Postcards from Texas: The highs and lows of birding

Posted by Matthew Sim

Sometimes, birding can exceed your wildest hopes. For me, this happened last year when I stumbled upon a Northern Hawk Owl on a midday walk in Fish Creek. Sometimes though, birding can let you down. For me, this happened just last week on a birding trip with the Houston Audubon down to the Texas coast.

Spring migration in Texas is world-famous among birders. Millions of neotropical birds crossing the Gulf of Mexico heading north to their breeding grounds land at various spots along the Texas coast, exhausted from their non-stop trip across the gulf. When the weather is right, a fall-out can occur, in which many different species of migrants all drop into the trees of the first bit of land they see after the trans-gulf flight. This trip with the Houston Audubon down to the coast was supposed to witness one of these fall-outs. Except the birds never came.

When we arrived at the tiny but well-known Quintana Neotropical Bird Sanctuary, the treetops (which should have been swarming with warblers, orioles, buntings, flycatchers and tanagers) were silent. Completely silent. We soon discovered that the strong south wind was blowing the migrants right on by. You see, with a powerful wind at their backs, these birds can conserve energy and travel faster; so why stop? Realizing that we weren’t going to see much we started to leave, seeing both Brown-headed Cowbirds and Bronzed Cowbirds (neither is a migrant) on the way out.

Brown-headed Cowbird

Bronzed Cowbird

Just as we were exiting, things started to pick up a little and we saw an Eastern Kingbird, 2 female Orchard Orioles and a very brief glimpse of a male Rose-breasted Grosbeak, meaning that things weren’t too bad.

Female Orchard Oriole, saving the day for songbird migration!

From there, we headed down to the beach and jetty, where we were happy to see all 8 species of terns commonly seen on the upper Texas coast. As our group toured the surrounding beach, we observed many different species of shorebirds including pretty Black-necked Stilt, many Sanderlings, striking Ruddy Turnstones in breeding plumage and intriguing Dunlin. We also were given an opportunity to view Wilson’s and Semipalmated Plover and tried our hand at the tricky identification of Western And White-rumped Sandpipers. All of these were just out of camera range but were beautiful up-close in our spotting scopes.

After gobbling down a quick lunch, our Houston Audubon group decided to explore the nearby Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge to see what else we could see. Brazoria, a refuge of grasslands and salt marshes quickly yielded up a lifer for me, a Least Bittern, which flushed from some reeds. We also saw Snowy Egret, White Ibis, Black-necked Stilt and good views of Sora (though the same cannot be said for the photos!)

Snowy Egret

A very poor shot of the Sora

As our group drove the auto-tour loop, we saw some more great birds such as Dickcissel. One car had 3 handsome male Bobolinks singing. We even managed to spot a female Magnificent Frigatebird, which is always a highlight.

Female Magnificent Frigatebird

We finished our trip with about 80 species and though the songbird migration was definitely a low, the shorebirds and the activity at Brazoria were definitely highs and the trip was well worth it.

Rare Bird Alert Calgary: May 3

May4

Have you seen an unusual bird in Calgary? If it is on this Reportable_Birds (PDF), please report it to the Nature Calgary Rare Bird Alert line at 403 221-4519 and leave a message after the beep at the end of the recording. If you would like some help with species identification, email us at birdscalgary@gmail.com. To report injured wildlife call the Calgary Wildlife Rehabilitation Society at 403 239-2488, or the Alberta Institute for Wildlife Conservation at 403 946-2361.

April 28
–HARLEQUIN DUCK, Inglewood Bird Sanctuary, seen on two separate occasions by two sets of observers
–SHARP-SHINNED HAWK, Calgary’s Oakridge neighborhood, Margaret Brunner
–HERMIT THRUSH, High River, Highwood River adjacent to George Lane Park, Peter Maksymiw
–ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER (8), same, same
–YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER (15), same, same

April 29
–WILSON’S PHALAROPE (3) Weed Lake, Hwy 560, Langdon, Terry Korolyk

April 30
–THAYER’S GULL, Inglewood Bird Sanctuary, Ilya Povalyaev
–LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL, same, same
–GLAUCOUS GULL, same, same

