Next Thursday, February 8th, we will have another Birds & Beers meeting in Calgary. As usual, we meet in the big ballroom at the Royal Canadian Legion at 9202 Horton Road SW. The event starts at 5 pm.
A Black-billed Magpie seen by a Feeder Watcher on the 2023 Calgary Christmas Bird Count. Photo by Lou Zaganelli.
After some time for socializing, eating, and drinking, there will be a presentation on some of the recent Christmas Bird Counts that took place in the Calgary area. Matthew Wallace will present the results of the Calgary Count, Gavin McKinnon on the Priddis Count, and Jim Washbrook on the Fish Creek Park New Year’s Day Count. The presentation starts at about 7 pm.
A Common Redpoll seen on the Calgary Count. They have been scarce this winter here, but we had almost a hundred on the count. Photo by Lou Zaganelli.
Everyone is welcome at Birds & Beers! See you there!
Where is one place a bird bred for the sport of hunting can be and not get shot at? In the city of course! Yes there are lots of other dangers, namely cars, but there are less predators and less people in camouflage fatigues lurking behind trees ready to shoot. It’s positively a paradise for game birds! In Calgary there are a couple populations of game birds hiding out that you might be lucky enough to see. These are the Gray Partridge and the Ring-necked Pheasant. (Another local game bird, the Ruffed Grouse, is usually only found in small numbers in the conifer forests on the west edge of the city, and is pretty hard to find.)
While walking in our southwest neighbourhood I saw a small group of Gray Partridge for the very first time in my life. They were small plump chicken-like birds with a cinnamon patch on the face. These little round birds were running along the ground very fast, they were moving as a group with no apparent leader. They seemed to spook at the sight of us and hustled along a chain link fence. The problem was half were on the inside of the fence and half were on the outside. They ran most of the length of the fence before they noticed what had happened. The whole group then stopped and cheeped for a while in confusion. I’m not sure they are the sharpest knives in the drawer but they sure are cute. In the half-light we saw some of them fly up over the fence, which seems to be a last resort for them.
Gray Partridge. Photo by Diane Stinson.
The Gray Partridge was introduced to North America from Europe in the early 1900s. It is mostly found on farmland, especially in the Northern Prairies where it somehow survives the cold winter. The hens will lay a lot of eggs, more than most birds. Up to 22 in a clutch! These birds also have very short life spans, only averaging 1.8 years.
Gray Partridge near the irrigation canal below the Max Bell arena, May 1, 2023. Photo by Bob Lefebvre.
I was biking along the Bow River bike path to Fish Creek Park and saw a Ring-necked Pheasant wandering around the back yards bordering the path. What a show stopper that rooster is! I screeched to a halt and looked at its bright red face, beautiful iridescent blue head and very long tail. Also the white ring around its neck of course. The female (hen) is a more camouflage brown and is smaller than the rooster. The roosters are very striking and colourful, the allaboutbirds.org website even calls them ‘gaudy’. That may be a backhanded way of saying they don’t really belong in our landscape. You can get an inkling of that just by looking at them, North American species are usually a bit more subdued in colour. The Ring-necked sure aren’t camouflaged with that attire!
In fact their populations are supplemented heavily by the Alberta Conservation Association which runs a “Provincial Pheasant Release Program”. I hear they released melanistic Ring-necked pheasants this year, which have an all black body. Still not great for hiding from coyotes during the winter. It’s actually the hens that have a much harder time during the winter, they do all the work with the eggs and the chicks. Thus they spend a lot less time fattening up for winter. Lucky for them that hunters are encouraged to shoot the males.
A Ring-necked pheasant strutting its stuff. Photo by Diane Stinson.
Keep your eyes out for these game birds sheltering in our city and when you see one take a moment to appreciate all that it has to survive – hunters, traffic and worst of all, winter.
A Ring-necked Pheasant showing its beautiful tail. Photo by Diane Stinson.
The Calgary May Species Count is next Weekend, Saturday May 27 and Sunday May 28. There are a few routes still uncovered this year. You have a choice of several small city areas or some larger rural routes. You can do the count either day. Simply cover the area as well as you can, while recording all species of birds you can identify, and the numbers of each. While eBird is the preferred way to do this, you will still be able to participate and submit your observations for the count if you don’t use eBird.
The count organizer, Andrew Hart, will be able to give you more details on each route and on the procedure for the count. If you are interested, contact Andrew by email at andrewhartch@icloud.com, or by phone at (403) 608-8918.
Red-tailed Hawk with Garter Snake, Longview Area, 2017 May Species Count. Photo by Bob Lefebvre
City Routes Available:
Confluence Park. This is the area along the two branches of Nose Creek just north of Beddington Trail and west of Deerfoot Trail. There are paved paths throughout and it is a great area for birds.
Nose Hill North. This part of Nose Hill has never been covered so if you know the area, you can really contribute.
Twelve-Mile Coulee. A really nice area on the eastern side of Tuscany in the far NW.
Paskapoo Slopes. A significant wild area of the city near Canada Olympic Park. It has many hills and ridges and can be tough walking.
Nose Creek Valley. Another area along Nose Creek.
St. Patrick’s Island and Princes Island. Two adjacent parks in the downtown on the Bow River. I know many people have been attending all the birding walks on St. Patrick’s Island, so one of you should be able to cover this!
I spend one of the two count days doing a large rural route, and the other day going to a few small city areas. If someone wants some nice city routes or is familar with the areas, I would give them up so I could help on a larger rural route. The city routes are:
Bridlewood Pond. A really nice set of two small ponds where you can get up close and personal with the birds. Located on the SE edge of Bridlewood, just north of 22X near Spruce Meadows.
Strathcona Ravines. Two adjacent ravines in Strathcona in the west end. Really nice area to walk.
Rural Routes – refer to the numbered map areas below:
Area 15 – Water Valley South. Quite a different habitat than you find in the city.
Area 18 – Kananaskis – Mount Lorette. This is the spot where the Golden Eagle count is conducted.
19b – SW of Cochrane. Not too far out of the city.
30 – Didsbury East Bluebird Trail. The far northeast edge of the circle.
32 – Strathmore North. The eastern edge of the circle.
37 – Acme/Carbon. A large rural area, also in the northeast near the Didsbury area.
We want to cover the count circle as completely as possible. Please contact Andrew if you have any interest in this count, or if you may be interested in future years.
Wanted: Plant, fungus, insect, and bacteria experts!
Posted by Bob Lefebvre
The 5th annual City Nature Challenge took place last week, from April 28 to May 1. The period for making observations has ended, but participants have until midnight on Sunday May 7 to upload their photos. Many of us are still working on that. In addition, all the observations need to be identified and have at least two people agree on the species to be considered Research Grade. You can help with this!
But first an update on where the challenge stands. Calgary is doing very well again, and has set new city records for the number of observations, species recorded, and participants. Matthew Wallace, the organizer of the Calgary CNC, had set a goal of 10,000 observations made in the Calgary area. Although we are not there yet, we are close.
Although the CNC is not really a competition between cities due to differences in climate, habitats, and human populations, nevertheless we should note that Calgary is among the Canadian leaders in total observations made, and may well finish with the most. On Monday evening Montreal was leading with 6,516 observation, with Victoria at 6,344 and Calgary in third place with 6,137. As of late Friday (May 5) Calgary has taken the lead among Canadian cities:
It’s interesting to look at the statistics for the Global CNC:
Over 64,000 observers made 1.75 million observations and identified over 55,000 species worldwide in the four days. The numbers from the leading city, La Paz in Bolivia, are staggering! Over 3,000 people made 122,000 observations and identified over 5,000 species! It shows the difference that climate and geography make, but it also shows what can be achieved with a year-round concerted effort to get people involved. La Paz has a metropolitan population of about 2 million, so it is comparable to Calgary.
Below are the statistics for Calgary as of late Friday. So far, 760 species have been reported by 336 observers. Identifications have been provided by 392 people.
Once again Matthew Wallace was extremely busy on the weekend, making over 1,100 observations and recording 214 species (so far). But many others have also made hundreds of observations and recorded over 100 species each.
As you can see above, the Prairie Pasqueflower (the familiar spring crocus) is by far the most commonly reported species. Usually it is Mallard in first place, but the unusually hot and dry weather this year means that there were more early flowering plants reported, and more insects as well. This is where you come in.
When a photo is uploaded to iNaturalist, the artificial intelligence will try to identify it, and the observer can accept one of the suggestions or, if they know the species, can write it in or override a suggestion. Then all the other iNaturalist users in the world are able to view the observation, and agree with the identification or suggest an alternate one. Once an observation is uploaded with date, location, and a photo or sound file (and is wild or uncultivated), it is labelled “Needs ID.” Observations become “Research Grade” once 2/3 of identifiers agree on a species-level (or lower) ID. These are then eligible to be used in research projects.
There have been many observations submitted for the Calgary CNC that do not yet have a species-level ID, so are not Research Grade (this is normal; we want to get the photos of every species we can, whether we can confidently identify it or not. Identification comes later). All of the yellow ones below (about 3,000 observations) need additional identification. (Casual observations are not eligible for Research Grade. An example is a captive animal or cultivated plant.)
Any iNaturalist user can help to identify our observations from the CNC, or from anywhere in the world at any time. To see the Calgary observations, go to the Calgary Project Page. Click on the Observations tab, then “Identify.”
Here you can agree with the observer’s ID, or suggest another. See what the AI suggests. Where there are multiple photos of a species (like the Canadian Beaver, which has 3 photos) you can view them all. The filter set is the Calgary CNC region, but you can click that and set many more filters. For example, you might only be confident identifying birds, so you can set it to show only those. Birds are often quite easy to ID and there is a big birding community, so most of the bird observations quickly become Research Grade. But there are some unusual ones or less-than-perfect photos that still need ID for you keen birders. You can set a filter for “Needs ID” and only those will come up.
The Filters tab on iNaturalist. I set it to show reptiles that need ID and have photos.
If you are a plant, fungus, insect, or bacteria expert, there are many more observations that need to be verified. So if you think you can help, please open an account on iNaturalist Canada and give it a try! As I said, the project is complete at midnight on Sunday, but you can continue to contribute identifications (and observations!) to iNaturalist year-round. I find it is a lot of fun and a great way to learn to identify more species of all kinds.
For those of you who are interested in taking part in bioblitzes like the City Nature Challenge, the next such local event on iNaturalist is the Metro Calgary Biodiversity Challenge from June 8-11. See the project page for more information.
The Calgary City Nature Challenge runs from Friday to Monday, April 28 to May 1. Everyone is welcome to participate anywhere in the Calgary CNC Region by taking photographs of any living thing and posting them to the iNaturalist website or smart phone app. There are many public events this year as well, some of which start as soon as Friday morning, so check the links below to find an event near you.
From organizer Matthew Wallace:
The fifth annual Calgary City Nature Challenge (CNC) will take place April 28-May 1. If you’re unfamiliar with the CNC, it has grown immensely since it began in 2016. At the time there were only two cities competing against one another (Los Angeles and San Francisco). It is now considered to be the largest global bioblitz and one of the largest citizen science events in the world. This year there are 462 cities competing from across the globe. Forty-three cities are within Canada including Calgary, Edmonton, and Red Deer within Alberta.
There are three categories in which cities compete: Which city can make the most observations, document the most species, and engage the most people. When we say “compete” it’s really just a friendly competition for bragging rights with each city individually organizing their own local bioblitz. People participate by taking photos of plants and animals and uploading them to the iNaturalist app (or iNaturalist.ca when posting from digital cameras and within Canada).
The Calgary Metropolitan region is our local area and includes the city of Calgary, Cochrane, Airdrie, Chestermere, Okotoks, Glenbow Ranch, Foothills County, and Rocky View County. Over the four days, any observations made within this area are automatically included in the Calgary iNaturalist Project. (Follow this page to see our progress over the four days.)
The Calgary Metropolitan Region for the CNC.
Our goal is to achieve a new Canadian record (>10,000 observations). We have been inching closer to this target number each year with almost 6800 observations shared in 2022. Keep your eye on the leaderboards to see how cities around the world are doing.
From April 28-May 1, make as many observations as you can by taking photos of plants, animals, and fungi as you explore our region. You don’t have to go far to participate: Look in your yards, neighbourhoods and favorite parks. There are also a series of public events this year which had been on pause during 2021 and 2022 due to the pandemic. It’s a welcome addition to have our naturalist communities be able to get outside and work together to achieve a common goal. For more information on events and resources to help you get started visit www.citynatureyyc.ca.
For the events list, see this page. This year there are many events both inside Calgary and in outlying areas, including one in Airdrie on Friday morning, two in Glenbow Ranch on Saturday plus one on Sunday, and one in Big Hill Springs on Sunday. Take as many good photos as you can. You will have until May 7 to upload them to iNaturalist (but the sooner the better, so we have time to identify everything). If you have good knowledge of birds, plants, insects, fungi, mammals, or other living things, you can also participate by helping to identify the observervations made here or anywhere on iNaturalist.
Have fun, and help us get to 10,000 observations!!
More birders needed to help to monitor bird populations in the area, May 27-28.
From organizer Andrew Hart.
The Calgary Area May Species Count is held on the last weekend of May. Teams of observers will count birds in about 80 count areas in the 80 km circle centered on Calgary. There are still some areas that need to be covered. Some of these may be parks within the city, or larger rural areas.
Eastern Kingbird, Longview area, May Species Count 2022. Photo by Bob Lefebvre.
We are always in need of new participants. If you would like to participate this year please reply to the email address or phone number below confirming your availability and also whether you would prefer to team up with an established group or try an area on your own. Could you also confirm if anyone else will be in your team, or if you would like me to try and find you some additional participants to join you.
