The Calgary Zoo, a birder’s refuge on a cold winter day

Posted by Dan Arndt

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to attend the second week of the Friends of Fish Creek Winter birding course as I was out of town on personal business, but I knew that I’d hate to leave the regular Monday readers high and dry. As such, here is a post I’ve been sitting on for a while, and since the coldest days of winter are still ahead of us, and some folks just can’t handle the cold for long periods of time, here’s a suggestion of somewhere to go to brush up on your exotic bird identification skills!

While birding even in the coldest days can bring out some incredible surprises, there are much warmer places with incredibly gorgeous birds all year round. The Calgary Zoo houses a wide variety of bird species, from native Canadian species such as the Burrowing Owl, Whooping Crane, and Bald Eagle, to exotic birds from all over the world, the ugly-pretty Vulturine Guineafowl from Central Africa, the ever-popular and charismatic Rockhopper Penguin, and the beautiful and majestic Andean Condor, from South America.

While none of these birds would count on any list (except maybe a “Seen in Captivity” list), they’re great subjects to photograph, and familiarity gained with these birds here at home would aid significantly in identifying them if you ever end up in their native habitat looking for their wild cousins. On top of that, the public education and awareness of wildlife that the Calgary Zoo engenders with their live collections, public outreach, and captive breeding programs go much further to increase the popularity and appreciation of all animals, not just the charismatic megafauna that they have on display.

I hope you enjoy the photos of a variety of birds I’ve taken at the Calgary Zoo in the past few years!

Vulturine Guineafowl – Africa

Northern Rockhopper Penguin – Southern Atlantic islands and Southern Indian islands

American or Carribean Flamingo – North and Central America and the Carribean islands

Burrowing Owl – North, Central, and South America

Andean Condor – South America

Bald Eagle – North America

Van der Decken’s Hornbill – Africa

Whooping Crane – North America

Furry Friday: Nocturnal Visitor

Jan18

Posted by Pat Bumstead

Do you ever wonder about the night time activity in your yard?

For the past several years, we have been host to a few over-wintering mourning doves. As these beautiful birds are ground feeders, they have a special feeding area under a large poplar in our yard. We keep this area cleared of snow, and make sure there is always food available.

Doves aren’t the only ones who like sunflower chips however, and a few nights ago we were lucky to catch site of our nocturnal visitor – a white-tailed jack rabbit.

Early European settlers on the prairies encountered this large, long-legged, big-eared prairie hare which they promptly dubbed the ‘jackass rabbit.’ This name has mellowed over the years to the more familiar term jack rabbit.

Creatures of the prairie grasslands, white-tailed jack rabbits are common within the city limits. Predominantly a nocturnal species, city rabbits can also be seen during daylight hours, taking advantage of the lack of predator activity. A favourite prey species of coyotes, foxes and bobcats, their powerful hind legs allow them to sprint at speeds up to 64 km an hour, and make huge 5 meter long leaps. During the winter months they live on twigs, buds and bark so a free dinner of sunflower chips makes a nice change!

Wednesday Wings: Crossbills

Jan16

These photos were taken by Tim Hopwood over the past two weeks in various locations within the city of Calgary. The first four photos show Red Crossbills (which seem to be more abundant than usual in the city this winter), and the rest are White-winged Crossbills.

To see more of Tim’s photos, see his blog, Tim J. Hopwood Images.

Fur & Feathers Wrap-Up

Jan15

I’m sure many of you have followed the Fur & Feathers 500 blog. Four Calgary bird watchers (and mammal watchers) did a bird and mammal Big Year in 2012, trying to see as many species as they could within Canada. They were successful in reaching their goals of seeing 500 combined species as a team, and of visiting each Territory and Province in Canada.

Brian Elder has summarized their efforts in two excellent posts, which highlight some of the most interesting species they saw, and which feature their great photographs too.

A Look Back at the Birds of our Big Year

A Look Back at the Mammals of our Big Year

Now that the Big Year is over, Brian has launched a new blog to document his efforts to reach a life list of 5000 bird and mammal species worldwide. Follow him at:

Fur and Feathers 5000

At Birds Calgary we will be following this with great interest, and we wish him luck!

Friends of Fish Creek Winter Birding – Week 1 – Fish Creek Provincial Park HQ and Sikome Lake

Jan14

Posted by Dan Arndt

The beginning of the Winter birding course was very reminiscent of our last trip there with the autumn course. We started off with a light snowfall at the headquarters building at Bow Valley Ranch, visiting with the Great Horned Owls that have been regulars there for many years. This time though they were a bit easier to see, with the first one sitting high in the trees on the east end of the pathway, and the second just a little further west than its previous roost. Both were cashing in on their natural camouflage in spades, but given their placement in the trees, were slightly more conspicuous than before.

