Archives

BirdYYC2020: Setting Up Your eBird Patch

Dec28

Calgary 2020 Big Year Birding Challenge

Nature Calgary is promoting a friendly “big year” birding challenge within the Calgary city limits in 2020. See this post for general information. To register to take part in this free year-long challenge, send your name, eBird name, and email address to Howard Heffler at: hheffler[at]shaw.ca.

Participants will have to set up a Patch List in eBird that includes all of their sightings within the city limits.

Northern Pygmy-Owl
Will you be able to find a Northern Pygmy-Owl in Calgary in 2020?
Photo by Tony LePrieur, Bebo Grove, Calgary, December 2, 2017.

Setting Up Patch Lists by Howard Heffler.

For the BirdYYC2020 eBird challenge, here is how you set up your patch list. If you are new to eBird, I recommend you review the eBird help pages. They define Patch List as:

Patch list: a series of locations for a specific area that you can summarize in a patch list.

You can have any number of patch lists. For example; Fish Creek Provincial Park patch, which will include every location that you have birded within the Park. As you know, there are several hotspots in Fish Creek and creating a patch is a way to collect your checklists in one place and look at all the data together. For the BirdYYC2020 eBird challenge we will use the current Calgary city limits. (For those of you who participated in the 2010 competition, the City boundaries have not changed, so any information you have from then is still relevant.)

You only need to set up the patch list once, and all your past and future sightings will be included in the totals, broken down by month, year, and life. Use the patch name “BirdYYC2020”. If you already have a city limits patch, you merely need to rename your existing patch. (Remember to re-name it back to its original name when the 2020 challenge is over.) Also, if you submit an eBird list from a new (to you) location, you will have to remember to add that location to your patch list. Both established hotspots and personal locations are eligible. 

If this is all new to you, here is a step-by-step guide:

  1. Open eBird.
    • By this time, we assume you have an account and have signed in.
    • It will also be more meaningful if you have already submitted a few checklists from locations within the City.
  2. Click on “Explore”.
    • Near the bottom you will find “Patch Totals”.
    • You will also see “Yard Totals”. You can also keep a yard list with this tool. You should remember to include your personal location for your home (your “yard”) in the BirdYYC2020 patch, but only if you live in the City.
  3. Click on Patch Totals.
    • Click on “Add a Patch”. (If you have previously set up your BirdYYC2020 patch, go to Step 4.)
    • Name the patch BirdYYC2020.
    • Scroll down through all your locations and tick the ones within the City limits. The designated eBird hotspots all start with Calgary or Fish Creek PP. All your personal locations (non-hotspots) are also eligible – if they are inside the City limits.
    • Don’t worry, when you submit a list in the future from a location not yet on this list, you can add it later; usually when you get home that evening.
    • Click on “Save Patch”.
  4. Go back to Patch Totals.
    • You will now see all the patch lists for the region. It will likely first open for all of Canada, so you will want to change the region to Alberta, and to Calgary.
    • This page shows all your patch lists within Calgary County. You can see your data in a variety of ways. Notice that anything that is blue and underscored is a link. Have good look around to get familiar with all the ways you can summarize your data. It’s fun!
    • You will also see all the patches by other eBirders within Calgary County. Some will be BirdYYC2020, but there will be others too.
    • This is why we ask all participants to NOT hide their data. (Take a look at this guide to see how to set your preferences.)
    • You will see who has reported the highest number of species in the BirdYYC2020 patch and how you compare. You can look by month, year or life.
    • Next year, 2020, this is where the fun begins. Who is leading? Where do you stand? What species have been recently reported?

That’s it. You are now in the BirdYYC2020 birding challenge!

Note that since eBird tracks all of your lifetime sightings, you can set up this patch anytime in 2020 and it will include sightings from earlier in the year. So if you are a latecomer to the challenge and don’t get started right away, you can still take part. But we would like to see as many participants as possible get their patches done by January 1st so we can see how it’s going.