May 1
–GREAT GRAY OWL, Wildcat Hills Road, N of Cochrane, Alan Cole
–RED CROSSBILL (13), Elbow River survey area, Gus Yaki et al

May 2
–PECTORAL SANDPIPER (15), N of Strathmore, E side of Hwy 817, just N of Twp Rd 252, Joan and Malcolm Macdonald
–WILSON’S PHALAROPE, same, same
–COMMON TERN, Cattleland Slough, RR252, N of SR 564, same
–GREAT GRAY OWL, TWP Rd 240 SW of Water Valley (2, 1 km. S of Water Valley (1), Ron Kube
–WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL, just E of Shannon Terrace in Fish Creek Provincial Park, Al and Helga Borgardt

The next scheduled update of the Bird Alert is on Monday May 7.

RBA Correction

May2

The April 30 Rare Bird Alert reported 80 Lesser Yellow-legs see at McElroy Slough on April 29. The correct number for the sighting should have been 800+ of them, as reported by Terry Koryluk.

McElroy Slough is located east of Calgary, and you can see a map to the location on the Nature Calgary website.

Pat Bumstead

Birds and Beers (or, getting to know your fellow birders)

May2

Posted by Dan Arndt

As a relatively new “serious” birder, I have a confession to make. Until about a year ago, I couldn’t tell you the difference between a Gadwall and a Northern Shoveler, a Bohemian Waxwing and a Cedar Waxwing, or in most cases, a Red-tailed Hawk and a Swainson’s Hawk. A lot of my job entails a lot of detail oriented work, that can be relatively monotonous, and I found that listening to something helped while away the time. I stumbled across Sharon Stiteler’s Birdchick podcast, and immediately knew that I’d found something great.

It’s not for everyone, and can sometimes get a little “blue”, but I find that it covers a lot of great birding news and information in North America, and it’s incredibly funny too. One of the things that Sharon has been great at promoting is the idea that birders really should just get to know each other better. Whether it be just to chat, share stories and experiences, or just as importantly, to be approachable not only to each other, but to folks who are completely inexperienced and who want to become more “serious” birders.

One of the greatest ideas for this is her “Birds and Beers” meetups, which are held semi-regularly, and generally well attended. I’m involved in a similar sort of meetup here in Calgary, with another group that I am involved with, the Calgary Skeptics, and we’ve run these events solidly for the past three years with good success and good turnout.

I agree with Sharon. Birders, especially those with a ton of experience, can be a little intimidating to talk to. Gulls, flycatchers, warblers, shorebirds, and many, many other groups can be very hard to identify properly, and no one wants to say “Hey, look at that Tennessee Warbler!” when you’re not entirely sure if it’s a Tennessee, a Nashville, an Orange-crowned, or even just a female Wilson’s Warbler. That goes doubly so when you’ve got incredibly experienced birders around who, one might expect, would be quick to chastise you for making an incorrect ID. What I’ve learned though, is that EVERYONE misidentifies birds. Even the most experienced and revered birders in the Calgary community have made mistakes, and will continue to make mistakes in the future. It’s really one of the only ways to get better!

But don’t take it from me. Come out to Calgary’s inaugural Birds and Beers on Thursday, May 10, 2012. We’ll be meeting at the Joyce on Fourth Irish Pub at 7:00 PM, and I definitely hope to see you and many others in Calgary’s birding community out there!

Q & A: Attracting Birds to Feeders

May1

By Bob Lefebvre

Here at the Birds Calgary blog, we receive a lot of questions from bird-friendly folks throughout the province. We are going to start sharing some of them with our readers as just another way to spread bird knowledge.

If you have a question, email us at birdscalgary@gmail.com. We may post your question and our answer. We won’t print your name or email address without permission.

Q: Hi there, I have a question regarding attracting birds to my feeder. I live in Calgary, and I have tried everything this fall and winter to attract birds to my yard with no success. I’ve looked at all kinds of websites and followed their advice; I have the best seeds, suet, nuts, feeders…however my yard is in a horrible location. I live in a small townhouse, and I access my yard and front door via an alley that is ‘walled in’ by the neighbour’s house and two other townhouses. I hear the birds all around me when I go outside, but my yard doesn’t have a tree, and is somewhat hidden as my yard is recessed due to the neighbouring townhouses. I know the birds are around, I just can’t seem to get them to see my feeders because my yard is hidden.

