Here is a photographic collection of some of the birds you may see in the Calgary region this winter.
Snowy Owl
Common Merganser
Hairy Woodpecker
Mountain Chickadee
Brown Creeper
Red Crossbill
Posted by Matthew Sim
Rare Bird Alert Calgary: Oct 27
Have you seen an unusual bird in Calgary? If it is on this Reportable_Birds (PDF), please report it to the Nature Calgary Rare Bird Alert line at 403 221-4519 and leave a message after the beep at the end of the recording. If you would like some help with species identification, us email us at zoxox@shaw.ca To report injured wildlife call the Calgary Wildlife Rehabilitation Society at 403 239-2488, or the Alberta Institute for Wildlife Conservation at 403 946-2361.
This report was prepared on Thursday October 27.
October 20
— TRUMPETER SWAN/TUNDRA SWAN (48), mixed flock on large pond at jct of Twp. Rd. 314 and RR 265, Corinne Griffin Swans have been slow to arrive this fall. Most common on Weed Lake near Langdon and Chestermere Lake
October 23
— GREAT HORNED OWL Wildwood Drive, west Calgary, Anne Jones
October 25
–PILEATED WOODPECKER Sunnyslope, west of Three Hills, on RR 260 ca. 400 m. north of Twp. Rd 312, also in Three Hills itself, CG
The next scheduled update of the Bird Alert is on Monday October 31.
BIRD STUDY GROUP:
Bird Study Group meets 1st Wednesday of the month, Room 211, BioSciences Building, U of C.
November 2: Digital bird photography with Brian Elder.
Revering a Raptor
From the day that I first laid eyes on the species, gliding on broad wings over a coniferous forest in the Rocky mountains of Alberta, I have always looked with awe at it, astounded by its sheer magnificence. Many people have soft spots for raptors. I have a soft spot for one in particular: the Northern Goshawk.
I first saw a goshawk just over a year ago. It was early October 2010, and I had signed up for the Mount Lorette Golden Eagle field trip with Nature Calgary. I went out on my own to explore the area right around the location of the watch, and, while out on the path, witnessed an adult goshawk rise up from the spruce trees and circle away. From that moment on I was always looking for goshawks; every chance I got, I would go searching for them.
Rising up out of the forest; my first views of a Northern Goshawk
Several days later, on a biking trip to Fish Creek Provincial Park, I came across an adult Goshawk perched high up in a poplar, sitting and gazing at the world around him. I stood and watched this magnificent raptor for more than half an hour, pointing the bird out to anybody who came near. Many of these were joggers or were merely walking their dogs. They took little interest in this bird, that is somewhat tricky to spot in the city of Calgary. I was rewarded though by the few who did pause to look up at the goshawk and comment on his size.
“What did you say it was called?”
“A Northern Goshawk”, I would reply eagerly, ” it’s somewhat unusual here in Calgary.”
“Really? Wow! Look at how big he his!” After staring up at him for several more seconds, they would smile and move on. Hopefully the Goshawk had made an impression on them though.
While I watched this large, strong accipter (agile, forest dwelling hawks with short rounded wings and long tails) it scratched its head withs its talon, giving me glimpses of those wicked sharp utensils it uses to tear apart its prey. Eventually, it lifted off and disappeared amongst the trees.
Goshawks are among the largest, strongest and most audacious of the hawks of North America. In November 2010, a little over a month since I first observed this species, I got an excellent opportunity to view this audacity. I was riding my bike home from Fish Creek and was running slightly late. I looked down for a moment as I pulled onto a dirt path going around a storm water pond, and, when I looked up again, there, sitting merely yards away from me in a small tree no taller than 10 feet, was an adult goshawk. They now seemed to be everywhere I went! I slammed on the brakes as hard as I could and screeched to a stop, panting breathlessly. Pulling out my camera, I marveled at how close this bird had let me get. I stood watching him, he stood watching me, this went on for several minutes before he abruptly flew away.
