Birds, Bats, and Building Collisions

Posted by Bob Lefebvre

Window strikes, or birds colliding with windows, is a big problem – not just in residential yards, but in urban downtowns where tall glass structures are a big obstacle to migrating birds (and bats too). Many birds migrate at night, and skyscrapers can cause a lot of bird mortality. You may have seen some of the disturbing photos of hundreds of dead birds of many species that are collected in Toronto’s downtown every year by the Fatal Light Awareness Project (FLAP). A similar effort is undertaken in Ottawa by Safe Wings Ottawa.

Toronto, unlike Calgary, is located on a major migratory flyway. So how big is the problem here, and what can be done to minimize the damage? This is what Kathleen Johnson has set out to discover, by creating the Calgary Migratory Species Response Team.

A Chipping Sparrow found in downtown Calgary by Kathleen in the spring during one of her preliminary checks for birds killed by window strikes.

Kathleen has done an amazing job of assembling a team of experts and setting up a detailed and well-prepared group of volunteers to begin surveys of Calgary’s downtown. The CMSRT will plot the locations of all birds and bats found, to learn where the problem areas are. The Calgary Wildlife Rehabilitation Society is directly involved as well, so that any injured animals can be rescued.

This weekend there will be a two-part orientation session for anyone wishing to volunteer. The first part will be an information and training session at the Central Library downtown, and the second part will be in the field (downtown) early Sunday morning. See the event on Facebook here.

Please visit the group’s Facebook page to learn more about this effort. You can also follow them on Twitter (@CalgaryResponse). If you want to volunteer, email them at calgaryresponse[at]gmail.com.

Tonight, August 22nd, Kathleen will give a brief overview of the project at the Birds & Beers event (6-9 pm, at the Legion at 9202 Horton Road SW) and will have more information available for anyone interested in getting involved. This is a really exciting initiative and I hope everyone can get behind it and help out!

2019 Autumn Birding Course

Aug21

If you are new to birding and want to get out in the field with some experienced leaders, or if you are new to Calgary and want to see where to find the birds here, or if you just want to get out with a group of friendly birders and enjoy what you find, the Friends of Fish Creek birding course is for you!

These popular outings have been going for many years now, and there are hundreds of Calgarians that go out every week to learn about birds. The groups go to a variety of birding hotspots in Fish Creek Park and in other parts of the city. Pick a day of the week and register to join! Outings begin the week of September 2!

See this page for more information and to register.

Birds & Beers, August 22, 2019

Aug17

Posted by Bob Lefebvre

Birds & Beers will kick off the fall season with a meeting this Thursday, August 22.

Royal Canadian Legion, Centennial Calgary Branch#285,

9202 Horton Road SW.

Thursday August 22, 2019, 6:00-9:00 pm

Birds & Beers is a casual social get-together that is free and open to everyone. Children may attend if accompanied by an adult. Food and drinks are available at reasonable prices.

We will meet in the large auditorium which is to the right after you enter the Legion. After 7 pm, there will be a special presentation by Gus Yaki on colour abnormalities in birds.

Common Grackle, Calgary, September 17, 2010.
Photo by Bob Lefebvre

Gus will show photos from the Calgary region of many birds with unusual markings. Most birders are aware of terms like albinism, leucism, and melanism, but there are actually six types of colour abnormalities, and many of these terms are often poorly understood and improperly used.

Gus Yaki — Gus with a normally-plumaged but injured Ring-billed Gull.

If you can’t arrive by 6 pm come anytime after that. The presentation will begin by about 7:15. You can also come early if you want – long-time attendees have learned that this is a good way to avoid the lineups at the grill.

We have booked the dates for upcoming Birds & Beers as follows, so mark these dates in your calendars. (Note the unusual Wednesday date in November.)

Thursday October 3

Thursday October 31

Wednesday November 27

All of these will be in the same location, in the big auditorium at the Horton Road Legion. We plan to have presentations but these aren’t finalized yet.

Here is an update on the projector used for presentations. When we started Birds & Beers it was purely a social event, and we had no plans to do presentations. However, Gus suggested we add short talks after the social part of the evening, and after doing this a few times if soon became clear that people really enjoyed this part of the evening. At first we borrowed the Legion’s projector, but this was not always available. Then we borrowed Nature Calgary’s, but they no longer have one as they don’t need it in their new location. So we have been borrowing one from one of our regular attendees, but we felt that if we are going to continue to have presentations we should have our own system.