I’ve sprinkled seed around the area and in my alley, I’ve even leaned my old Christmas tree against a wall near the feeder in the hopes of attracting even one small chickadee! I’m reluctant to invest any more in this effort (like a heated bird bath) because I’m not fully convinced I’ll ever be able to attract birds. I’m just wondering if anyone at your great website has any advice for me, I love birding and want to attract birds and help them throughout the winter, but I’m just not having any luck! Other than waiting until to spring to plant some flowers and shrubs that might attract them, do you have any advice?

Thanks so much, love the website.

A: It’s likely that your location and the lack of trees in your yard is a problem, but I think that with patience you will be able to attract the birds.

It’s true that having trees or shrubs is definitely a big plus. The birds need to feel that they have a safe haven to retreat to if attacked. Also, if there are no large trees around there will be fewer nesting sites for species like Black-capped Chickadees, Downy Woodpeckers, and Northern Flickers. Some of the newer neighbourhoods in Calgary with few large trees have a smaller number of bird species than old, established neighbourhoods. But as you said, there are birds near your house, so you should be able to get them into your yard. It seems most likely that the birds just have not yet discovered your feeders.

You are probably hearing House Sparrows in the area, so you have to try to get them in your yard first. Normally, they will feed at almost any type of feeder. The location of the feeders can be important too. Are they too high or too low? They shouldn’t be placed anywhere that a cat could ambush the birds as they feed. It seems to me that House Sparrows don’t like to come to feeders that are right against a building or in a window, if they have any other choice. (Some other birds will not come to a raised feeder but prefer to feed on the ground.) Once the House Sparrows begin feeding in your yard, other species like House Finches, Black-billed Magpies, and Black-capped Chickadees will notice the feeding activity and come to the food.

Other than providing a variety of feeders in proper locations, the two most important things you can do to get the birds to start coming to your yard regularly is to put out water, and to feed them year-round.

I know you said you didn’t want to get a heated birdbath, but you should consider making water available in your yard. It really makes a difference in attracting birds. (Running water is the best attractor, but you can’t have that in the winter.) If you get a metal or plastic birdbath, the water will freeze in cold weather but on many winter days it will melt at least a little, and you can always add hot water to the ice to yield a little drinkable water on all but the coldest days. (Ceramic and concrete birdbaths can break when water freezes.)

You mentioned that you have been trying to attract the birds this fall and winter. It’s much easier to get birds in your yard in the summer, when there are many more around, and thus get the local birds in the habit of feeding there. So I would encourage you to keep at it through the summer. I know people who feed birds only in the winter, and they get very few species in their yards. Many people believe that birds do not need to be fed in the summer because there is more natural food around. In truth, we don’t have to feed the birds at all, but it is during summer when there is more demand for food. The numbers of birds here in the summer is many times higher than in the winter, and when they are raising young they need a lot of food.

I know you’d like to get the birds to come to your yard right away and there might be something you can do to get their attention. I have put up feeders that the birds just didn’t seem to notice, even though they were feeding at other feeders nearby. I tried attaching a piece of aluminum foil to the new feeder (about 4 inches wide and two feet long, hanging down below it) and the House Finches found the feeder the next day. I’m not sure why that works, (perhaps the birds are just curious) but you might try that.

Finally I just want to encourage you to be very patient! It can take a while to get the birds to start coming, but once they do, they will keep coming. Continue through to the fall, add water and plant a shrub, and see if the birds find your feeders. When I moved into my current house I put out a feeder and kept it out all year, and I never saw anything but House Sparrows and magpies until almost a year later, when the first House Finch arrived. Now I’ve been here eight years, and in 2011 alone I had 57 species on my yard list, and dozens of individual birds every day. This year I’ve had 26 species already. If you keep at it through the spring and summer you will be on your way.