We ask that you register for the challenge by sending an email to Howard Heffler (hheffler*@*shaw.ca) with your name, email address and eBird name. Some people use a pseudonym in eBird, which is fine, but we would like to know who you are when we see your eBird checklists.

During the year anyone can look on eBird and see the all the participants with a BirdYYC2020 patch. It will show how many species (and how many checklists) have been reported by each. Your totals will show as well. It is not possible to see an individual’s complete list of species, just a few of their most recent sightings.

Enjoy!

Any questions or suggestions contact:

Mapping Tools for the 2020 Birding Challenge

Dec22

By Andrew Hart

In the new year there will be an eBird challenge in Calgary in which participants try to see as many species as they can within the city limits. See this post for information about the challenge. To join, send your name, ebird name, and email address to Howard Heffler at: hheffler[at]shaw.ca. 

It is usually easy to tell if the spot where you are birding or have birded is inside the city limits, particularly if your location is an existing eBird HotSpot. But if you are near the city boundary and birding at a new location, it can be difficult to tell if the spot is inside or outside the city.

There are two mapping tools available to help with this aspect of the challenge. Each tool works on both a desktop and a tablet/smartphone.

Google Maps Tool

To access this on a desktop simply click on this link. This will bring up Google Maps, as below.

Calgary map

The YYC2020 area shows up as a lighter area bounded in blue.

To facilitate easier access in the future you can choose to bookmark this location in your browser.

To access on a smartphone/tablet the process is similar, and there are probably several ways to do it.  First ensure that you have the Google Maps app installed on your smartphone.

The way I have found most convenient is to generate an email with the link embedded.  You can then click on the link in the email to get the map, as below.  As with the desktop version you can then zoom in and out.  If you are in the field you can immediately check to see if you are in the city limits or not. If you are at home and checking to see if a location you have already birded at is inside the city limits, just compare your location from the eBird location map to this boundary map.

I have created an email subfolder YYC2020 on my phone with this (so far the only) email in it so that I can rapidly find the relevant email and click on it.

You can also set this up as a favourite in your smartphone browser.  I think this is more complicated, and how to do it depends on your actual smartphone and preferred browser.  There are  too many options to describe each one here.

Google Earth Tool

This requires that Google Earth Pro is installed on whichever device(s) you are going to use. It also requires setting up the City boundary as one of “My Places” in Google Earth.

The City boundary is defined in a Google Earth add in file named “Calgary City Boundary.kml”.  This is  available on the Nature Calgary YYC2020 webpage.

To access this tool on a desktop :

  • Download the kml file from the Nature Calgary website and save it in a convenient folder on your desktop. The file link is at the bottom of this page on Nature Calgary’s site.
  • Open Google Earth Pro
  • Use file open and navigate to the location where you saved the kml file
Calgary map
  • Open the kml file and you will see the Calgary City boundary saved under “temporary places” in the menu on the left.  You will also see a view showing the city limits overlaid with a brown colour.  The precise view you will get depends on exactly which layers you have switched on in the lower part of the left hand menu.
Calgary map
  • Next, to ensure you see this the next time you open Google Earth just drag the City Boundary.kml folder up in to the “My Places” folder. 
Calgary map
  • That completes the set-up.
  • Next time you open Google Earth simply click on the “Calgary City Boundary” link under My Places.

To set it up on a smart device the procedure is somewhat similar.

  • Install Google Earth Pro on your smart device
  • Install the kml file on your smart device
  • There are a number of ways to do this
  • If you already have the file on your desktop then save the file to a cloud location that is accessible to your smart device.  Typically iCloud or Onedrive.
  • Then download the file from the cloud location to your smartphone .
  • Now open Google Earth (Pro) and open the “Projects” drop down menu from the three bar menu at top left.
  • Press “open” and then “Import kml file”
  • Browse to where your kml file is located.  The iCloud screenshot below is one example
  • Tap on the relevant file
  • Bring it in to Google Earth (by tapping)
  • You will now see the city boundary as a brown overlay
  • Calgary map
  • If you want to check your own location then tap the three white dots at top right.
  • Next tap my location at the bottom, and you will see your location.
  • Note that unlike Google Maps Google Earth does not continuously update your location.  If you move and want to check again then you have to reset your location
  • If you do not have access to the file on a desktop then access the file on the Nature Calgary website from your smart device and save it to your smart device.  Then follow the same steps described above.