Taken with a 200mm lens and no crop; I could see every detail in the feathers
Instead of leaving altogether though, the goshawk started hovering over a field, pulled up, started hovering again and then pulled up once more. Then, with a sharp turn, he came whizzing right at me and flew by me at a distance of about 4 feet! The raptor was so close that my lens couldn’t focus on it!
These incredibly neat personal experiences combined with an amazingly beautiful species, have come to make me love the Northern Goshawk.
Posted by Matthew Sim
Weasel Wednesday
Sometimes when you go birding you don’t find what you hope to see. But sometimes you see something unexpected that is just as great. And sometimes it’s not even a bird.
Last Saturday the Friends of Fish Creek Society birders explored the Votier’s Flats area of Fish Creek Park. Our goal was to find a Northern Pygmy-Owl, which is always a treat to see, and which several members of the group had never seen. The owl has not yet been reported in the park this fall but in the last few years it has first been sighted at about this time.
We didn’t find an owl, but someone spotted a writhing mass at the side of the path that turned out to be a family of Least Weasels – a mother with eight young.
Photo by Dan Arndt
The nine little mammals moved through the undergrowth in a mass, over and under each other, but always in contact. In his report on Albertabird, Gus Yaki described them as “travelling together so close that they seemed to be a single organism.” Pat Bumstead says that they probably were making one of their first forays outside their natal den, and were exploring their surroundings.
- Photo by Wayne Walker
The mother crossed the trail near us, and the young separated amongst our feet. They showed no fear of us. I put my hand down, and briefly had one in my gloved hand. The shots below show just how small Least Weasels are. These young are as big as an adult, or nearly so.
Photo by Wayne Walker
Photo by Wayne Walker
Photo by Wayne Walker
Photo by Wayne Walker
Photo by Wayne Walker
The juveniles eventually crossed the trail to reunite with their mother.
Photo by Dan Arndt
Although they are impossibly cute, weasels are carnivores, capable of killing animals many times their size. In these photos they show off their teeth.
Photo by Wayne Walker
Photo by Anne Elliott
We were very lucky to see such an amazing sight. If you’re like me, you can’t get enough of looking at these little guys, so below there are some more pictures for you to enjoy.
(To see an additional Birdscalgary post about another species of weasel, click here.)
(To see a YouTube video that uses some of these pictures, with music, click below:)
Here are the rest of the photos:
Photo by Dan Arndt
Photo by Dan Arndt
Photo by Anne Elliott
Photo by Wayne Walker
Photo by Wayne Walker
Photo by Wayne Walker
Photo by Wayne Walker
Photo by Wayne Walker
Photo by Wayne Walker
Photo by Wayne Walker
Photo by Wayne Walker
Photo by Wayne Walker
Photo by Wayne Walker
Photo by Wayne Walker
Photo by Wayne Walker
Photo by Wayne Walker
Photo by Wayne Walker
Photo by Wayne Walker
Photo by Wayne Walker
Photo by Wayne Walker
Photo by Wayne Walker
Photo by Wayne Walker
Photo by Wayne Walker
Thanks to the three photographers who contributed these great pictures: Wayne Walker, Dan Arndt, and Anne Elliott.
Posted by Bob Lefebvre
Rare Bird Alert Calgary: Oct 25
Have you seen an unusual bird in Calgary? If it is on this Reportable_Birds (PDF), please report it to the Nature Calgary Rare Bird Alert line at 403 221-4519 and leave a message after the beep at the end of the recording. If you would like some help with species identification, us email us at zoxox@shaw.ca To report injured wildlife call the Calgary Wildlife Rehabilitation Society at 403 239-2488, or the Alberta Institute for Wildlife Conservation at 403 946-2361.
This Bird Alert was recorded on Monday Oct 24 at 10:10 am.
Bird Sightings:
Oct 20:
DUNLIN (1), PECTORAL SANDPIPERS, STILT SANDPIPERS, 400 DOWITCHERS at Weed Lake, Phil Cram, Brian Elder & Ray Woods.
