Furry Friday: Prairie Moose

Posted by Bob Lefebvre

We spotted this Moose running across highway 22X just east of Calgary on July 28, 2013. We stopped and got a few photos and a video as it ran right across the highway. Fortunately, no cars crossed its path. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a moose east of the city before. It probably came up from the Bow River valley just south of the highway, but I’m not sure where it was headed in such a hurry.

The moose is tagged in its right ear. It is probably part of a study of moose populations, but I haven’t been able to find out anything about this. If anyone knows what the tags mean, let us know in the comments.

Below is a video of the moose.

6,000+ Acres of Alberta Grassland & Prairie Potholes Protected

Sep5

Today Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC), along with Shell Canada, celebrated the launch of the Shell Buffalo Hills Conservation Ranch. This is DUC’s largest and most ecologically important acquisition to date, which builds on a strong 75-year legacy of delivering important habitat projects in areas that provide the greatest benefit to North American waterfowl.

Shell Buffalo Hills Conservation Ranch ©Ducks Unlimited

Shell Buffalo Hills Conservation Ranch includes 4,130 acres of pristine, native grasslands, as well as an additional 1,769 acres of tame hay lands. In total, this area represents nearly 6,000 acres for breeding, migration and wintering of 159 bird species that use both native prairie and the boreal forest of Alberta.

Recognizing the positive impact of this acquisition, Shell Canada has generously agreed to contribute $3 million towards the purchase with the balance coming from DUC and the NAWCA partnership. With this generous donation, Shell is demonstrating tremendous leadership by helping to conserve this block of wetland rich, mixed-grass prairie.

“The Shell Buffalo Hills Conservation Ranch is an outstanding and rare example of intact habitat only one hour southeast of Calgary,” says DUC President, Mac Dunfield. “This makes it not only an exemplar of wetland conservation, but easily accessible for the public to enjoy. It will serve as an excellent property to demonstrate how DUC’s work to conserve critical waterfowl habitat also provides many other societal benefits including carbon storage, improved water quality, as well as mitigating impacts of floods and drought.”

This is one of the last remaining tracts of native prairie grassland located within an area of intensive grain production. Had this land not been secured by DUC, there would be significant risk of losing the native habitat to grain and oilseed production in the future. Though there has been some minor wetland drainage on these lands, we are focused on retaining the existing native prairie and small wetland habitat, which includes approximately 800 basins.

From the Vulcan Business Development Society

On September 4th, Ducks Unlimited opened their 10,000 acre signature property – 6000 acres + 4000 lease-land – their largest acquisition in their history, for their 75th anniversary. It’s all right in Vulcan County, outside of Milo in Division 8.

The property is on Township Road 194 – just east of RR 234. It is open to the public and will provide superb hiking and exploring for years to come!

Posted by Pat Bumstead

Furry Friday: Foxes are Fun!

Aug30

Posted by Dan Arndt

I have to thank Glenn Alexon for sharing the location of this pair of beautiful foxes with me near Calgary.

Enjoy!

Red Fox near Calgary – August 1, 2013
Pentax K-5 + Sigma 150-500 @ 500mm
1/640sec., ƒ/6.3, ISO 1600

Red Fox near Calgary – August 1, 2013
Pentax K-5 + Sigma 150-500 @ 500mm
1/250sec., ƒ/6.3, ISO 800

Red Fox near Calgary – August 1, 2013
Pentax K-5 + Sigma 150-500 @ 500mm
1/250sec., ƒ/6.3, ISO 800

Red Fox near Calgary – August 1, 2013
Pentax K-5 + Sigma 150-500 @ 500mm
1/500sec., ƒ/6.3, ISO 1600

Red Fox near Calgary – August 1, 2013
Pentax K-5 + Sigma 150-500 @ 500mm
1/800sec., ƒ/6.3, ISO 3200

Red Fox near Calgary – August 1, 2013
Pentax K-5 + Sigma 150-500 @ 500mm
1/500sec., ƒ/6.3, ISO 3200

Red Fox near Calgary – August 1, 2013
Pentax K-5 + Sigma 150-500 @ 500mm
1/400sec., ƒ/6.3, ISO 3200

Red Fox near Calgary – August 1, 2013
Pentax K-5 + Sigma 150-500 @ 500mm
1/400sec., ƒ/6.3, ISO 3200

Thanks for reading, and good birding (or mammaling)!

