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!

Sunday Showcase: American Avocets

Jul28

Posted by Matthew Sim

Did you know…

Jul25

Posted by Matthew Sim

I am going to try this out as a new weekly post in which I will feature a fact or two about a bird species or birding topic and hopefully with a photo included. So, for this week`s Did you know… we feature the Cedar Waxwing.

Did you know…

The Cedar Waxwing is one of the few birds in North America that can live primarily off fruit. Thanks to this eating habit, when young cowbirds are raised in Cedar Waxwing nests the cowbirds usually don`t survive because they can`t live off a diet of fruit. This is a double-edged sword for the waxwings though as sometimes they get quite drunk and can occasionally die when they eat overripe berries that are fermenting and producing alcohol.

Birds and Bugs of Dinosaur PP: Part 2

Jul23

Posted by Matthew Sim

When we woke the next morning, we were hoping for fewer bugs but, much to out dismay, neither the numbers nor the ferocity of the mosquitoes had diminshed. Fortunately we had only planned to stay the morning anyways. I decided to brave the bugs and went out birding along the river where nighthawks and swallows seemed to do little to keep the bugs at bay! An Eastern Kingbird did pose for me, as did a preening Northern Flicker.

Eastern Kingbird

This Northern Flicker paused from preening to give me a cautious look

Robins and Mourning Doves sang continuously and eventually I managed to spot three of the doves.

Mourning Dove

One of the highlights of the morning for me, however was a mammal. I enjoyed close-up views of a pair of Nuttall’s Cottontail, a species pf rabbit we don’t get to see in Calgary.

Nuttall’s Cottontail

The other highlight was watching a group of Common Nighthawks chase down insects in the sky. While I was watching one particular individual, it proceeded to do a mid-air shake, ruffling out its feathers and fanning out its tail; of which I only managed to capture a mediocre image.

After spending an hour or so birding, we finished up our time at Dinosaur Provincial Park on a bus tour throughout the badlands where I got more good looks at Western Meadowlarks and Rock Wrens. I definitely loved the park, but I guess now I have to figure out when is the best time to visit without the bugs! I imagine there would be very few mosquitoes in December…

Birds and Bugs of Dinosaur PP: Part 1

Jul22

Posted by Matthew Sim

This past Thursday, some family friends and I went camping for a night in the beautiful badlands of Dinosaur Provincial Park, several hours east of Calgary. A very neat place to camp with some gorgeous scenery and good birds, we also discovered another attribute of the park; mosquitoes. Mosquitoes apart, we enjoyed the park and some of its avian inhabitants that we can’t see here in Calgary.

No sooner had we parked the car by the river when a Ring-billed Gull began circling over us. Looking for handouts perhaps?!

Ring-billed Gull

After eating lunch by the Red Deer River, we headed up to the hoodoos for a hike, on where we were serenaded by Lark Sparrows, Western Meadowlarks and Rock Wrens who didn’t want to pose for the camera.

Rock Wren, doing its best to be as uncooperative as possible

Lark Sparrows on the other hand, were quite willing to sit up for the camera and were fairly common throughout the park.

Lark Sparrow

As we stopped to admire the view from the top of one particular hoodoo, we were greeted by the song of a Vesper Sparrow and a croaking raven and we caught a glimpse of a Say’s Phoebe as it departed its perch when we arrived.

Raven

After we had finished our short hike, we went back to our campsite and relaxed by the river as swarms of mosquitoes buzzed around us. The river and its surrounding cottonwood trees held an assortment of birds including Violet-green Swallows, Cedar Waxwings, Least Flycatchers and Eastern Kingbirds.

Cedar Waxwing sitting pretty

Least Flycatcher

I attempted to get some shots of the swallows but as is usually the case, they were moving far too fast for me to keep up. As the sun began to set, we decided to climb up into the hoodoos to watch the sunset. We didn’t get too far however, before we were turned around by mosquitoes. On our way up though we did see a Western Kingbird and a photogenic magpie on the hoodoos.

Black-billed Magpie at sunset

After beating a hasty retreat from the bugs, we retired for the night by our campfire, watching nighthawks and bats catching bugs above us.

Part 2 will be posted tomorrow, stay tuned!

Contest: Show us your butts! Bird butts, that is!

Jul21

In a lead up to one of our summer Birds and Beers events, and because I find myself with an extra copy of a new book, we’ve decided to put on a contest!

“1001 Secrets Every Birder Should Know”
by Sharon “Birdchick” Stiteler

So first, the book: I was sent a copy of the book “1001 Secrets Every Birder Should Know”, by Sharon Stiteler back in May because I had two of my photos featured in the book. For whatever reason, I was sent a second copy a few days later for some reason, and after a brief back and forth with Birdchick, I was told I could do whatever I wanted with it.

The book is great. It’s funny, it’s an easy read, and it’s chock full of both useful and incredibly interesting tidbits of info, without being a typical field guide or a “Birding Basics” style book. It’s a book that’s easily accessible to both an experienced birder, as well as someone with even just a mild interest in birds in general.

The two photos that I submitted for the book are one of a Gray Partridge, and another of a Boreal Chickadee, both taken right here in the city of Calgary.

Here they are in their original form, in all their glory:

Gray Partridge
Pentax K-5 + Sigma 150-500@370mm + Tamron 1.4x teleconverter
1/1000sec., f/8.0, ISO 1000

Boreal Chickadee
Pentax K-5 + Sigma 150-500@500mm
1/1250sec., ƒ/8.0, ISO 5000

And here’s a shot of both of them in Sharon’s new book:

My two entries in 1001 Secrets Every Birder Should Know

So, since I have an extra copy, one lucky reader will be receiving it with their best photo contest entry, so… show us your butts!

Why bird butts? Because this book isn’t necessarily for someone who’s already an excellent birder, photographer, or both. Anyone can take a photo of a bird butt, whether it’s with a fancy DSLR rig, or even just with your iPhone on a patio watching the House Sparrows or gulls fight over the remains of a french fry.

And everyone has one. That perfect shot of a Swainson’s Hawk you had all lined up, and just as you press the shutter it turn to the side and presenting its cloaca. Or that American Redstart that flitted out of the frame as the shutter closed, leaving on the rump and tail feathers in the shot. You could also go with the classic dabbling duck with its rump in the air as it feeds on the pond grasses just below the surface!

Sora Butt
Pentax K-5 + Sigma 150-500@500mm
1/500sec., f/6.3, ISO 1600

Our top 10 photos will be selected by our panel of experts, and the winner chosen randomly from there. The winner will be contacted by email and will be presented their winnings at the Birds and Beers event currently being planned for the end of August. Email your photo submissions to: birdscalgary@gmail.com by 9 AM, on August 21, 2013 to be entered into the contest.

So with that… good birding, and good luck!

Furry Friday – Coyote family at Kinbrook Island Provincial Park

Jul19

This family of coyotes was seen by David Pugh and I on our Alberta Big Day stalking some waterfowl on this pond at the entrance to Kinbrook Island Provincial Park. Luckily, they were still there a week later when I returned there in refuge from the flooding here in Calgary. They were quite fun to watch, and didn’t seem to mind having their photos taken!

Coyote Pups taking a break
Pentax K-5 + Sigma 150-500@500mm
1/1600sec., f/6.3, ISO 400

Coyote Family at Kinbrook Island Provincial Park
Pentax K-5 + Sigma 150-500@500mm
1/1000sec., f/6.3, ISO 250

Eldest of the coyote pups
Pentax K-5 + Sigma 150-500@500mm
1/1000sec., f/6.3, ISO 250

The eldest pup is stalking her prey…
Pentax K-5 + Sigma 150-500@500mm
1/1600sec., f/6.3, ISO 400

Adult Male coyote seen a little while later on the wildlife trail
Pentax K-5 + Sigma 150-500@500mm
1/500sec, f/6.3, ISO 320

The eldest pup decides she might as well just wait for takeout…
Pentax K-5 + Sigma 150-500@500mm
1/1600sec., f/6.3, ISO 320

Reflections on an Alberta Big Day – Lessons learned and lifers heard

Jul15

On June 15, 2013, David Pugh of A Calgary Birder and I began our attempt on a Big Day, starting at Cold Lake in the early morning and ending in Waterton National Park as the last light of day faded. There were quite a few things we learned in the attempt, and many more discoveries of good birding locations, new life birds for both of us, and experiences that have left me wanting more opportunities to visit places I rarely get to.