Reply: Thank you so much for your advice and encouragement! I will try your suggestions, and keep trying to attract birds to my feeder. That’s interesting to know that birds need feed more in the summer than the winter, I never thought of it that way. I only started to get into birding this summer and I’m loving it so far, it’s amazing how many different species there are. I especially enjoy it when I think it’s just a bunch of Canadian Geese, and then find out that there’s a merganser, golden eye or bufflehead mixed in with them. At Fish Creek the other week I was fortunate enough to see 2 bald eagles! As an Ontarian, I haven’t seen many in my life so that was definitely a good day. I’m hoping to get out this weekend to try and spot some snowy owls, following tips from your website should definitely help.

Thanks again for your advice.

Rare Bird Alert Calgary: April 30

May1

April 27
— RED-BREASTED MERGANSER 2, Glenmore Reservoir, Yousif Attia
— GLAUCOUS GULL 1st year, same, YA
— CASPIAN TERN, same, Terry Korolyk
— FORSTER’S TERN, Sunset Park(?), TK

April 28
— THAYER’S GULL, Inglewood Bird Sanctuary, Penny Smith & CFNS group
— LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL possible, Glenmore Reservoir, Bill Wilson
— EASTERN PHOEBE 3, Glenmore – Weaselhead, Ian Maton
— SAY’S PHOEBE, Glenmore – Weaselhead, BW
— HERMIT THRUSH, same, BW
— ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER, same, BW
— WHITE-THROATED SPARROW, same, BW

April 29
— LONG-TAILED DUCK, Carseland Weir, Chip Scalfia
— WHIMBREL, same, CS
— LESSER YELLOWLEGS 800, McElroy Slough, TK
— HUDSONIAN GODWIT 18, Weed Lake, Andrew Slater
— LONG-BILLED DOWITCHER 16, same, AS

The next scheduled update of the Bird Alert is on Thursday May 3.

BIRD STUDY GROUP – Meets the first Wednesday of the month, September – May
at 7:30 pm, Room 211, BioSciences Building, University of Calgary. The next
meeting will be Wednesday May 2. Presenters are Ian Halliday (Weed Lake
Project), and Andrew Hart (re-introduction of Red Kites into England).

Travel Tuesdays

May1

Today marks the start of a new feature on Birds Calgary. While there are many great birding locations within the city, southern Alberta is awash with birds of all kinds that can be seen during an afternoon drive. The problem is, people who are new to birdwatching, or new to our area, don’t have any idea where to go. If you’re someone who enjoys a rural birding drive with camera in hand, we would love to hear about your route and the birds seen.

A huge thank you to Marg Matheson and Alan Plumb who gave us this idea when they told us about their drives last weekend, so they have the honour of our first Travel Tuesday post!

Pat Bumstead

April 28th
From Vulcan to Frank Lake is a 30 min drive then another 5 min drive to High River and the park. After leaving High River we went south on a secondary highway meeting and crossing Highway 2 just north of Nanton continuing straight east on gravel then paved to Vulcan..so thats 40 mins total driving time, 1 hour 15 mins with many stops enroute (3 hours) so a nice afternoon out with the puppies.

Curlew was in a field devoid of water about 8km north of Vulcan, Tree Swallows were nesting in the bird boxes beside gravel road to hide at Frank,Yellow-rumped Warbler was at the park in High River, Black necked Stilt was beside Highway 2 about 6km north of Nanton. We enjoy these trips together alot and do them regulary,wish there was a serious birder close to us that we could tag along with sometime and thanks so much for all your help. I do most of the driving, and able most times to be the spotter and not the photographer though I do contribute there also but not as much. Alan

Long-billed Curlew

Lesser Yellowlegs

Red-tailed Hawk

Tree Swallow

American Coot

Snow Goose

Northern Shoveler

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Barn Swallow

Very cute Barn Swallow

OK – we know this is a hawk. Anyone care to tell us what species this is? 🙂

April 29

Today we travelled from Vulcan East on Highway 534. Continued on Highway 531. Went onto RR 210 south to Highway 529. Then went west to Champion (Sunday brunch at the hotel is very nice, Western and Chinese). We then made our way back to Vulcan.

