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City Nature Challenge Events

Apr26

The City Nature Challenge is under way! From April 26 through to midnight on April 29 we need Calgary naturalists to take as many photos as possible of any and all wildlife (birds, mammals, fish, plants, lichen; anything!) within the city limits.

You will have until May 5 to upload all your photos to the iNaturalist website or phone app. No need to learn all the ins and outs of iNaturalist right away if you haven’t done so (the sooner the better of course, and it is very easy!), and no need to know what it is you are photographing – the site will suggest ID’s and the iNaturalist community will confirm them.

A Red Fox in Calgary two weeks ago. Now I have to find and photograph it again this weekend. Photo by Bob Lefebvre

There are many organized events planned for the challenge, including six today (Friday April 26) and many more over the following three days. See this page for all the events planned over the four days and come out and help us document the wildlife of Calgary. You can also participate on your own all day, every day!

Calgary is one of 163 cities worldwide taking part in this challenge, and is the northernmost city. We want to try to win the competition for most participants and most observations made. We are also having a friendly competition with Halifax, the only other Canadian city involved. So get outside!

Field Trips for City Nature Challenge This Weekend

Apr19

CORRECTION: A previous post said that these trips were scheduled for Saturday and Sunday. The correct dates are Sunday April 21 for the Reader Rock Garden trip, and Monday April 22 for Britannia Slopes.

There are two opportunities in Calgary this weekend to go out in the field and learn how iNaturalist and the City Nature Challenge works before the actual competition on April 26-29. On Sunday April 21, join Gus Yaki and Calgary Challenge organizer Matt Wallace at Reader Rock Garden from 1:30 to 3:30 pm. Learn how to take photos with your smartphone or camera and record the observations on the iNaturalist app on your phone or on the website on your desktop computer.

I took this photo at Pearce Estate Park during last week’s workshop. When I uploaded the photo, the iNaturalist artificial intelligence suggested it was in the Bulrushes and Cattails family, and another iNaturalist user later identified it as Broadleaf Cattail. Photo by Bob Lefebvre, Pearce Estate Park, April 13, 2019.

See this page for all the information on this workshop and field trip. No registration is required for these free events; just show up and join the fun!

On Monday afternoon, April 22, from 2 to 4 pm, join Gus and Matt at Britannia Slopes for another workshop/field trip. See this page for all the information.

If you can’t make it to the workshops but want to participate in the Challenge, get the iNaturalist app on your phone or open an account on the website, and you can learn to make observations on your own. Here is the iNaturalist Canada page.

There will be many events held during the challenge that everyone is welcome to participate in. See this page for all the events.

Any observations submitted within the city limits from April 26-29 will automatically be included in Calgary’s totals. So you can participate in the organized events, make observations on your own, or both. You don’t necessarily have to be able to identify the species you record, as the iNaturalist site will make suggested ID’s, and the iNaturalist community will follow up. The period from April 30 to May 5 will be used to try to finalize the identifications of all species identified in Calgary during the challenge. Any iNaturalist user can help with this.

Smartphones are excellent for recording photos of plants but if you are taking photos of mammals and birds you can usually get a better shot with a camera. Then you have to upload the photos to the iNaturalist site on your computer. When I went to the workshop last week, I used both phone and camera and took photos of birds, mammals, plants including fungi and lichens, and even signs of animals such as this:

This is recorded on iNaturalist as Canadian Beaver. Signs and evidence of wildlife are also included in the database. Photo by Bob Lefebvre, Pearce Estate Park, April 13, 2019.

Using iNaturalist is a great way to document our biodiversity, and to learn about our wildlife. This is from the iNaturalist.ca website:

“We can build a living record of life in Canada that scientists and environmental managers can use to monitor changes in biodiversity, and that anyone can use to learn more about Canada’s amazing natural history.

“Every piece of information on a species, combined with the vast network of citizen scientists can give a big picture of Canada’s natural history and can be a key contribution for conservation decisions.”

Weaselhead Bridge – Ring Road Petition

Jul8

Posted by Bob Lefebvre

Most Calgary birders are aware by now that the ring road construction adjacent to the Weaselhead Nature Area in SW Calgary is well under way. A huge area has been cleared in preparation for building a bridge over the Elbow River.

This project has been discussed for decades, and birders have been very concerned about building a bridge and highway through such an environmentally sensitive area. I think it has long been assumed that when the time came, if it did, the builders would be sure to follow best environmental practices to minimize the impact on this area. In particular, it was hoped that a clear span bridge like the Stoney Trail bridge over the Bow River would be built. Instead, the plan is to build an earthern berm or cut-and-fill bridge, which will fill in the valley up to the road level for most of the span, essentially forming a dam across the floodplain. This design will have many negative consequences for the birds and other wildlife in the valley, and create a great many problems during flood events.