Oct 22:
PACIFIC LOON, SURF SCOTER female at Glenmore Res., Bill Wilson.
1000 GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GEESE, 800 SNOW GEESE at Namaka Lake SE of Strathmore, Andrew Slater.
GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLET (2), PINE GROSBEAK (2) at Big Hill Spr. PP, Steve Kassai.
COOPER’S HAWK, TOWNSEND’S SOLITAIRE, BOHEMIAN WAXWING (60) at Votier’s Flats, FCPP, Katrina Lybbert.
FRANKLIN’S GULL (1) at Shepherd Landfill, Terry Korolyk.
TOWNSEND’S SOLITAIRE (7), AMERICAN ROBIN (25), RED CROSSBILL (6), GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLET, Votier’s Flats, FCPP, Gus Yaki & FFCPP.
Oct 23:
DUNLIN (1) at Chestermere Lake, Terry Korolyk.
DOWITCHER (400), BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER (5 juv.), PECTORAL SANDPIPER (3), 1st yr. THAYER’S GULL at Weed Lake, TK.
MAGNOLIA WARBLER, Mount Royal district, Phil Cram.
The next scheduled update of the Bird Alert is on Thursday Oct 27.
Brand New Downies
We recently had a couple of very cute visitors to the yard – a couple of hatch year downy woodpeckers. They seemed to be eagerly checking out their surroundings, much like excited youngsters of any species in a new environment. They were so small that when the first one landed on the tree, I thought for a minute it was a Brown-creeper.
Posted by Pat Bumstead
Nothing But Shoreline
The irrigation canal in southeast Calgary is drained in late September, and as the water level drops, it exposes lush shorelines with plenty for the birds to eat. From mid-September to freeze-up is the time to get out to look for waterfowl, gulls, and late migrating shorebirds.
Fall colours reflected in the remaining water
I usually explore the sections from the canal headworks near the Max Bell Arena to south of 50 Avenue SE. There are four parking areas, and you can go up and down a portion of the canal from each one. It’s a long walk to do it all at once, but a fairly short bike ride.
Click to enlarge the map.
Max Bell Arena: Access from Barlow Trail SE, just south of Memorial Drive. There is a large parking lot north of the arena, and you can walk down to the canal headworks from there, and walk along the east bank. If you want to get to the west bank, you have to cross over at the 17 Avenue SE bridge.
Bow Waters Canoe Club: Access is off 26 Street SE, just south of 17 Avenue. Cross the bridge to get to the paths on the west side. The path on the east side between here and Gosling Way has some steep, difficult terrain, and it is almost impassable by bike. This lot is fairly secluded and I don’t like to leave my vehicle there. I prefer Max Bell or Gosling Way.
Gosling Way: Go west off 26 Street SE at 34 Avenue. This is the road that goes to the Inglewood Golf and Curling Club. The parking lot, used by off-leash dog walkers, is just west of the bridge over Deerfoot trail, on the south side of Gosling Way. It only holds about ten vehicles. From this lot, walk down to the bridge over the canal and take the paths from there. In the winter, you can also park at the golf and curling club, but it is a bit of a walk back to the canal.
50 Avenue SE: It is difficult to park here. There are only two small spots, each with room for two cars, at the east end of the bridge over the canal. It can also be a very busy road, so I avoid parking here as well, and usually just walk from Gosling Way.
The canal has a paved path on one side (sometimes on the east, sometimes on the west) and a dirt or gravel path of sorts on the other side. I like to go on the east side in the mornings and on the west side in the afternoons, to keep the sun behind me. This late in the year, the water is usually frozen in the mornings, so there are few birds around. But on warm afternoons the ice melts, and the birds arrive.
Muskrat and female Hooded Merganser
Detail of Gosling Way Parking. Click to enlarge.
Looking south from Gosling Way.