We brought this topic up at the May Birds & Beers, and people were very enthusiastic, and donated generously towards purchasing our own projector. We collected more money at the June meeting, and we now have $528. This is just about enough to cover the cost of the system we are looking at. We may need about $90 more to purchase a replacement bulb, so we may ask for one more round of (optional!) donations. Then we should have our projector ready for the meeting on October 3.

A big thanks to Joan and Wayne Walker for spearheading the projector search (and for booking the Legion, and for doing almost everything relating to Birds & Beers!), to Dave Russum for lending us his projector for several meetings, and to Dan Arndt for providing his technical expertise in the projector search.

See you on Thursday!

Birds & Beers Facebook page.

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.

“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.

“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.

“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.

“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.

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

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

The Road To 300: May

Jun22

May and June are the busiest months if you are trying to find new species for the year. Here is an update with photos of some of the birds Gavin McKinnon has added to his list in May. He is trying to record 300 species within Alberta in 2019.

As of the end of May, Gavin had 216 species in Alberta. It will be interesting to see how many species he has at the end of June – although that is halfway through the calendar, I have been told by people who have attempted this before that you have to be at about 240 by June 30 to have a good shot at 300 species, depending on how many “easy” ones you missed in the spring and can get in the fall.

You can see photos and updates for January and February here, and March and April here.

Great Big Nature

Jun18

Note: You have to RSVP by June 19 to attend.

This Thursday there will be an exclusive sneak peek screening of the Great Big Nature project. Brian Keating and Bryan Smith, executive producer of MiMedia, invite you to learn more about their latest project. The video series will be launched later this year, but you have the opportunity to get a glimpse of the unique storylines and segments during a special viewing fundraiser.

Come out to hear Brian Keating talk about this exciting new project, and help to get it off the ground. They have a fund-matching opportunity up to $50K, until July 20^th, therefore people can double their impact by donating now!

The fundraiser is Thursday June 20, 2019

Time: 7:00 – 8:30 p.m.
Place: La Cité Des Rocheuses (Community Centre and Theatre)
Address: 4800 Richard Rd SW, Calgary, AB

Light appetizers and drinks will be served.
Please RSVP by June 19th to j_bode[at]ducks.ca

Yellow Warbler and Nest

Jun16

Local photographer Judi Willis found this Yellow Warbler and its nest this week in the Calgary area.

Here is one of the pair in the nest:

This is a pretty typical spot for a Yellow Warbler nest – usually in a fork of branches in a bush like this willow, and commonly only ten feet off the ground or so. The nest seems large for a Yellow Warbler, with a lot of material hanging down (animal hair?).

Below is the nesting bird again.

Birds of Beaver Mines

Jun9

Here are some beautiful birds photographed by Raymond Toal in a garden in Beaver Mines, in the far SW corner of Alberta, near Waterton Park. All photos taken on May 26, 2019 by Raymond Toal.

The Road to 300: March/April

May25

Here is an update on Gavin McKinnon’s quest to reach the 300-species club in Alberta in a calendar year. You can read more about this and see some photos from January and February in an earlier post here. All photos by Gavin McKinnon.

Gavin had about 75 species at the end of February, and by March 31 he had almost doubled that to 147 species. You might think it would be easy to get to 300 if you were almost halfway there by the end of March, but after the bulk of the spring migration is over in late May it gets much tougher to add new species. You need to be pretty close to 300 species (about 240-250) by the end of June to have a good chance to get to 300 by year’s end. It will be interesting to see how high his number gets in the next few weeks. As of this writing, on May 23rd, he is at 209 species in Alberta. (Gavin has a Canadian total of 282 species so far this year, the eighth-highest total on eBird. He has made some trips outside the province, including a recent one to Point Pelee.)

Some of Gavin’s highlight species in Alberta in March and April were Eurasian Wigeon, Boreal Owl, Virginia Rail, Hudsonian Godwit, Purple Finch, and Peregrine Falcon. Here are some more photos.

Stay tuned for the next update on Gavin’s Big Year!

Birds Calgary

A birding blog for Calgary, Alberta and area

Birds, Bats, and Building Collisions

2019 Autumn Birding Course

The Road to 300: June

The Road To 300: May

Great Big Nature

Yellow Warbler and Nest

Birds of Beaver Mines

The Road to 300: March/April

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: