Rob English photographed these Tundra and Trumpeter Swans in the Frank Lake area in the first week of April.
Furry Friday: White-tailed Deer Buck
Paul Turbitt first saw this magnificent ten-point White-tailed Deer buck in Fish Creek Provincial Park last December. He photographed it, and its young companion, in late December and early January.
For more of Paul’s photos, see his blog, Turbo’s Track and Tour.
Zoo Ospreys are Back – Watch Live
The Ospreys are back on the nesting platform at the Calgary Zoo. So far there are just a few sticks on the platform, so if you tune in to the live Enmax web cam, over the next few weeks you can watch them build the nest, lay eggs, and raise their young until they fledge.
Below is a link to the web cam. We will also have a link on the right sidebar of our Home Page throughout the nesting season. Check out the U of C Peregrine Falcon nest cam too!
Alberta Headwaters Petition
In about two months the Alberta government will be releasing its draft of the South Saskatchewan Regional Plan. This will have a huge impact on the future of the wildlife, plants, and water resources of the headwaters. Naturalist, writer, and former superintendent of Banff National Park Kevin Van Tighem has started an online petition asking the government to “Treat our Alberta Headwaters like the treasures they are.”
Kevin says, “Those responsible for finalizing the South Saskatchewan Regional Plan are under a lot of pressure to protect the status quo for industrial-scale logging in the headwaters, and are being lobbied very aggressively by off-road vehicle users who want no restrictions on their activities. I believe we have a good Minister; I also believe she’s under a lot of pressure.”
Kevin adds, “Most of us likely remember – I certainly do – when the foothills and Front Ranges were like paradise — before they were brought down to their current state by multiple-abuse. The South Saskatchewan Regional Plan will have quasi-regulatory status and is meant to be a strategic roadmap to our next fifty years. It’s really important that those who believe we can do better for our headwaters – the forests, creeks, meadows, trout, grizzlies and wild places that yield all the water that comes down the rivers to where we all live – make themselves heard.”
Here is the text of the petition:
A century of clear cut logging, oil and gas development and out-of-control off-road vehicle abuse has left the headwaters of the South Saskatchewan River fragmented and scarred. Natural river flows are 12% lower than in the mid twentieth century. Climate change will only make things worse.
Alberta is about to release a South Saskatchewan regional land use plan that was prepared with wide citizen consultation. But special interest groups with a stake in business-as-usual want to ensure it contains no limits on off-road abuse, increases clear cut logging, and promotes more development.
Those who care about healthy landscapes, clean rivers and future water security need a chance to inform the government that they support a plan that keeps the mountains and foothills green and healthy by establishing new parks, restricting off-road vehicles to official trails, replacing clear cutting with restoration logging, and repairing landscapes damaged by past industrial and motorized abuse.
Healthy intact headwaters don’t just produce more and better water – they yield better fishing and hunting, more secure and productive habitat for elk, grizzlies and native trout, and the aesthetic and ecological qualities that yield the finest of recreational environments.
If you would like to support this cause and sign this petition, go to the petition website, and share this with friends and family.
Wednesday Wings: Merlin with Starling
Posted by Bob Lefebvre
Last month when I was out looking for Snowy Owls, I came across this Merlin feeding on a European Starling.
Winter’s lingering grasp in Inglewood Bird Sanctuary
Posted by Dan Arndt
Another cold, snowy, and dull day here in Calgary. The Sunday curse has struck again, leaving us with a bitterly cold north wind, and the least bird activity we’ve seen all spring. While we did get some decent new birds for the year, and a couple of great surprises while walking in Inglewood Bird Sanctuary on Sunday, our participant numbers were still low, and so were the species we found.
Inglewood Bird Sanctuary
While the wind was blowing and the skies were grey, our first new species of the day was the Eurasian Collared-Dove. I don’t know that I’ve ever actually seen one of these birds inside the bird sanctuary, or so it was a nice find!
Eurasian Collared-Dove
As we approached the river, we were on the lookout for the Mountain Bluebirds that I had seen earlier in the week, but instead we happened across a group of American Pipits on the river bank, with a brief stop out on the nearest gravel bar before heading up stream.
