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, us email us at zoxox@shaw.ca 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.
This Bird Alert was recorded on Monday Nov 28 at 1:45 pm.
Bird Sightings:
Nov 20:
ROUGH-LEGGED HAWKS (40+) near Pine Coulee Res., west of Staveley, Terry Korolyk.
Nov 24:
YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRD, RUSTY BLACKBIRD, 30 RED-WINGED BLACKBIRDS, 30 BREWER’S BLACKBIRDS, AMERICAN GOLDFINCH, MOURNING DOVE, RED-TAILED HAWK , at Lloyd Bennett’s farm near Taber.
MARSH WREN at Taber Lake, LB.
COMMON GRACKLES (3) in Lethbridge, LB.
Nov 25:
ROUGH-LEGGED HAWKS (56) birding between Medicine Hat and Brooks, Milt Spitzer and Ben Velner.
Nov 26:
ROUGH-LEGGED HAWKS (8) in a kettle south of Calgary, TK.
KILLDEER (5) along the Bow River north of 22X bridge, TK.
KILLDEER (2) along the Elbow River, Bill Wilson.
The next scheduled update of the Bird Alert is on Thursday Dec 1.
BIRD STUDY GROUP:
Bird Study Group meets 1st Wednesday of the month, Room 211, BioSciences Building, U of C. December meeting is Wednesday,December 7. Topic will be “Birding in
Brazil”, presented by Rob Worona. Meeting time is 7:30pm.
Reading this post reminded me of the most recent issue of North American Birds, which mentions 10 Killdeer in Calgary into December (and a single Wilson’s Snipe on the Banff/Canmore CBC). Wonder if these shorebirds will stick around or if today’s snow will hasten their departure?
We saw at least 11 Killdeer along the river in LaFarge Meadows (Fish Creek Park south of 22X) on Nov. 26, and the same number were seen on Nov. 22, as well as a snipe on Nov. 21. Some do try to overwinter, and I believe it in a mild winter some are successful. Obviously that first cold snap in mid-November didn’t send them south but perhaps the next one will.
Thanks for the background information. There was still at least one Killdeer there today (Dec 4th) after the big dump of snow – a picture to prove it here: http://calgarybirder.blogspot.com/2011/12/let-it-snow.html