Ross Anderson of Fish Creek Park will present on The Importance of Beavers, and Co-existing With Them.
Beavers in Fish Creek Park. Photo by Tony LePrieur, April 2018.
Next Thursday, October 8th, Birds & Beers resumes in Calgary. As usual, we meet in the big ballroom at the Horton Road Legion from 5pm to 9pm. Arrive anytime before 7 pm, when the presentation will begin.
Ross Anderson of the Friends of Fish Creek Provincial Park Society will talk to us about Beavers in the park and their many contributions to the local ecology. The Friends are working hard to educate the public and change negative views about Beavers. The Friends have had a long-running program to manage the park’s resources to co-exist with the Beavers.
Ross Anderson Restoration Team Lead
Ross recently graduated from St. Mary’s University with a Bachelor of Science in Biology, and has worked at the Deer Run Community Centre in the maintenance and event planning departments. He is experienced in data collection and analysis, and outdoor fieldwork – including invasive species surveys, mapping, wildlife identification, and water quality testing. As the Field Assistant Ross enjoys working outside while using his skills, and learning about the park and the Friends conservation programs.
Everyone is welcome at Birds & Beers! We ask for an optional contibution of $2 to help cover the room charge. Come early if you can, and be sure to enter the door prize draws!
The next Birds & Beers meeting will be on Thursday November 12th, same time, same place. Karen Keller will be presenting The Antarctic, Chapter 2.
The Friends of Fish Creek will also be participating in Beaver Fest in North Glenmore Park on Sunday October 17th. See here for information and tickets.
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Results of the January 1, 2024 Fish Creek Park Count.
Posted by Bob Lefebvre
The annual half-day bird count in Fish Creek Park was a lot of fun and a great success again this New Year’s Day. We had a high number of species, with high counts for several, and some new species for the count. It was another mild day, as it had been for pretty much the whole winter up to then.
Sunrise in Fish Creek Park, January 1, 2024. Photo by Matt Wallace.
Forty-three birders went out to eight sections of the park. We found a total of 42 species, up from the ten-year average of 35. There were two new species not recorded before (Cackling Goose and Greater Scaup), and record high counts for six others.
Cackling Goose
10
Canada Goose
2,321
Trumpeter Swan
3
Tundra Swan
4
American Wigeon
7
Mallard
771
Northern Pintail
1
Green-winged Teal
4
Redhead
2
Greater Scaup
1
Bufflehead
179
Common Goldeneye
920
Barrow’s Goldeneye
13
Common Merganser
27
Ring-necked Pheasant
2
Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon)
17
Sharp-shinned Hawk
3
Bald Eagle
12
Great Horned Owl
2
Belted Kingfisher
1
Downy Woodpecker
31
Hairy Woodpecker
11
Pileated Woodpecker
5
Northern Flicker
53
Merlin
4
Northern Shrike
1
Blue Jay
5
Black-billed Magpie
133
American Crow
2
Common Raven
86
Black-capped Chickadee
219
Mountain Chickadee
7
Boreal Chickadee
11
White-breasted Nuthatch
42
Red-breasted Nuthatch
33
Townsend’s Solitaire
2
American Robin
1
Bohemian Waxwing
277
House Sparrow
78
Pine Grosbeak
12
House Finch
20
Dark-eyed Junco
1
Our group covered the Hull’s Wood/Sikome Lake/Boat Launch areas. Matt Wallace took some great photos of our day.
Fish Creek near the Bow River. Photo by Matt Wallace.We found a group of four overwintering Tundra Swans on the Bow. Photos by Matt Wallace.We also count mammals. This Porcupine was snoozing up in a tree. Photos by Matt Wallace.WAY up in a tree.Despite the Park Rules, someone has been leaving seeds for the birds. This Downy Woodpecker was so used to being fed that it kept comng to our hands briefly even though we had no food. Photo by Matt Wallace.We wanted to take a team photo, so Dan grabbed a few seeds so that the Downy would stay long enough to get in the photo too. Photo by Matt Wallace.
This count is not an official Christmas Bird Count, but it has a pretty long history now, and it is an important tool to monitor the long-term population trends in the park. If you want to learn more about the count in all areas of the park, come to Birds & Beers this Thursday, February 8, where the Count Organizer Jim Washbrook will present the results and answer questions.
Results of the Calgary and Priddis Christmas Bird Counts will also be presented at Birds & Beers. In case you missed it, here are some of the results from the Calgary Count, showing the species recorded and the numbers of each:
Gus Yaki among seven honoured as Alberta Champions.
Posted by Bob Lefebvre
The Alberta Champions Society unveiled their seventh Field Of Fame on September 28. The monument honours seven prominent Calgarians for their contributions to the province. The monument stands next to the Friends of Fish Creek office at Bow Valley Ranch at the east end of Fish Creek Park.
Field of Fame #7 in Bow Valley Ranch, Fish Creek Park. Photo by Bob Lefebvre
The monument honours Virnetta Anderson, Narcisse Blood, Michael Green, Roderick Mah, Chuck Mawer, Peter Prince and Gus Yaki. Yaki was a prominent naturalist and birder who passed away in 2020.
The monuments were unveiled after a nice ceremony on September 28. You can watch videos of the unveiling here. (In the long video, the unveiling of Gus’s monument starts at 119:30.)
A monument to Gus will be erected in Fish Creek Park in 2023 by the Alberta Champions Society.
Posted by Bob Lefebvre
The Alberta Champions Society in Recognition of Community Enrichment was formed to commemorate, recognize and honour those Albertans that have made a significant contribution to the community in the city of Calgary and area. The Society has so far erected six “Fields of Fame” around the city as tributes to men and women of the past who contributed to the Calgary of today. The seventh set of monuments will be erected in Fish Creek Park in 2023.
Gus Yaki with an injured Ring-billed Gull found while leading a field trip in Fish Creek Provincial Park. Photo by Bob Lefebvre
The Fields of Fame are groupings of structural steel, architecturally designed which are placed at prominent locations throughout the city to commemorate the accomplishments of those Calgarians who have made a lasting contribution to Calgary.
Each Field of Fame includes six steel “sheaves of wheat”, thirteen feet high, symbolic of the prairies and the farm and ranching culture that formed the early backbone of the Calgary area.
Each sheaf of wheat includes a brief history on the individual being honoured, with a photograph and wording designed to highlight the import and significant contribution made by the particular individual to the fabric of the Calgary community.
The Field of Fame at Spruce Meadows. (Photo from the Alberta Champions Society website; used by permission.)
Gus Yaki was a lifelong birder, naturalist, and conservationist who had an enormous impact on Calgary from the time he arrived in 1993 until his passing in 2020 at the age of 87. (See this for more about Gus’s life and work.)
Those of us who were fortunate enough to know Gus and to learn from him are very pleased to see him being honoured in this way, and to have the monument erected in a place that was special to him. Gus passed away in August 2020, and due to Covid, a memorial service could not be held. Gus’s son David Yaki then planned a memorial for 2021, but again Covid forced a cancellation of the event. So it is very gratifying that there will be an event to honour Gus when the Fish Creek Field of Fame is completed in late 2023.
The future site of Field of Fame #7 in Fish Creek Park, near the Visitor’s Centre at Bow Valley Ranch. (Photo from the Alberta Champions Society website; used by permission.)
The other six people being honoured along with Gus are Virnetta Anderson, Peter Prince, Charles (Chuck) Mawer, Roderick (Roddy) Mah, Michael Green, and Narcisse Blood. The seven monuments will be erected near the visitor’s centre in the Bow Valley Ranch area of Fish Creek Park. It is expected to be completed in late 2023.
The Alberta Champions Society appreciates all financial donations from the community. Donations help to cover the costs of the monument and its installation. See the Donations page here. For more information on supporting this project, contact Pat Christie, the Executive Director of the Champions Society, at pat.christie[at]telus.net. Donors will be recognized either at the installation or on the Champions Society website, and a receipt will be issued. I know the Christmas season brings a lot of appeals for donations, so save the link and perhaps consider donating later in 2023 if you can.
I will give further updates on this project and its completion date in the coming months.
I’d like to acknowledge the efforts of Champions Society Board Member John Currie, who knew Gus and had birded with him. John nominated Gus for this honour and spearheaded the effort to include him in Field Of Fame #7. Sadly, Mr. Currie, himself a pillar of the community, passed away in October 2022.
Gus’s son David has been spreading the word about this project and sees it as fitting, and permanent, tribute to his father.
Nic Blanchet, the Executive Director of the Friends of Fish Creek Provincial Park Society, was instrumental in getting approval for erecting the monument in the park, which was a challenging process.
Thanks also to Champions Society President Gordon Hoffman who gave permission to use photos and other material from the Champions website.
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!