Great Horned Owl #1

Great Horned Owl #2

As we continued west towards the headquarters building, we were mobbed by the resident Black-capped Chickadees for their toll, paid in the form of sunflower seeds, while a few Golden-crowned Kinglets and Brown Creepers flitted among the spruce.

Black-capped Chickadee toll collector

Brown Creeper

We spotted a decent sized flock of White-winged Crossbills in the trees at the headquarters before packing up and heading down to Sikome Lake. We stopped along the way to look at quite a number of Bald Eagles in the trees both on the roadside, and sitting over the Bow River. As it turns out, there was a deer carcass that was keeping their interest, which, by the time we were leaving the park, was down to only the cleanly stripped hide.

Down at Sikome Lake, the resident pair of Great Horned Owls was hiding out in the same roost as the lone owl was in December.

Great Horned Owls 3 & 4 – There are two owls in this photo, seriously.

At this point, we split off from Gus Yaki’s group and headed off toward the Bow River on our own. We found a good number of waterfowl on the river, from Common Goldeneyes, to extremely comfortable looking Canada Geese.

Common Goldeneyes

Canada Geese

On the north end of our walk, this huge flock of mixed Canada Geese, Mallards, Common Mergansers and Common Goldeneyes came into view. As we watched, they began to flush as not one, not two, but three Bald Eagles made their way closer. Two others stayed in the trees on either side of the river, just out of sight, while two sub-adult eagles flew by, along with one adult.

Geese, Mallards and more

4th year Bald Eagle

adult Bald Eagle

The walk back to the parking lot in the trees along the river was a little bit quieter than expected, yielding only a lone Northern Flicker, along with a Hairy Woodpecker, and four of these little White-breasted Nuthatches.

White-breasted Nuthatch

All in all, it was a good, solid start to a new year of birding, and a new birding course. Good birding, and thanks for reading!

Sunday Showcase: Prairie Birds

Jan13

More wonderful Rob English photos of a Great-horned Owl, Horned Larks and Snow Buntings taken near Blackie, AB the last week of December.

A walk in the Weaselhead

Jan11

Posted by Matthew Sim

While currently back in Houston, Texas, I spent a very enjoyable 2 weeks in Calgary over Christmas. Despite the cold (!), I got out a couple times, including an afternoon walk in the Weaselhead Natural area, taking photos of the local bird life as I walked.

A couple of Ravens announced their presence with distinctive loud croaks; as well as some more unfamiliar vocalizations.

Redpolls were abundant at the feeders

Common Redpoll

Waxwings ended up stealing the show though through sheer numbers

$A small fraction of the waxwings.$

A small fraction of the waxwings.

It was quite a nice walk and good to see so many waxwings.

Wednesday Wings: Northern Hawk-Owl Chick

Jan9

Rob English was lucky enough to get these photos of a Northern Hawk-Owl chick in May 2012. This was from the pair that nested just off Grand Valley Road, NW of Cochrane. Rob says that to his knowledge, this was the first day out of the nest for this fledgling, and it was very busy exploring its environment!

Bird Studies Group Meeting Tonight

Jan9

Just a reminder that the Bird Studies Group of Nature Calgary will be meeting tonight, Wednesday January 9 (instead of the first Wednesday of the month). The presentation will consist of the results of various Christmas Bird Counts held in the Calgary region. Phil Cram will present the results of the Calgary Count.

The meeting is at 7:30 pm in Room 211 of the Biological Sciences Building at the U of C. Doors open at 7:00. See this page for a map and more information.

Postcards from Mexico – Calgary Birds on their wintering grounds

Jan7

Posted by Dan Arndt

While on vacation, I had planned to look for some of our old favourites from Calgary who might also be down here enjoying the warm weather for the winter. Thankfully, I wasn’t disappointed. I was a little surprised though at just what species I did find down here, and which ones I expected to find, and didn’t.

I do want to clarify too, that many of these birds spend all year long down here, but their range extends all the way back home to Calgary, which, as the crow flies, is about 4100 km. Quite staggering, when you consider that many of them make the migration from Calgary to this part of the world with very few stops for food or shelter.

Here are just a few of our fine feathered friends enjoying the sun, sand, and tequila down here in Mexico!