Part 1: Lead-up to the Big Day

Quite a bit of planning went into our attempt, with many hours collecting data from eBird and the Albertabird Yahoo Group, and using Google Maps to plan our route to maximize the time we’d have outside of the vehicle to find our target birds at each stop. Our original plan was to start at Cold Lake before dawn, listening for as many warbler and vireo species as we could identify by ear, head to a few other ponds and lakes near Cold Lake, then begin driving down the east edge of the province, stopping briefly at a few spots along the way to pick up other targets that are only found in the boreal and parkland biomes, before hitting up Dinosaur Provincial Park for the badlands and prairie specialists there. From there, we would stop at a few places around Brooks, then make a bee-line down to Waterton to pick up the foothills and mountain species before the light faded entirely. Of course, the oft-misquoted proverb originally penned by German war strategist Helmuth von Moltke: “No plan survives contact with the enemy” was certainly apt for our Big Day attempt.

Part 2: The trip begins

We put rubber to the road leaving Calgary on Thursday, June 13. After a brief stop at Slack Slough in Red Deer to stretch our legs, we made a straight shot for Elk Island National Park, just east of Edmonton, and camped the night there. After being serenaded to sleep by the calls of a nearby Nelson’s Sparrow, the distinct “onk-a-chonk” of at least three American Bitterns, and constant bugling of Red-necked Grebes and Common Loons on Astotin Lake, we arose the next morning bright eyed and bushy-tailed to do some birding around the lake. A quick trip around the boardwalk turned up a few good birds, but nothing exceptional, so we packed up the tent and headed down the road to Tawayik Lake on the south end of the park. Along the road we came across this male Rose-breasted Grosbeak singing away in the morning light, giving us great photo opportunities.

Rose-breasted Grosbeak Pentax K-5 + Sigma 150-500 - 1/1600sec, f/6.3, ISO 500, 500mm

Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Pentax K-5 + Sigma 150-500@500mm
1/1600sec, f/6.3, ISO 500

Down at Tawayik Lake we had some good finds including LeConte’s Sparrows, Swamp Sparrow, and even a slightly out of place Baird’s Sparrow along the boardwalk. We were lucky to get familiar with the call here though, as it would have made our actual Big Day record a bit harder to suss out. This little House Wren also took interest in us and decided to sit pretty for the camera for as long as we could possibly have asked.

House Wren
Pentax K-5 + Sigma 150-500@500mm
1/1600sec, f/6.3, ISO 400

We headed out from Elk Island with just one more stop planned before our lunch break in Vermilion, that being a regularly reported location for Piping Plover just south of Innisfree. I’d seen one a few weeks before near Hanna, and, as this would be a lifer for David, we decided it would be worth a brief stop. As we scanned the far shore and spotted a very, very distant Piping Plover, we figured that would be fine, and headed back to the van… and that’s when this little bird decided we were endangering its nest and came up to challenge us!

Piping Plover Rose-breasted Grosbeak Pentax K-5 + Sigma 150-500@500mm - 1/1250sec, f/6.3, ISO 200

Piping Plover
Pentax K-5 + Sigma 150-500@500mm
1/1250sec, f/6.3, ISO 200

We stopped to visit Charlotte Wasylik at her family farm near Vermilion. Her and her family were incredibly hospitable, and we even had some time to bird at the slough near the farm, where both David and I heard our first ever Sprague’s Pipits! Charlotte writes over at Prairie Birder, and is one of the youngest birders I know, as she’s in Grade 10… giving her at least a 30 year head start on most of the birders I know!

Left to Right: David Pugh, Charlotte Wasylik, and myself with some big Alberta sky in the background
– Photo by Charlotte’s mom, used with permission –

From there we headed up to scout Cold Lake, get settled in to the campground for the night, have some dinner, and take a bit of a walk… after a few false starts, we ended up back in Cold Lake Provincial Park campground and found this Merlin perched high over the edge of the lake, searching for his next meal.

Merlin
Pentax K-5 + Sigma 150-500mm@500mm
1/640sec, ƒ/10, ISO 1600

Part 3: The Big Day

Our list of possible birds for the Big Day was around 267. Our goal was to break 200. While that seemed a bit high for our first attempt, we figured if the weather was good and we stayed on schedule, we’d be able to easily crest 150, and 200 seemed reasonable with the significant distance we were covering and the huge variety of biomes we’d be exploring.

