all shared a cake supplied by Joan and Wayne Walker!
Many thanks to everyone who worked so hard to make the competition a success: Committee members Dan Arndt, Joan Walker, Wayne Walker, Rose Painter, Andrew Slater, Rob Worona, Kris Fernet, David Pugh; plus Andrew Hart, Linda Vaxvick and Sue Konopnicki at Nature Calgary. We also received a lot of feedback on our initial ideas from Yousif Attia, Marcel Gahbauer, and Ilya Povalyaev. Special thanks to Wayne Walker for booking the Horton Road Legion for the prize presentation and for taking the photographs. Joan, Wayne, Rose and Dan made sure we had everything ready for the presentation and arrived early to set it all up.
Thanks again to everyone who participated, who went out on field trips, and who attended Birds & Beers and Nature Calgary events. It made for a memorable birding year!
A final presentation about the competition will be given at the April meeting of Nature Calgary’s Bird Studies Group on Wednesday April 6th, at the U of C.
The next Birds & Beers event is next Friday, February 26, at the Horton Road Legion, 9202 Horton Road SW, starting at 6 pm. Come and join your fellow birders for food, drinks, and conversation!
Long-billed Dowitchers, Frank Lake. September 12, 2013. Photo by Dan Arndt