Aerial photograph taken June 3, 2017, Courtesy of the Weaselhead/Glenmore Park Preservation Society and John Mader. The Weaselhead Nature Area is on the right, and the ring road construction showing the diversion of the Elbow River on the left. As you can see, there has already been a stunning amount of disturbance, cutting off the Weaselhead from the ecologically diverse Elbow Valley to the west. Photo from the website http://www.yyccares.ca/recent_pictures.

A concerned group of local citizens is petitioning the Alberta Government to build a better bridge over the Elbow. Please visit their web page YYC Cares. There is a great deal of information on their site, and you can sign the petition there.

Birdboy Birdathon

Jun25

Posted by Bob Lefebvre

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!

Global Big Day, May 13, 2017

May12

Posted by Bob Lefebvre

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 results are already coming in from the Eastern Hemisphere, and you can watch the worldwide results as they come in here.

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.

Castle Parks Management Plan

Apr18

Castle Provincial Park and Castle Wildland Provincial Park, located near Waterton in SW Alberta,  were recently created by the Provincial government to protect this sensitive and valuable bit of wilderness. The government is asking Albertans to provide feedback on the draft management plan for the parks.

The deadline for this is tomorrow, April 19. Please take some time to read the information on this page and complete the survey there. If you had completed the survey for the previous management plan, you can still respond now to the new plan.

One of the main issues at stake is whether off-highway motorized vehicles (OHV’s) will be allowed in the parks. There is an extensive network of trails in the parks, and the OHV community is lobbying to allow OHV use in the parks to continue. Researchers say that the proposed parks are already so heavily used that it will require a lot of restoration before they can really be valuable wildlife refuges. There are so many roads and trails in the parks right now that many species have been negatively impacted.

As birders and conservationists, we should lend our voices to this debate.

Protecting the Greater Sage-Grouse

Apr10

Posted by Bob Lefebvre

Photo credit: Jeannie Stafford/USFWS. A greater sage-grouse male struts at a lek (dancing or mating ground) near Bridgeport, CA to attract a mate. March 1, 2010. (From Wikimedia Commons.)

The Greater Sage-Grouse is the rarest nesting bird in Alberta. We are at the northern and western limits of their range, so they only occur in the SE corner of the province. Historically, the range was much larger, but the species experienced a 98% decline in population in the 25-year span from 1988 to 2012. By 2012, they were extirpated from British Columbia and left with only remnant populations in Alberta with 40 to 60 adult birds, and in Saskatchewan with only 55 to 80 adult birds. By 2013, they were also extirpated from five U.S. states. (See this Wikipedia entry for more information on range and population numbers.)

Conservation organizations have launched a number of legal actions to try to save the birds in Alberta, and protections are now in place. It is important the birders understand these laws and respect the need for the birds to remain undisturbed, particularly when the grouse are on their mating leks.

Recently Greg Wagner was contacted by a birder friend who had gone to view a lek in SE Alberta. He was approached by a conservation officer who told him that the birding party could be charged under the Alberta Public Lands Act. If they had been there a day later, on April 1, they could also have been charged under the provisions of the Emergency Protection Order which was issued in 2013.

All birders should be aware that under existing laws birders could be charged for being near leks and should be aware of the law before they go to view leks. Under no circumstances should people give the location of leks to others, particularly on social media.

Greater Sage Grouse, male, from rear. By U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Headquarters – Uploaded by Dolovis, Public Domain. (From Wikimedia Commons.)

Greg Wagner has written the following very interesting and informative account of the Greater Sage-Grouse and the struggle to protect it in Alberta.

______________________________________________

By Greg Wagner.

The following information pertains to laws aimed at protecting Greater Sage-Grouse in southeastern Alberta. People should have a clear understanding of  these laws before going to view a lek. Charges could be laid under a variety of statutes.

Throughout their range in western North America, declining Sage-Grouse populations have been associated with increased road densities and traffic volumes. Genetic and population modelling as well as habitat modelling in southeastern Alberta indicate that the significant Sage Grouse population declines over the past two decades are related to increased road densities, traffic volumes and human activity.

Because of population declines in Alberta and Saskatchewan, Ecojustice on behalf of the Alberta Wilderness Association, Federation of Alberta Naturalists, Grassland Naturalists, Nature Saskatchewan and the Western Canadian Wilderness Association filed a lawsuit claiming that the federal Recovery Strategy for Greater Sage-Grouse neglected to identify critical habitat for Sage-Grouse despite having ample scientific evidence to do so. It is important to note that naturalists launched this lawsuit. Further information about the lawsuit can be found here. A host of legal and management actions have occurred since then.

On September 17, 2013 conservation groups welcomed the federal government’s announcement that it intended to introduce an emergency protection order for Canada’s endangered Greater Sage-Grouse, but they also cautioned that the devil will be in the details. The federal government’s announcement did not include specific language around one of the key threats to the Sage-Grouse’s recovery and survival: oil and gas development in its critical habitat.

On September 25, 2013, on-the-ground action priorities were identified for the management of Greater Sage-Grouse including access restrictions.