If you have any questions about the challenge contact:

  • Howard Heffler: hheffler[at]shaw.ca
  • Andrew Hart: andrewhart[at]shaw.ca
  • Bob Lefebvre: wbird7[at]gmail.com
  • Gavin McKinnon: gmckinnonbird[at]gmail.com

A Guide To Setting Alerts in eBird

Dec1

Calgary 2020 Big Year Birding Challenge

By Howard Heffler

Nature Calgary is promoting a friendly “big year” birding challenge within Calgary city limits in 2020. See this post for details of the challenge.

What Are eBird Alerts?

eBird Alerts are lists of noteworthy birds reported in the past seven days in a specific county, state, province, or country. The best place to learn about eBird alerts is on the eBird Help pages about alerts and targets.

In a previous article we described how to open an eBird account with your name and email address. It will be very helpful if you set the eBird parameters on “My eBird” to alert you about local sightings that should improve your chances of adding to your year list.

Setting eBird Alerts

You can get to the Alerts page either from “Explore” and then, near the bottom, open “Alerts.” Or, from “My eBird,” open “Manage My Alerts.”

There are three Alerts:

1. ABA Rarities

This alert is for observations of rare birds in the American Birding Association Area.

2. Rare Bird Alerts

Email alerts for rare birds in a particular area.

3. Needs Alerts

Email alerts for species you have not personally recorded in a particular region or time period.

The later two are likely the most relevant to participation in the BirdYYC2020 challenge.

You can set your region of interest to Calgary. It is important to remember that the eBird region named “Calgary” refers to an area larger that the City of Calgary.

eBird
The Calgary County on eBird.

After selecting Calgary as your region of interest, you can “View” the alerts or you can “Subscribe.” If you subscribe, eBird will send you an email – daily or hourly.

By setting your “Needs Alerts” eBird will notify you of all species reported in Calgary for the past seven days that would be new to your list of species on eBird. To be most useful to the BirdYYC2020 challenge, check the box “This year only.”   

The Rare Bird Alerts will inform you of ABA Code 3 and above reports in the region, whether or not they are on your needs list.

You can also set alerts for any other other region you are interested in, for example if you plan to travel. Alerts can easily be changed at any time from “Manage My Alerts” on your “My eBird” page. It is a very useful feature of eBird and birders participating in the 2020 challenge should take advantage of it.

A Beginner’s Guide to eBird

Nov30

Calgary 2020 Big Year Birding Challenge

By Howard Heffler

Nature Calgary is promoting a friendly “big year” birding challenge within Calgary city limits in 2020: BIRDYYC2020.

This article is for beginners with eBird to give them the essential information to get started and, we hope, the confidence to explore the powerful features of eBird.

What is eBird?

eBird is a publicly-accessible online database consisting of bird sightings from all around the world. The best place to learn about eBird is on their website.

eBird Canada
The eBird Canada home page.

Since 2002 eBird has amassed over one-half billion reports from birders around the world. It is a project of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and is supported entirely by grants, sponsors, and donations. It is free and available for everyone to use.

The first step is to go to the home page and open an account with your name and email address. You will have to select a username and a password. That’s all there is to it.

Using eBird to enter your sightings

There is a vast amount of data on the eBird website that you may access, but the two things to consider initially are; (1) entering checklists, and (2) looking up data. There is a “help” button on the top menu bar on the home page. Believe me, the help pages are very good.

In the Field

I think most people keep track of their sightings while they are birding in the field using the eBird mobile app. The first step is to get the app – available for free on both the Google Play and App Stores. After you download the app and open it on your smartphone, the screen looks like this:

eBird app
The eBird smartphone app home screen.