Looking north to the bridge on Gosling Way.
Pat and I have each posted about birding the canal before. You can see Pat’s post here, and my post here.
Lately I’ve seen quite a few Canada Geese, Mallards, and Ring-billed Gulls, and a few Hooded Mergansers, Common Goldeneyes, and Greater Yellowlegs. In past years I’ve seen Redheads, Blue-winged Teal, Killdeer, Long-billed Dowitchers, and Rusty Blackbirds all feeding along the shorelines.
Mallards and an assortment of Yellowlegs.
Muskrat and Mallard sharing the Muskrat’s lodge. Background by Monet.
A Black-billed Magpie looks for food on the old canal bottom.
Posted by Bob Lefebvre
Sunday Showcase: Young Swainson’s Hawk
Rob English was fortunate enough to capture these stunning shots of a young Swainson’s hawk hunting grasshoppers. He took them in Hulls’ Wood, Fish Creek Park in early September. He says the bird hung around the area for about three days, and showed no fear. His wife named him “Mr. Personality.” Thanks so much for sharing these Rob! Click to enlarge.
eBird
“Global tools for birders, critical data science”.
This one line sums up eBird perfectly. eBird is an online checklist program for birders that has changed the way we submit and access data for the better. This program enables you to easily view data submitted from across the globe by birdwatchers.
Well how does it work? eBird gets many thousands of birders engaged in contributing to a huge online database. You simply fill in a checklist on your birding trip; the who, what, when and where of the outing and then submit the form. eBird stores the data and allows you to view your own lists of what you have seen for the month, for the year, for a certain location and so on. Rare birds get flagged by the data quality filters and are then reviewed by local experts. Once a rare bird has been confirmed it is accessible for all to see via rare bird alerts, allowing others to share in the discovery. Your checklist goes to the database to help scientists accumulate information on birds and helps them to determine species ranges, bird distribution and other such data which can help save endangered birds. As they explain on the website: “any contribution made to eBird increases our understanding of the distribution, richness, and uniqueness of the biodiversity of our planet.” I look forward to seeing many observations submitted to eBird from you!
http://ebird.org/content/ebird/
Posted by Matthew Sim
A Bird ID Quiz
We received the following email from a birder in the United Kingdom, and asked him if we could post it on our blog. He’s looking for ID help on three local bird species, so we thought we would ask our readers what they think the birds are. Two sparrow-ish birds and a shorebird should give you quite a challenge. Leave your best guesses in the comments below, and we’ll put up the correct answers eventually…
Dear Pat, Bob and Matthew,
Firstly I want to say how great your blog is – I have just gotten back to the UK after two weeks in your neck of the woods [late September] and the blog was very helpful in finding out about local spots and unfamiliar birds! I particularly enjoyed the sections on Fish Creek Park which we visited a couple of times and had great views of Bald Eagle, fishing Osprey and Lesser Yellowlegs.
I have a couple of ID questions that I hope you can help me solve! This was my first trip to Canada and most of the species are entirely unfamiliar (I have just one short non-birding trip to Texas last year as previous North American experience!).
Firstly, I attach a jpg file, ‘Sparrow sp’. I intially thought this was a pipit from stance but later revised my opionion to a sparrow, possibly Vesper due to the strong white eye ring. It was foraging for food in sparsely vegetated ground near the Elbow Valley constructed wetland. Any thoughts on ID would be greatly appreciated!
Another, ‘Bunting sp’ is also attached… This one was seen out near Forgetmenot Pond by the Elbow River. I’m thinking Lapland Longspur but wouldn’t be surprised to discover it’s something else!
Finally, a picture of a Yellowlegs from Fish Creek Park near Mallard Point. I initially thought it was a Lesser, but the bill length, amount of yellow on the bill base and the head shape have made me unsure, although it lacks the bolder streaking of Greater. Your views are appreciated.
Many thanks in advance for your time and assistance, and with great appreciation for your blog,
Steve Marshall