Show Us Your Butts: Contest Finalists!

Aug25

Posted by Dan Arndt

It’s been quite a challenge this week narrowing down and picking our favourite for this contest, and now it’s your turn!

Take a look at our selected Top 11, and vote on your favourite bird butt!

Rufous Hummingbird Butt

Swan Butts

Mallard Butts

Killdeer Butt

Osprey Butt

European Starling Butts

Canada Warbler Butt

Green Jay Butt (taken in the US)

Gray-crowned Rosy Finch Butts

Osprey Butt in action

American Dipper Butt

And while we did receive a few mammalian submissions for this Bird Butt contest, I would like to give a pre-emptive honorable mention to Rob English, who provided us with this great photo of a Red Fox butt!

Red Fox Butt

Thanks for reading, voting, and have a great birding week!

Wednesday Wings: Spruce Grouse

Aug21

Posted by Bob Lefebvre

I found this young Spruce Grouse walking the trails at the Peninsula picnic area in Peter Lougheed Provincial Park on August 5, 2013. Taken with a Canon Eos 40D with 100-400 mm lens. Spruce Grouse can be very unwary, and it would not move until I got really close to it. On the twisty trails it was often too close to get the whole bird in the shot.

Review: Swarovski ATX-85 Angled Spotting Scope – Yes, it’s that good.

Aug19

Posted by Dan Arndt

Earlier this year I was asked by the amazing people at Swarovski if I would be interested in testing out some of their optics, and writing a review of my experiences. To put a fine point on it, I could not have been happier to say yes, and in retrospect, I’d have to say it was an opportunity of a lifetime. I’m going to go over my general points with some photo assistance, and hopefully convince some of you to take a second look at Swarovski Optik gear.

Swarovski ATX-85 + Swarovski TLS APO Digiscoping Adapter + Pentax K-30

As you can see in the above photo, this setup is entirely manual focus. To be honest, I was incredibly skeptical that I would be able to get clear, sharp photos of fast-moving birds. I had recently picked up a new tripod with a pan/tilt head, which I would recommend for any digiscoper to start with, and also a remove infrared shutter release, which works both in front of and behind my Pentax K-30, which was also indispensable.

The trick behind manually focusing while digiscoping… take a lot of shots, and practice, practice, practice. I’ve read blogs and forums focused on digiscoping, and the general rule of thumb seems to be 1 good photo for every 100 photos taken. Maybe it’s the prior experience I’ve had with digiscoping, or just the quality of the equipment, but I found I was able to use nearly 1/3 of all the images I took. It was a lot harder choosing which photos not to use rather than the ones that I would keep!

Northern Shoveler at Weed Lake – April 14, 2013
Swarovski ATX-85 + Pentax K-30 @30x magnification
1/800 sec., f/13, ISO 400

Black Tern at Eagle Lake – May 18, 2013
Pentax K-30 + Swarovski ATX-85@40X magnification
1/250sec., f/16, ISO 1600

Killdeer at Inglewood Bird Sanctuary - April 16, 2013 Pentax K-30 + Swarovski ATX85@30X magnification 1/250sec., f/10, ISO 1600

Killdeer at Inglewood Bird Sanctuary – April 16, 2013
Pentax K-30 + Swarovski ATX85@30X magnification
1/250sec., f/13, ISO 1600

Mountain Bluebird at Inglewood Bird Sanctuary – April 16, 2013
Pentax K-30 + Swarovski ATX-85@40X magnification
1/320 sec., f/16, ISO 1600