Vesper Sparrow

Western Meadowlark

Dark morph Ferruginous Hawk

Swainson's Hawk chatting with Black-billed Magpie

Yellow-headed Blackbird

Northern Pintail

Blue-winged Teal

Northern Shrike

Savannah Sparrow

The May Species Count

Apr30

The Calgary May Species Count will be taking place on May 26 and 27 this year. If you are a Calgary-area birder and are free for one or both of these days, or even a half-day, you are invited to contact Terry Poulton to sign up. It’s very important that we get more people out for this event. It’s a huge area, and we had 72 people take part last year. It would be nice to get 100 or more birders out. Please contact Terry if you can take part.

Terry says:

The annual Calgary area May bird species count (MSC) will be held the weekend of May 26-27 this year. Calgary birders are out in force the last weekend of May every year since 1976, when our count began. This is Calgary’s contribution to a broad census of the constantly changing patterns of bird distributions in North America.

It is an opportunity for birders to work together, put their skills to the test, and find out what birds we have passing through in migration and nesting locally. The count circle is a large area, 80 km across, centred on Centre Street Bridge, extending from Olds to Nanton, and from Exshaw to Standard. It includes a variety of prairie, marsh, foothills, and urban park environments. Last year we found 224 species, setting a new record.

Birders of all skill levels are needed and welcome to participate in this major “citizen science” project. Birders with experience (and vehicles) are needed more than ever this year. Beginners will be teamed with more experienced birders, as possible.

To sign up, or ask for more information, please call Terry Poulton at tpoulton@yahoo.com or call 403 274 7393.

The Count Circle for the May Species Count.

South Glenmore Park – Birding the Glenmore Reservoir

Apr30

Posted by Dan Arndt

One of the places that I enjoyed watching birds doing what birds do has always been the Glenmore Reservoir. Even before I made the transition from photographer, to nature photographer, to serious birder, it was always somewhere that I could find something interesting and inspiring to shoot. This week was certainly no different.

Starting at the parking lot, we headed east along the bank of the reservior to the point, then headed west along the banks before heading up the hill into the woods and returning via a trail that runs parallel to the bank about half way up the hillside, then up to the multi-use pathway before returning to the parking lot and dispersing for the day.

South Glenmore Park - April 29 Route

A huge number of species had been reported all week, and I was itching to get out there and get some new birds for the year, and get some new species photographed for the blog. While I didn’t see all the ones I had hoped for, we did get some fairly close looks at quite a few great birds.

The stretch between the parking lot and the point turned out to be one of the most productive of the morning, giving us looks at at least one Red-necked Grebe, our only Ruddy Duck of the day, and four Common Loons, along with the usual Mallards, American Wigeon, and Lesser Scaup which have been regular sightings for the spring course so far. Out beyond the range of my camera lens were dozens of Franklin’s Gulls, Bufflehead, and even more Lesser Scaup, in impressive numbers, with a few Common Goldeneye mixed in. After reaching the point, we took a look around and spotted a few American Coots near shore, which was another new bird for our group this year.

Red-necked Grebe

Ruddy Duck (far left) with Mallards

Common Loon

After we passed the the canoe club, we were greeted by a small flock of Yellow-rumped Warblers, another new year-bird for me!

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Further along the path we decided to pause and take stock of the birds across the shore from our position before we turned and headed into the forested area. Along with a dozen or so Trumpeter Swans, we spotted a half dozen Northern Shoveler, a pair of Greater Yellowlegs, and a huge number of Franklin’s Gulls, as well as getting is fairly close to a contingent of Horned Grebes which posed very nicely for the paparazzi.

Horned Grebe

A few moments later, this Cooper’s Hawk flew overhead carrying something in its claws while being pursued by a trio of American Crows.

Cooper's Hawk

From there, we headed into the woods, where we got a few familiar species onto our list, the Red-breasted Nuthatch and Black-capped Chickadee, but the trail was extremely quiet. We elected to head up to the main multi-use pathway, and we were glad we did! A Savannah Sparrow, Tree Swallows, and Northern Rough-winged Swallow were added to the day list thanks to some of our more keen-eyed and eared attendees! Another heard a lone Boreal Chorus Frog in a nearby water hole, but we couldn’t get very close to it, and it wasn’t until we were once again near the parking lot before we heard them again and decided to investigate. These little frogs are incredibly loud for their size, and here are a few scenes I managed to capture.