Posted by Bob Lefebvre
We’re back! After a busy July away from from blogging, we had technical issues in August which prevented us from posting photos. We could have posted text, but as you know, a birding blog without photos is like a bowling ball without a liquid centre.
Despite the snow on the ground right now, I am going to catch up on some things from late spring. Those of you who follow Dan Arndt’s weekly posts about his Friends of Fish Creek outings will have wondered where the group went birding in June. Dan’s job took him out of town for the entire month, so he was unable to post. I was away for some of June as well, but I arranged for one of my group’s members, George Best, to send some photos from our outings.
Dan’s posts will resume this week and will found here most Mondays.
If you are interested in signing up for the course this fall, there are still a few spots available at the following times: Mondays at 8:30 am, Tuesdays at 8:30 and 9 am, Wednesdays at 9 am, Thursdays at 8:30 am, Saturdays at 8:30 am, and Sundays at 8:30 am, 9 am, 9:30 am and 1:15 pm. We have completed two weeks of the 14-week course so there are still 12 weeks of great birding to go. Go to the Friends of Fish Creek site to sign up.
On June 1 our excursion was to the Pine Creek Water Treatment Plant area, along the river south of 194 Avenue. For one of Dan’s previous posts from this area, complete with maps of the walk, see this post from April 2014.
Our June 1 walk featured some late-arriving spring migrants. One of the first birds we saw, as we car-pooled from the parking lot at 194 Avenue to the treatment plant, was this Western Kingbird hawking insects from a fence. All photos by George Best.
These birds are not common in Calgary, even on migration. I believe the only place within the city limits that they have been known to nest is in the Lafarge Meadows area of Fish Creek Park, about 1.5 km north of our sighting. But no nesting Western Kingbirds were reported there in the last three years, so I was hopeful that this bird might be heading there to nest. I didn’t hear any more reports of this species in that area over the summer, so this was probably just a passing migrant.
We got really good looks at some Song Sparrows and recorded a dozen on the day, several of them singing.
We saw at least nine Swainson’s Hawks, but the closest views were of Red-tails.
A Gray Catbird which emerged from the brush on the river bank:
An Eastern Kingbird, one of nine sighted on the day.
Another just-arrived migrant, and our first of the year – Baltimore Oriole.
Finally, we had a close fly-over by a group of five American White Pelicans.
We have only been taking groups to this area for a year or so, and it is a great addition to our repertoire of birding walks.
On June 8 we headed to Griffith Woods Park on the west edge of the city, along the Elbow River. (See this post for a map – one of Dan’s many posts about this park.) We spent a lot of time in the east end of the park, in the mixed woods along the river, before heading to the spruce forest farther west. Here are a few of the 37 species we saw that day.
Blue Jay.
Female Brown-headed Cowbird.
Gray Catbird.
House Wren.
Least Flycatcher.
Lesser Scaup.
Ruby-crowned Kinglet.
White-throated Sparrow.
Yellow Warbler.
On June 15 we went to the Weaselhead Natural Area. Our goal was to find two species of hummingbird. We were successful, and had 39 species for the day.
Calliope Hummingbird.
Eastern Phoebe.
Eastern Phoebe.
Rufous Hummingbird.
White-throated Sparrow.
Spotted Towhee.