Where the Swarovski ATX-85 Angled Spotting Scope and TLS APO Digiscoping adapter really excel though, is with birds that are a little more sedentary. While getting action shots is pretty easy when the light is excellent, the stability of shooting on a tripod with a remote shutter allows for much lower than usual shutter speeds, allowing lower ISO compensation, or allowing even greater magnification. With the zoom ring located mid-way down the eyepiece, rather than just below it, and the focal ring located on the body of the scope itself, it allows for very fine adjustments to focal length and zoom without the adapter getting in the way, and without jostling the tripod off the target bird.

Gray-crowned Rosy Finch at Bearspaw Dam – April 13, 2013
Pentax K-30 + Swarovski ATX-85@60x magnfiication
1/320sec., f/22, ISO 3200

This Gray-crowned Rosy Finch was well inside an area marked with numerous No Trespassing, Private Property, and No Admittance signs, so I set up the scope, tripod, and camera rig midway up a hill about 150 meters away. The equivalent focal length of this scope at this magnification level is around 3000mm, once the 1.5x cropped sensor, 35mm equivalent adapter, and 60x magnification is factored in. To put this into some perspective, this bird is 140-160mm in length (about the size of a House Sparrow), and was taking up about 1/8 of the image in the display. To get an equivalent photo with my Pentax K-5 and Sigma 150-500, I would have had to be about 20 meters away from the bird, well within the clearly marked private property! The above photo was additionally cropped 50%. That speaks volumes to the sharpness of the glass and coatings that Swarovski uses in their spotting scopes.

Great Gray Owl on Grand Valley Road – April 20, 2013
Pentax K-30 + Swarovski ATX-85@60x magnification
1/320sec., f/22, ISO 400

If that last image didn’t convince you, maybe this one will. Again, this photo was taken at over 100 meters distance, with blowing snow, wind gusts, and terrible visibility. Once again, Swarovski comes through in a pinch. While this may not be an award-winning photo, it goes to show just how incredible the equipment actually is.

Now, there are some of you out there who aren’t really all up on this digiscoping thing yet, and just want a nice, clear scope, with great optics that’s easy to use. As I mentioned before, the lenses and coating on this scope are the top of the line. Even on very warm days, the heat distortion above 40x magnification was somewhat dispersed by the optics, making identification of distant birds seem like nothing at all. I like the angled scope too because it can be tilted at any angle to allow others to view, without changing the position of the scope. You can simply release the tripod ring, rotate the scope in place, and lock it back in at the appropriate eye level for the new viewer.

It also doesn’t really change anything if you’ve already got some accessories that you usually use to scope with, be they car window mounts, bean bags, or your current scope tripod, this scope will work with just about anything under the sun. If you’re interested in this scope, or any of Swarovski Optiks other amazing optics, check out their website at http://ca.swarovskioptik.com/nature, for their birding equipment, or http://ca.swarovskioptik.com/hunting for their hunting gear.

The review, in a nutshell:

Pros:

The scope itself is light, easy to clean, and best of all, totally waterproof.

It’s super easy to learn to use, and even with an entry-level tripod and camera can capture superb images.

The quality of the glass, coatings, and even transportability of the equipment is top-notch and very user friendly.

Cons:

The price point is obviously out of the range of many birders and photographers, simply because it’s the very top end of the line, but it’s worth every penny.

I did have a bit of trouble with the DRX Adapter sleeve not locking down properly, and coming loose off of the scope during transport. The reason this is an issue is that without a solid connection, vignetting of the images (black space where the eyepiece is blocking the adapter lens) becomes very apparent, especially at higher magnifications. It seems that a simple locking ring between the eyepiece itself and the adapter sleeve would be an easy fix.