The idea is to enter your sightings while you are birding. There are several ways to do this and you will soon find your favorite techniques after a bit of practice. You will have to spend a bit of time at your computer looking through the instructions on the eBird help pages.

In a nutshell; open the app, start a new list, select a location, enter your sightings at that hotspot, stop the list (when you are finished at that hotspot), review it, and submit.

I admit it takes a bit of time initially to learn. But, after some practice, you will appreciate the many ways it is helpful to your birding.

At your desk

It is also possible to submit checklists from your computer when you get back home.  Open eBird and look for the “submit” button at the top of the home page. You then select the location where you were birding (if you visited several locations, you will need to submit a checklist for each), enter the time and date, type of observation, and begin to enter your sightings.

eBird page
The eBird desktop interface.

Again, remember that each checklist is to be associated with one hotspot. It might be a public hotspot such as, Calgary–Inglewood Bird Sanctuary, or it might be a location you define yourself. It is not a list of all the birds you saw that day at a variety of locations.

I encourage you to look through the help pages on the eBird website. They are very well thought out. Remember, there are many thousands (even millions) of birders just like you. Everyone one of them at one time was a beginner with eBird.

Looking up Data

I consider eBird to have two modes: data in and data out. “Data in” refers to entering your sightings. “Data out” refers to looking up information that has been compiled from the vast number of reports from the many millions of checklists; including your own checklists. There are many more things that can be done with this data than I can even begin to describe. Here are a few things you will initially want to do.

Check out Hotspots and Species

On the eBird home page, open the “Explore” page. From there you can find a hotspot, look at what birds have been reported over any time period, see the location on Google maps, and study the historic data in any way you could imagine. Most likely, you will want to see what birds were seen in the past few days to help you anticipate what you might find there.

Alternatively, you may want to explore by species name. In this case you enter the common name of a species and eBird displays a map of all locations where this species has been recorded. You can then zoom in to the desired geographic scale – perhaps right to a hotspot near you where that species was reported in the past week.  There are a few sensitive species that do not allow you to zoom in to specific locations. In Alberta these are Gyrfalcon, Great Grey Owl, Northern Hawk-Owl and Burrowing Owl.

My eBird

Of course, you will also want to look at your own data. On the eBird home page open “My eBird”. On the main part of the My eBird page you can look at your own data. On the right-hand side are several tabs. Likely the one you will use most frequently is: “Manage My Observations”. When you open this page, you will see all your checklists. They can be sorted by date, by location, or by region, and can be edited or shared.

There are many other actions you can do on or from “My eBird” such as setting up alerts to let you know about rare bird sightings or to advise that a bird you have not yet seen that year has been recently reported – we will discuss this feature in another article. One set of parameters I want to draw your attention to is: setting your eBird preferences. We want all participants in BIRDYYC2020 to share their eBird lists and make sightings on eBird visible. The purpose is to allow all participants to chase sightings by others.  Specifically: from the eBird homepage, under My eBird, select Preferences; Data privacy – elect to NOT hide your eBird data.

eBird preferences

One other feature of eBird that will be of special interest during the BIRDYYC2020 challenge will be how to establish a “Patch”. We will develop another instructional article on just that topic. The starting point on the eBird home page is the “explore” button. Try it and see how you do.

Closing

I can remember many times my Dad telling me when I was young: “Don’t play with that, you’ll break it.” That’s not true with eBird. You won’t break it. Sign in and go exploring around the whole site. Look through the help topics. Look at the data for one of your favorite hotspots. Explore the Region, “Calgary County”. Be aware that “Calgary County” is quite a bit larger that the City of Calgary.

Enjoy.

A Guide to Albertabird

Nov24

By Howard Heffler

Nature Calgary is promoting a friendly “big year” birding challenge within Calgary city limits in 2020 (BIRDYYC2020). (See this post for an introduction to the challenge.) This guide to Albertabird is one of a number of posts we will present to help everyone who participates.

What is Albertabird?