American Pipits
As we watched the pipits and scanned the far bank, we were lucky enough to spot a Franklin’s Gull fly in and land among a few other gulls, but given how far it was, getting a clear shot was quite the challenge.
Franklin’s Gull
We soon came upon a lone Coyote raiding a Canada Goose nest, and saw him stealing away an egg. Sad for the geese, but there were many pairs successfully nesting in the sanctuary, and their numbers really are ever in question. This one was seen nesting in the same cavity that I’ve seen her in for the last three years at least.
Canada Goose
Our last surprise of the day was a second small flock of Bohemian Waxwings going down to the river for a drink before flying off. They stopped briefly for us before flying off, hopefully symbolizing the end of the winter weather and bringing on spring in full force!
Good birding!
Sunday Showcase: Mountain Bluebird Fallout
Posted by Dan Arndt
Since the snowstorm on Sunday, April 14, many Mountain Bluebirds have been reported in the city. These migrants were forced down by the weather. Over 100 were reported in Fish Creek Park, about two dozen at the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary, and about 40 in a yard in Maple Ridge. Rob English spotted these bluebirds feeding in the Mountain Ash trees near his home, and sent us these great photos.
male Mountain Bluebird
female Mountain Bluebird
male Mountain Bluebird
male Mountain Bluebird
After hearing about the large flocks all around the city, and that the numbers were quickly dwindling at Inglewood Bird Sanctuary, I headed out on Tuesday evening with the Swarovski ATX 85, Pentax K-30, and digiscoping adapter, and spent a good hour watching and photographing a flock of six stragglers. While I had hoped that they would stick around so our Sunday group would get a chance to see them, I couldn’t take that chance, and boy am I glad I did!
You lookin’ at me?
female Mountain Bluebird
male Mountain Bluebird
male Mountain Bluebirds
male Mountain Bluebird
male Mountain Bluebird
Peregrine Falcons at U of C
Since at least 1995, Peregrine Falcons have nested on Craigie Hall at the University of Calgary. For the past few years, there has been a live nest cam so that we can watch the falcons at the nest, and see the young falcons hatch and fledge.
The first returning Peregrine was sighted on March 25 this year, and by April 9 the pair was ready to nest. The first egg was laid on April 16. We will have a link to the nest cam on the sidebar of our Birds Calgary home page throughout the breeding season.
Help Needed For Snow Goose Counts
Nature Calgary has been contacted by a biologist from Washington State tracking migrating snow geese. One of their collared geese has unexpectedly shown up east of Calgary. The biologist is hoping for snow goose sightings and flock counts from birders in the Calgary area. His complete email of April 18 2013 follows:
———————-
Hello- I am a biologist with the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife in Washington State. We recently implanted snow geese from the Skagit/Fraser valleys with satellite transmitters to document migration. These geese are thought to nest on Wrangel Island, Russia. The migration recently commenced and we have a very interesting migrant that is near Calgary. This route is not expected, as it is thought that the majority of this breeding population travels along the Pacific Coast.
Could you let anyone who might be interested know about this event, and what I am most looking for, is someone who might be interested in having a look at the flocks to get flock counts. In addition, we have roughly 500 neck collars out on snow geese, and it would be an opportunity to get collar sightings.
The most recent location of the snow goose near Calgary is from 04/18/2013 15:36 (UTC): Lat 51.029, Long -112.504. If you know of anyone who might be interested please put them in contact with me and I can provide location updates as they occur. We also have the marked birds on a tracking web site.
Thank You, -Joe
Joe Evenson Waterfowl Survey & Sea Duck Specialist,
Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife
7801 Phillips Rd. SW Lakewood, WA 98498 360-790-8691
Email joseph.evenson@dfw.wa.gov
http://wdfw.wa.gov/conservation/research/staff/evenson_joe.html
Spring Blizzarding in Elliston Park
Posted by Dan Arndt
While last week was chilly, and a bit overcast, it wasn’t really too much to complain about. This week, the Sunday Curse has struck again. As the weekend approached, the forecast for 10-25 cm of snow by Monday night seemed a bit overzealous, maybe even pessimistic. Sadly, this was one time that the weatherman was right. Sunday morning greeted us with about 10cm of already accumulated snow, and a brisk wind out of the north made for risky driving and for terrible visibility at times, though we were lucky and also had some clear patches. A small, hardy group greeted us at 8 AM, and while some of the walk was abbreviated due to the conditions, we still had a good number of new species (or at least newly photographed species) for the year.