That was the plan… until we woke up at 4:00AM in Cold Lake to a steady downpour. An hour later we decided we’d better at least get on the road, and after a brief jaunt around a couple trails near the lake, and scoping the lake from a few vantage points, we dipped on almost all of the warblers and vireos we’d hoped for, but still managed to spot all three regular white-headed gulls and a few Western Grebes out on the lake, and heard very clearly both Canada Warbler and Ovenbirds calling in the steady rain. One nice find at Cold Lake was a huge number of Purple Martins houses, all full of breeding colonies of Purple Martins, and the rain kept them still enough to get really good, close looks at them.

Purple Martin
Pentax K-5 + Sigma 150-500@310mm
1/320sec., ƒ/6.3, ISO 1600

And so the day went. Rain and wind plagued us as far south as Hanna, where we finally evaded the precipitation, but ran into just as steady and stronger gusts of wind.

By the time we reached Dinosaur Provincial Park the winds were still wailing, but we managed to catch some good light for at least a few additions to the list.

Rock Wren
Pentax K-5 + Sigma 150-500@500mm
1/800sec., ƒ/6.3, ISO 1600

Least Flycatcher
Pentax K-5 + Sigma 150-500@500mm
1/640sec., ƒ/6.3, ISO 1600

Lark Sparrow
Pentax K-5 + Sigma 150-500@500mm
1/800sec., ƒ/6.3, ISO 80

While those three were expected finds at the park, I did manage a terrible shot of a Baird’s Sparrow, which up until that point I had only heard twice before. It was a nice highlight to a seemingly terrible day so far…

Baird’s Sparrow
Pentax K-5 + Sigma 150-500@500mm
1/800sec., ƒ/6.3, ISO 640

From there, we headed down to a little known spot near Tilley, known as Kininvie Marsh. It was where we expected to find at least another ten species on our list that we’d so far missed elsewhere. One of the nicest finds in this spot was both McCown’s and Chestnut-collared Longspurs, both of which were lifers for me!

Chestnut-collared Longspur
Pentax K-5 + Sigma 150-500@500mm
1/640sec., ƒ/6.3, ISO 640

A brief stop at Kinbrook Island Provincial Park turned up a couple new birds as well, and allowed for some decent shots in the late afternoon light.

Western Kingbird
Pentax K-5 + Sigma 150-500@500mm
1/640sec., ƒ/6.3, ISO 400

With that last stop, we were on the road again for another few hours, stopping for a fuel break and a quick dinner in Lethbridge, then making the final leg of the trek to Waterton. We did a quick loop around the Buffalo paddock, giving us good looks at some Mountain Bluebirds, and a distant look at some Plains Bison as well.

Mountain Bluebird
Pentax K-5 + Sigma 150-500@500mm
1/640sec., ƒ/6.3, ISO 1600

We made a brief stop in the Waterton townsite, which once again turned up some great finds, though nowhere near enough to really top out our 200, but we did have a few surprises… one of which was this incredibly curious Black Bear at Cameron Falls.

Black Bear
Pentax K-5 + Sigma 150-500@150mm
1/250sec., ƒ/6.3, ISO 1600

And it seemed quite fitting that our Big Day started at one large lake, and ended at another. The drive to Cameron Lake also gave us a couple more species, and quite a stunning view out on the lake.

Cameron Lake on Instagram.

We did make another stop up at Brown-Lowery Provincial Park the next day on our way home, and David managed another technical lifer… while he had seen these in his younger days in Ontario, this was his first look at Evening Grosbeaks since he became a birder. The stop here also added a few more species to our total for the 3 day journey, and it was really great to end the day with just one more lifer added to the tally.

Evening Grosbeak
Pentax K-5 + Sigma 150-500@500mm
1/500sec., ƒ/6.3, ISO 80

Our total for the Big Day? 123 species. A far cry from the goal of 200 that we had in mind, and further still from last year’s record of 226, but not bad considering the weather, and even better for our first trip into most of these habitats, and the lack of real shorebird activity due to the lack of any real mudflats. Our three-day total rounded out at 148, most of which being found between Elk Island and Cold Lake on June 14.

Thanks again for reading, and good birding! More regular updates will be forthcoming now that things are back to relative normalcy here in Calgary!

Travel Tuesday: Frank Lake

Jul2

Michael Pott sent us these outstanding photos of his trips to Frank Lake on June 27 and 28th. He says his equipment is simple and of average quality-Nikon D7000, Sigma 120-300 mm with 2x extender, monopod. Truly the most unique photograph of a Red-winged Blackbird I’ve ever seen!