One useful tool for those taking part in the challenge is the online discussion forum “Albertabird”. This is a place where birders can share sightings, locations, and photos, so it will be useful to participants in
keeping informed during the year and giving them the best chance to see as many bird species within the city limits as possible. This article is for newcomers to Albertabird. Anyone can join Albertabird or use it as a resource – it is not just for BIRDYYC2020 participants.

The Albertabird email list was started in early 2000. Initially hosted by Yahoo Groups, a switch to the more compatible platform, Groups IO, was completed in late 2019.

This list functions within the guidelines found in the American Birding Association Code of Ethics. The Albertabird Moderators are Gerald Romanchuk, Malcolm McDonald, and Caroline Lambert.

Anyone can look at the site to read messages posted by members. Click this link to go to Albertabird in a new tab. There you can see what the site looks like.

Using Albertabird

To post messages to the list you must be a member. To join, you simply go to the site’s Home page and click on “Apply for Membership in this Group.” You will be asked to submit your email address. You should get a response to your request for membership in a day or two. 

You can open the “Messages” page to see the latest posts. You can also go to “Subscription” and set the parameters in a way that suits you. You may elect to receive each message in an individual email or in other ways or to not receive emails. Once you are a member, you can post messages and photos for all to see. You can post either right on the website or by sending an email to Albertabird[at]groups.io.

Albertabird has been a powerful and useful tool for years, allowing birders to share stories and help others learn.

We encourage you to look frequently at Albertabird and to post stories about your adventures during the BirdYYC2020 challenge.

Albertabird Guidelines

The complete guidelines for users of Albertabird can be found on the Albertabird website under “files”.

A few points to remember are:

  • Do not to hit the “Reply” button when responding to a message unless you are intending to send your comments to all subscribers.
  • All posts should contain your name and location by city.
  • Be prepared to share directions to interesting birds, except for species at risk.
  • Do not share directions on private property until you have permission from the landowner to do so.
  • Do not post detailed information on a nest location, particularly for species at risk, to minimize disturbance to nesting birds.
  • The list allows attachments such as photos or files. Files should be kept as concise as possible in the interest of saving storage space
  • Photos can be attached to the message as a file or pasted into the message. (See the guidelines on the Albertabird website for more details and restrictions.)

Enjoy!

Any questions or suggestions about BIRDYYC2020 contact:
 Howard Heffler: hheffler*@*shaw.ca
 Andrew Hart: andrewhart*@*shaw.ca
 Bob Lefebvre: wbird7*@*gmail.com
 Gavin McKinnon: gmckinnonbird*@*gmail.com

Calgary 2020 Big Year Birding Challenge

Nov11

Posted by Bob Lefebvre

For the past two decades Nature Calgary has sponsored year-long birding competitions every five years. In 2000 and 2010 the goal was to see as many species as you could within the city limits in the calendar year. In 2005 and 2015 goal was the same, but the area used was the 80-km-diameter circle centered on the Center Street Bridge.

Willet, photographed by Brian Elder in Calgary during the 2010 competition. This won first prize in the photography portion of competition.

In keeping with the pattern, we’d like to announce the Calgary 2020 Big Year Birding Challenge. This will be a year-long event, in which participants try to identify as many species as they can within the city limits between January 1, 2020, and December 31, 2020. The challenge is led by Howard Heffler, Andrew Hart, Gavin McKinnon, and myself.

As in 2015, we will exclusively be using eBird to keep track of participant’s progress. Simply name your city limits patch “BirdYYC2020” and include in your patch all the locations for which you have submitted lists that are within the city limits. (If you already have a city limits patch, just rename it.) If you are not yet using eBird you will have to set up a free account first.

There are a lot of good articles on the eBird website about how to sign up, and how to set up patches. It is really quite easy, and the eBird site is also a tremendously useful resource for birders.

We are going to keep this very simple and informal. There will be no entry fees or prizes, no categories for different experience levels, and no waivers to sign. Rather than a competition, it will be a challenge – a personal test for each participant to try to reach new goals, explore new birding locations, and learn more about the birds of Calgary.