Earlier in the week I had finally received the Swarovski ATX 85 that has been graciously loaned to us, so I’ve included a good number of photos that were taken with the Swarovski TLS APO digiscoping adapter, taken with my Pentax K-30. I have to say, I’ve never been quite so happy that that camera is weather sealed as I was today. As I mentioned to the birding students, this is a scope that after an hour of playing with it at home had me wanting to buy it for myself, and after spending some time with it this afternoon and seeing the results I managed to get in the terrible light and low visibility, that decision has been set in stone. You’ll see what I mean below…
Elliston Park
You might notice first of all that it doesn’t look like we saw much on the southern portion of our walk. That is mostly true. By the time we cleared the eastern edge of the tree cover, the clouds had lowered, the wind picked up, and the snowfall really started coming in sideways, pelting us with wet ice crystals, and some of us were simply not prepared for things to get as bad as they did, so we powered on straight to the parking lot to get out of the wind and sleet.
Despite all that doom and gloom, as I mentioned above, we got a whole pile of new bird sightings! Almost as soon as we started, we heard, then saw, a flock of American Tree Sparrows flitting about, barely pausing long enough for any of us to get good looks until they were quite far away.
American Tree Sparrows
From our vantage point we could see out onto the water quite well at this point, and with the trees covering us from the wind, we took a few minutes to look out over the lake, and managed to spot the first new species for the group, this American Wigeon. There were about half a dozen of these birds on Elliston Lake, standing out in stark contrast to the other waterfowl present. Additionally, this was where we had good views of the second new species of the day, the Lesser Scaup.
American Wigeon (rear) and Mallards (foreground)
Lesser Scaup
(digiscoped with Swarovski ATX 85 + Pentax K-30)
While we have seen Townsend’s Solitaires this year, finding this one in the storm was a stroke of luck and good field identification on the part of some of our students! They are always such a pleasure to see! With the wind and snow picking up a bit at this time, we did check out a pair of Northern Flickers waiting out the storm on the leeward side of a low tree. Where they might have been nesting in or around this park is a mystery, as there really aren’t any trees large enough or old enough to provide them a suitable nest area!
Townsend’s Solitaire
Male (above) and female (below) hybrid Northern Flickers
We turned our attention back to the water, and found this lone American Coot. These aren’t a bird you expect to see all by its lonesome, nor in this kind of weather! An early arrival, and quite the surprise to see here! There were also a good number of Northern Shovelers in the north-east section of lake, though with the snow and wind picking up, good photos were hard to come by.
American Coot
female (left) and male (right) Northern Shovelers
male Northern Shoveler
(digiscoped with Swarovski ATX 85 + Pentax K-30)
From here on, we powered through to the end, with a few stops to check out some unusual sounds and sights, and a few nice finds in the sloughs east of Elliston Park, including many more Northern Shovelers, American Wigeons, and even a lone male Ruddy Duck, the blowing snow played havoc with my auto focus, and I didn’t make it back around after the walk with the digiscoping setup.
I did end up heading back to check out the gulls with the digiscope rig, and while I didn’t find anything particularly uncommon, the practice with both stationary birds and birds in flight was absolutely priceless. While I’ve already had some experience with digiscoping, the ease which I was able to pick up the different skills that this scope requires, as well as the particular idiosyncrasies of the setup were very quick to adapt to, and the learning curve was extremely shallow. I have to say, it’ll be a hard sell to go back to the other gear once June comes around!
Herring, California, and Ring-billed Gulls
(digiscoped with Swarovski ATX 85 + Pentax K-30)
California Gull in flight
(digiscoped with Swarovski ATX 85 + Pentax K-30)
Herring Gull in flight in the snowstorm
(digiscoped with Swarovski ATX 85 + Pentax K-30)
See you next week, and good birding!