Swarovski DRX Adapter sleeve for TLS-APO Adapter

And last but not least, the only major con that I can readily point out is that using this scope on a nearly daily basis for 3 months has completely ruined me for using my current digiscoping rig, let alone simply using my current scope for its intended purpose of simply spotting birds! Are there any generous benefactors who’d like to gift me one of these amazing scopes? 😉

I’ve added a few more photos below of some of the better shots I was able to get while I had the scope, and if you want to see even more, here’s a link to the photo album I set up on Flickr to show off all the photos I took while I had the scope this spring!

Green-winged Teal at Weed Lake – April 14, 2013
Pentax K-30 + Swarovski ATX-85@30X magnification
1/640sec., f/13, ISO 400

Red-necked Grebe at Frank Lake – April 27, 2013
Pentax K-30 + Swarovski ATX-85@20X magnification
1/400sec., f/10, ISO 800

Red-necked Grebe at Frank Lake – April 27, 2013
Pentax K-30 + Swarovski ATX-85@20X magnification
1/160sec., f/10, ISO 800

Long-billed Curlew at Glenmore Trail and Highway 24 Sloughs – May 18, 2013
Pentax K-30 + Swarovski ATX-85@50X magnification
1/250sec., f/20, ISO 1600

Franklin’s Gull at Inglewood Bird Sanctuary – May 10, 2013
Pentax K-30 + Swarovski ATX-85@30X magnification
1/320sec., f/13, ISO 800

Common Loon at Carburn Park – April 28, 2013
Pentax K-30 + Swarovski ATX-85@40X magnification
1/160sec., f/16, ISO 800

Lesser Scaup at Weed Lake – April 14, 2013
Pentax K-30 + Swarovski ATX-85@30X magnification
1/640sec., f/13, ISO 400

Thanks for reading, and good birding!

Sign Up For the Autumn Birding Course

Aug14

Posted by Bob Lefebvre

Once again the Friends of Fish Creek will be offering the autumn birding course, starting the first week of September. This twelve-week course consists of weekly field trips to various parks and natural areas in the city. Each week your group of fifteen participants plus two instructors will meet at the designated spot and learn about the birds you see there. Dan Arndt and I will be leading one of the sessions again.

Field trips usually last between two-and-a-half and three hours (although some of the ones Dan and I led last year went up to four-and-a-half hours, when the participants were willing). There are sessions offered at seven different times during the week, and there may be up to fifteen groups all together, so anyone who interested should be able to find a time that suits them. (If you occasionally find that you can’t make it out at the designated time due to another commitment, you have the flexibility to join another group that week so you don’t miss out).

A new wrinkle this fall is that we will be allowing any adult participant to also register one youth (sixteen years old or younger) to accompany them for only $5 for the whole course. We really want to encourage more young people to take up birding. We have had several young participants before but we hope the nominal fee will encourage even more youngsters to join us.

See the poster for details on how to register.

Did you know…

Aug1

For today’s ‘Did you know’, we feature a quick fact about the Lesser and Greater Yellowlegs.

Did You Know..

The Lesser Yellowlegs is a species of shorebird you can expect to see migrating through the prairies right now on its southbound journey. While as a single bird we can refer to both it and the Greater Yellowlegs as simply a ‘yellowlegs’, as a group they are referred to as an “incontinence” of yellowlegs.

This Lesser Yellowlegs was part of an incontinence of yellowlegs

Birding after the Flood: How the 2013 flooding has impacted some of our favourite hotspots

Aug1

It’s been over a month now since Calgary has been back to “normal” post-flood… or at least for the most part. There are still people cleaning out, drying out, and even tearing out basements in Calgary, and some neighborhoods in High River have only just been allowed to go back into their homes that will undoubtedly be condemned and demolished due to the severe contamination from mold, sewage, and flood waters. And that’s just the homes. Infrastructure like bike paths, roads, and parks have been the hardest, hit, especially those near any sort of waterway.