Participants are asked to send their name, ebird name and email address to Howard Heffler at: hheffler[at]shaw.ca. This will allow the organizers to communicate with active participants. At the end of the year, we will ask participants to share their species list to allow comparison with the results of the 2000 and 2010 competitions.

In the weeks and months ahead, we will be prepared to answer questions and take suggestions. We will use this blog for ongoing communication and to write helpful instructions for participants. We also will post stories on Albertabird and on Nature Calgary’s website. We encourage all participants to share their adventures and birding tips on Albertabird.

In the 2010 competition, Michael Harrison won with 240 species! (Amazingly, he saw every species while riding his bike, competing in the “Non-motorized Transport” category.) To read about the 2010 competition, see the 2010 blog here.

Of course, 240 is a very high total – about 265 species are seen within the city limits in a typical year, but many of those are one-day wonders. In a challenge like this, you should set a reasonable goal for yourself. My goal is to see more than 180 species, which is the best total I’ve had since I started using eBird in 2012. I would love to get 200!

A challenge like this is a lot of fun and gets you really involved in the local birding community. I hope you join us!

Please see the guidelines below for more information.

Calgary 2020 Big Year Birding Challenge

Nature Calgary is promoting a friendly “big year” birding challenge within Calgary city limits in 2020.

Background

There have been two “big year” competitions in Calgary; 2000 and 2010.

(There were also “Calgary Region” competitions in 2005 and 2015.)

Scope – an eBird “Patch” challenge

Challenge yourself to find as many species of birds as you can within the Calgary city limits in 2020! 

All sightings must be within the city limits. See link below.

  • Calendar year 2020.
  • Open to all.
  • No sub-categories for participants.
  • No entry fee or prizes.
  • No waivers.
    • Nature Calgary field trips would have waivers exactly as per current practice.

Objective – a friendly competition

  • Share sightings.
  • Promote interest in birds and birding.
  • Enjoy Calgary’s natural areas.
  • More field trips.
  • Compare results with 2000 and 2010.

Challenge Guidelines and Procedures

The organizers are proposing the following guidelines and procedures to make the challenge more enjoyable and rewarding for all participants.

  • Participants “register” by adding an eBird patch (or re-naming their existing Calgary city-limits patch.) with the name: “BirdYYC2020” by January 1, 2020.
  • Participants are asked to send their name, eBird name and email address to Howard Heffler at: hheffler[at]shaw.ca. This will allow the organizers to communicate with active participants. At the end of the year, we will ask participants to share their species list to allow comparison with the results of the 2000 and 2010 competitions. 
  • We recommend that participants re-name their patch back to their own city-limits patch after the challenge year is completed.
  • Participants MUST share eBird lists and make sightings on eBird visible. The purpose is to allow all participants to chase sightings by others.  Specifically: on eBird, under My eBird, select Preferences; Data privacy – elect to NOT hide your eBird data.
  • Anybody at any time can see who is leading and his/her total number of sightings to date by looking on eBird at patch totals.
  • We have created “BirdYYC2020 RBA”, a WhatsApp group for sharing instant updates on unusual birds within the city limits of Calgary. To join the group, send a message to Gavin McKinnon (403) 519-8703.

Helpful Hints and Participant Expectations

  • There are about 200 hotspots in the Calgary “county”. All the ones within the city-limits (90) begin with the prefix “Calgary” or “Fish Creek PP”.
  • Over the next few weeks we will develop detailed procedures and instructions for things such as:
    • how to set up an eBird patch,
    • how to set up eBird alerts,
    • how to join Albertabird,
    • how to use WhatsApp,
    • how to use the mapping tools, and
    • other topics that might arise.
  • We hope to make a seasonal list of birds to help participants target specific species during each season.
  • Some species will be identified as “reportable” so you know what will be of special interest to everyone else.
  • Of course, we will do what we can to ensure participants respect private property, drive and act safely and responsibly, and follow ABA ethical guidelines: especially as it relates to protecting sensitive species.
  • We have maps of the city boundary in PDF format available.
  • Here, also, is an online Google map of Calgary.