On December 4, 2013, the federal government published its long-awaited Emergency Protection Order for Greater Sage-Grouse. The order came into effect on February 18, 2014. The goal of the Emergency Order was to “achieve the best protection for the Greater Sage-Grouse, while minimizing impacts on landowners and agricultural producers.” The prohibitions contained in the order only apply to habitat on federal and provincial crown lands in southeastern Alberta and southwestern Saskatchewan. Conservation groups welcomed the long-awaited Emergency Protection Order, but were concerned whether it would provide sufficient protection for the species.. The emergency order can be viewed here. Among other things, the Order contains the following provision “A person must not operate a facility, motor vehicle or machine that produces a noise that exceeds 45 dB(A) at any given time between 1.5 hours before sunset to 1.5 hours after sunrise during the period beginning on April 1 and ending on May 30 of any given year” on identified federal and provincial lands.

In 2003, the Alberta Government clarified the rules for recreational and exploration access on agricultural dispositions issued under the Public Lands Act, including grazing leases and farm development leases. On most provincial public lands in southeastern Alberta, access permits are required to access public lands. More information about public land access can be found here.

There are also sections of the provincial Wildlife Act that pertain to harassment of wildlife. If actions of people are deemed to be detrimental to the birds, these types of charges could be pursued. However, such actions would have to be blatant, but could include a photographer who was harassing birds at close range.

More information about the plight of the Greater Sage-Grouse can be found in the Alberta Status Report, the federal status report, the provincial recovery plan and the federal recovery plan).

___________________________________________

It is also of interest that in 2014, a ten-year captive breeding program for greater sage-grouse was initiated at the Calgary Zoo. In 2016, the zoo opened a new breeding facility for the grouse.

The Greater Sage-Grouse habitat is not too close to Calgary, but local birders should also be aware of similar protections in place for Sharp-tailed Grouse. This species was formerly common in the area, and even had a lek on Nose Hill, which is now within the city limits. Like the Sage-Grouse, Sharp-tails are sensitive to disturbance, and their numbers have been in decline in recent years and their range has been reduced. They are seldom seen near the city any more, but there are leks within a 90-minute drive of Calgary.

Sharp-tailed Grouse on a Lek, SW of Calgary, March 31, 2017. Photo by Dan Arndt.

According to the law, you must stay at least one-half  kilometer away from an active Sharp-tail lek. The only way to see one up close is to be hidden in a blind before the birds arrive in the morning, and stay hidden until after they depart the lek. If they are disturbed on the lek, they may abandon it, and this could impact their breeding success.

Finally, a reminder that nesting season is underway in Calgary (Great Horned Owl chicks have already hatched), so be aware that it is illegal to disturb most nesting birds. Do not share the location of nests of sensitive species such as owls.

Chris Fisher has prepared the following notice regarding nests and regulations:

Click to access Nesting-Birds-Regulations.pdf

By all means get out and go birding, but respect the birds and the law!

Osprey With Goldfish

Feb11

Posted by Bob Lefebvre

Here’s a summer shot in the middle of winter which brings up an important conservation issue. This Osprey was photographed on July 2, 2016 by Bert Gregory. He didn’t notice the prey in its talons until later. The location was near the pond by the railway bridge in the very west end of Bowmont Park NW, near Bowness Park.

Osprey with goldfish (Carassius auratus), July 2, 2016, Bowmont Park. Photo by Bert Gregory.

Domestic goldfish, which are native to Asia, are quickly becoming a big problem in Alberta, as they have elsewhere in North America. In the past few years, they have been found to be infesting ponds in Okotoks, Lethbridge, St. Albert, Calgary, and even Fort McMurray. They have been shown to be breeding and overwintering in the wild even in Fort McMurray. Prussian Carp, the wild ancestor of goldfish, have also been found in many Alberta rivers and ponds.

It’s possible that this Osprey caught the goldfish in someone’s backyard pond, but more likely in the pond by the river, or in the river itself, where they are known to breed.

Once unconstrained by a small pond or aquarium these fish can grow very large (over 25 cm in length) and are very prolific. They can devastate native fish habitats by out-competing them for food, and they also eat fish eggs.

The goldfish are thought to have originated here by being dumped into the waterways by pet owners. Prussian Carp may have been deliberately introduced. This is of course illegal; non-native animals and plants can upset the ecosystem and cause enormous problems for our native wildlife. The Alberta government has launched a program called “Don’t Let It Loose” to try to educate the public about the dangers of introducing potentially invasive species into our environment. Efforts are also underway to try to eliminate these fish from our waterways.

UPDATE:

Bernard Tremblay sent in a photo of another Osprey with a goldfish in its talons, taken in Calgary on August 1, 2016:

Nic DeGama-Blanchet, the Executive Director of the Friends of Fish Creek Provincial Park Society, reports that he has seen goldfish in Fish Creek near bridge 11.