The full list of park closures is on the City of Calgary Parks webpage here, but the short list is as follows: Inglewood Bird Sanctuary, Carburn Park, The Weaselhead Flats, parts of Prince’s Island Park, lower Bowmont Park, Bowness Park, Griffith Woods, Lawrey Gardens, Sandy Beach, Stanley Park, Beaverdam Flats, Pearce Estate Park, and parts of Sue Higgins Park are all closed until further notice. Furthermore, the Weaselhead Flats are being assessed by the Department of National Defence after a live howitzer shell from military training exercises prior to 1933 was eroded and flushed down the Elbow River shortly following the worst of the flooding, and was found on July 3.

Given its positioning between two significant meanders of the Bow River, the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary was hit quite hard by the floods. Jeffries’ Pond became part of the river channel at the height of the flood, and the entire low-lying area below the Walker House was under water for days. Many of the trails, observation platforms, and even a few bridges are simply gone, and the cleanup is going to take months before the park has recovered. CBC Calgary did a story with some chilling pictures on how heavily the sanctuary was damaged on July 12, and according to the City of Calgary’s Parks page, the sanctuary is closed until further notice, while the Nature Centre remains open.

Carburn Park’s furthest north pond was formerly separated from the flow of the Bow River by a long, 10-15 foot wide gravel bar, which had a number of trees, grass, and shrubs established over the park’s 40 year history. Now, that pond is a spillway hardly separated from the main river channel at all.

Parts of Hull’s Wood, Lafarge Meadows, and Sikome Lake in Fish Creek Provincial Park have also suffered great damage from the flooding, either from ponds flooding over their banks from high rain volumes, from the river cutting away huge chunks of their former cut-banks, or even just from the sediment and debris load of the flooding dredging up the river bottom, destroying gravel and sand bars, and depositing inches of sediment on the grassy floodplains once the water levels subsided.

There are currently no volunteer opportunities to help clean up the parks, but keep your eyes on the site and we’ll keep you all up to date as we get new information!

A hummingbird nest

Jul31

Posted by Matthew Sim

Last year, I discovered a location in Fish Creek P.P. where I found 2 (and possibly all 3 species of hummingbirds that commonly occur in Calgary) nesting. In June, I had found a pair of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds and not long afterwards, Hank Vanderpol and I discovered what appeared to be a female Calliope hummingbird sitting on a nest. A couple weeks later, a Nature Calgary field trip I led to the area discovered a Rufous hummingbird nest not far away.

This year, I was finally able to get out and search for the hummingbirds last week. It took me about an hour before I finally spotted a hummingbird moving about, but always returning close to me. That’s when I realized that this female Ruby-throated Hummingbird (for this is what it was), might have a nest nearby.

Female Ruby-throated Hummingbird

Sure enough, before very long, the female Ruby-throated Hummingbird had flown to her nest which had not been too far away from me the entire time.

At first the nest was tough to spot…

It was neat to watch the female as she sat on her nest, presumably incubating eggs. From time to time she would fly off but she was always alert and ready to defend her nest.

Ruby-throated Hummingbird

The most interesting part of watching this hummingbird though was the way she defended her nest from anything she perceived to be a threat, including a confused and startled Cedar Waxwing who twice made the mistake of landing too near the hummingbird’s nest. She swiftly drove the waxwing off despite the fact it probably wasn’t a threat; I suppose one can never be too cautious!

Returning back to her nest

I will do my best to follow this nest in the coming weeks and see what comes of it. Hoping that the female will successfully raise her brood of young!

Birds Calgary

A birding blog for Calgary, Alberta and area

Furry Friday: Prairie Moose

6,000+ Acres of Alberta Grassland & Prairie Potholes Protected

Furry Friday: Foxes are Fun!

Show Us Your Butts: Contest Finalists!

Wednesday Wings: Spruce Grouse

Review: Swarovski ATX-85 Angled Spotting Scope – Yes, it’s that good.

Sign Up For the Autumn Birding Course

Did you know…

Birding after the Flood: How the 2013 flooding has impacted some of our favourite hotspots

A hummingbird nest

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