Any questions or suggestions contact:

  • Howard Heffler: hheffler[at]shaw.ca
  • Andrew Hart: andrewhart[at]shaw.ca
  • Bob Lefebvre: wbird7[at]gmail.com
  • Gavin McKinnon: gmckinnonbird[at]gmail.com

The Road To 300: Success!

Oct26

When we last checked in on Gavin McKinnon’s quest to find 300 species of birds in Alberta in 2019, he was at 291 species. That was at the end of July (see this post). Since he had already seen almost all of the more common species, progress was expected to be slow for the rest of the year, as he would have to track down rarities that showed up during fall migration.

I’m happy to report that Gavin did reach 300 species on October 11th! He was slowly adding new species until he reached 299. On October 9th an Ash-throated Flycatcher was reported in St. Albert. This is the first confirmed record of this species ever in Alberta. It is native to the SW United States and the Pacific northwest. On October 11th Gavin travelled to St. Albert and saw and photographed the bird.

Ash-throated Flycatcher, St. Albert, October 11, 2019. Photo by Gavin McKinnon.
Ash-throated Flycatcher, St. Albert, October 11, 2019. Photo by Gavin McKinnon.
Ash-throated Flycatcher, St. Albert, October 11, 2019. Photo by Gavin McKinnon.

Not only was this bird #300 for Gavin and a first Alberta record, but it was a life bird for him. A great way to reach his goal!

Here are few of the birds that got Gavin within striking distance of 300. He tried to photograph as many of the species he saw as he could.

Black Swift. Photo by Gavin McKinnon.
Vaux’s Swift. Photo by Gavin McKinnon.
Western Sandpiper. Photo by Gavin McKinnon.
Sabine’s Gull. Photo by Gavin McKinnon.

By October 12th Gavin had reached 303 species, which is where he stands today. He has also seen a total of 370 species in Canada this year, which is tied for the third-highest total in the country. Here are links to those eBird pages:

Top 100 eBirders in Alberta. Top 100 in Canada.

You can see previous posts with photos and updates of Gavin’s Big Year here:

January and February

March and April

May

The Road to 300: June

Aug5

Posted by Bob Lefebvre

I was away quite a bit in July so there’s lots to catch up on here. First of all, here is an update on fifteen-year-old Gavin McKinnon’s effort to find 300 species of birds in Alberta in 2019.

Gavin had 216 species at the end of May, and as I mentioned last time, you need to get to at least 240 by the end of June to have a good shot at 300. Gavin had a great month in June, and finished the first six months of the year with 278 species. Here are photos of some of the new species he added in June, along with his descriptions of where he saw them and some of the other notable species. Gavin did quite a bit of travelling with his dad looking for rarities, which sometimes necessitated camping in the back of their car.

Great Gray Owl
Great Gray Owl

“On the first of June we were out at Winchell lake and Horse Creek Road marshes where I got half a dozen new songbirds plus Great Gray Owl. The following day We went to Dinosaur Provincial Park where we heard Yellow-breasted Chat. I also added Rock Wren and Lark Sparrow there. The following weekend we went up to Cold lake where I got 35 year birds, the highlights being Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, Black-throated Green Warbler, lots of Connecticut Warblers and a Great Crested Flycatcher. The next day I was able to see a flock of five White-rumped Sandpipers along the rocky shore of Lower Kananaskis Lake as well as a singing male Townsend’s Warbler. A few days later I got the chance to see a Black-chinned Hummingbird that was visiting Pat Lucas’ feeders near Hillcrest Mines.

Black-chinned Hummingbird
Black-chinned Hummingbird

“Between then and Cypress Hills I got to see Clark’s Grebe and Great Egret. On our way to Cypress we made two stops, one for McCown’s Longspur and another for Burrowing Owl.

Burrowing Owl
Burrowing Owl

“I got three year birds within my first hour at Cypress Hills: White-winged Scoter, Dusky Flycatcher, and a pair of Eastern Bluebirds that have been nesting along the southern border of the park.

Eastern Bluebird
Eastern Bluebird

“In the afternoon I was able to see a pair of Bullock’s Orioles and after about an hour of checking the Bullock’s Oriole tree I found a nest with two chicks.

Bullock's Oriole
Bullock’s Oriole at nest

“There were also three Common Nighthawks roosting nearby. On our way back to Cypress we found three Greater Sage Grouse.

Greater Sage Grouse
Greater Sage Grouse

“At night we were driving around the Graburn Road area and we were able to detect two Common Poorwills, one heard only, but the second one swooped in front of our headlights.”

Below is a photo of the car where they camped on some of these trips.

Camping in the car for birding.
The camping setup in the car.

Here are more photos of some species Gavin added to his list in June.

Calliope Hummingbird
Calliope Hummingbird
Chestnut-collared Longspur
Chestnut-collared Longspur
Tennessee Warbler
Tennessee Warbler
Cassin's Finch
Cassin’s Finch
Cassin's Vireo
Cassin’s Vireo

I will do another update when Gavin Gets to 300 species. Not to keep you in suspense, at the end of July he had 291 species. Of course, as the year goes on it becomes harder and harder to add new birds to the list, but Gavin hopes to reach 295 by the end of August.

You can also follow his progress on eBird by viewing the list of top 100 eBirders in Alberta on the “Explore” tab. Here is a link to that page. You can also check out the top 100 in Canada, where Gavin is at an amazing 362 species, the second-highest total in the country!

You can see previous posts with photos and updates of Gavin’s Big Year here:

January and February

March and April

May

Global Big Day, Saturday May 4

May3

Tomorrow is eBird’s Global Big Day, during which birders all over the world are encouraged to submit their sightings on eBird to create a one-day snapshot of the state of the world’s birds. All you have to do is go birding anywhere and submit your sightings on eBird! Even a few minutes of birding will help to contribute to the Big Day. Click the link above to read all about it.

Global Big Day 2019

Last year over 30,00 people submitted lists, recording over 7,000 species of birds. Let’s see if we can top this!

The Cornell Lab has also started doing an eBird Big Day in the fall. The first one was on October 6, 2018. Over 6,000 species were recorded, including these rare Greater Sage-Grouse photographed by Gavin McKinnon. Gavin was the only birder to report this species on the Big Day.

Greater Sage-Grouse
Greater Sage-Grouse, undisclosed location. Photo by Gavin McKinnon.
Greater Sage-Grouse
Greater Sage-Grouse, undisclosed location. Photo by Gavin McKinnon.
Greater Sage-Grouse, undisclosed location. Photo by Gavin McKinnon.

You can see a band on the leg of the bird in the second photo. These birds are part of a program by the Calgary Zoo to try to at least help this species hang on to its very restricted range in Canada. Here is a news article about this program.

Not everyone will see a rare bird tomorrow, but every sighting of any species counts!

Global Big Day 2019

Swan Season

Nov11

Posted by Bob Lefebvre

Here is a great photo taken by Kenneth Johnson on November 3 near the Jumpingpound Gas plant, west of Calgary.

Tundra Swan

Tundra Swans west of Calgary, November 3, 2018. Photo by Kenneth Johnson.

The darker birds with the pink on their bills are juveniles. I’m not positive that the big bird with its wings outstretched is a Tundra. It could be a Trumpeter (no yellow on the face, long bill) but the shape of the area between the eyes suggests Tundra. Comments welcome.

Trumpeter Swans migrate though the area up to about the first week of November, and Tundras a little later. Most will be gone by mid-month. The majority of Trumpeters tend to pass to the west of Calgary, and many are seen on the Glenmore Reservoir. To the east of town, far more Tundras are seen. But both can be found on any large body of water in the area, or in flocks flying overhead.

Here are eBird maps of reports of the two species during the first week of November. Each red teardrop shows a location where at least one swan was reported.

Tundra Swan

Above: Tundra Swan reports on eBird in the Calgary area, early November 2018.

Trumpeter Swan

Above: Trumpeter Swan reports on eBird in the Calgary area, early November 2018.