To register or if you have any questions please contact me by email (andrewhartch@icloud.com) or at (403) 608-8918.
Planning for the May Species Counts is already under way. There are two southern Alberta counts besides the Calgary one that many Calgarians take part in – Brooks/Lake Newell, and Milk River/Writing-on-Stone. The Brooks count is in its 24th year and MR/WOS is in its 22nd. The organizers would like to get more people participating in both counts. Since birders from the city have to arrange accomodation for these, you have to start your planning now. (Note that the Calgary count is May 27-28, the same weekend as Writing-on-Stone, so you will have a choice to make.)
Below is the information about the counts and booking camping. There is more information in the attached brochures. If you have questions, please contact the count organizers.
Lark Sparrow. Photo by Bob Lefebvre, May 31, 2020.
_____________________________________________
Hello Alberta Bird Counters! We are pleased to announce that the 2023 Brooks and Writing-on-Stone Bird Counts will take place on the following dates:
· Brooks-Lake Newell Bird Count: Sat. May 20 and Sun. May 21
· Milk River – Writing-on-Stone Bird Count: Sat. May 27 and Sun. May 28
If you plan on camping we highly recommend booking early!
Tillebrook Provincial Park: general reservations for May 19-21 will open at 9 am on Saturday February 18. www.reserve.albertaparks.ca or 1-877-537-2757
Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park: general reservations for May 26-28 will open at 9 am on Saturday February 25. www.reserve.albertaparks.ca or
1-877-537-2757
Note: a small non-refundable fee of $12 per person will be charged to all Brooks participants to help cover the rental of the Brooks Legion meeting room.
Please indicate interest in participating to Debra Hornsby in advance of registration. Registration forms will be emailed by March 27. The 2023 count brochure provides further information and a draft count schedule.
We look forward to seeing all of you — and thousands of migrating birds — at the end of May!
To indicate interest contact: debra.hornsby.banff*@*gmail.com
More information: Donna Wieckowski astolat*@*shaw.ca
The next Calgary Birds & Beers meeting will be this coming Friday at the the Horton Road Legion. There will be a presentation by Bob and Dianne Leonhardt about their 2022 trip to Elk Island and Cold Lake parks.
Royal Canadian Legion, Centennial Calgary Branch #285,
9202 Horton Road SW.
Friday February 10, 2023, 6:00-9:00 pm
We start at 6 pm, and there will be time for socializing, eating, and drinking before the presentation begins after 7 pm. Here are the details of the talk.
Sunset at Elk Island Park
Gas Yaki Walk 2022: A camping trip to Elk Island National Park and Cold Lake Provincial Park by Bob and Dianne Leonhardt
In 2017 a group of us hiked across Southern Alberta with our friend and outstanding naturalist, Gus Yaki. Since that time some of the group, and anyone else who was interested, has been conducting an annual trip involving exploring some of the beautiful scenery and wildlife in Alberta and Saskatachewan. In 2022 we traveled north to visit Elk Island National Park and Cold Lake Provincial Park. Elk Island, only about 35 kilometres east of Edmonton, is a wonderful location for seeing wildlife and doing some hiking. Cold Lake, about 250 kilometres north east of Elk Island, is one of the premiere places in Alberta to witness the spring migration of warblers.
Next Friday will be the first Birds & Beers meeting of the new year. We meet at 6 pm at the Horton Road Legion. Everyone is welcome to come.
Royal Canadian Legion, Centennial Calgary Branch#285,
9202 Horton Road SW.
Friday January 13, 2023, 6:00-9:00 pm
Nesting Red-necked Grebes at the Bridlewood Wetland, Calgary, May Species Count 2021. Photo by Bob Lefebvre.
Aftere an hour or so of socializing, eating, and drinking, there will be a presentation by Andrew Hart and Lara Fitzpatrick on the Calgary May Species Count. They will present the history of the count and how it has evolved since its inception in 1976. They will discuss the areas that are covered, how the count is organized, and how and why they have migrated to eBird for data collection. Then the actual 2022 results will be shown, as well as a look ahead to how things may evolve for 2023.
In early December I posted about the start of Winter Birding season. As usual, we picked up almost all of the commonly-occcuring winter species pretty quickly for our list. Before last weekend’s Calgary Christmas Bird Count, we were at 87 species. But we added four new species on the Calgary Count on December 18 (Varied Thrush at Queen’s Park Cemetery, Northern Shoveler at Bonnybrook waste treatment plant on the Bow River, Gadwall at a couple of locations on the Bow, and a Common Grackle seen at a feeder in SE Calgary). So, as of December 20, we were at 91 species for the Calgary region.
Common Grackle, photographed in mid-December in SE Calgary by Jennifer Howson. (Yes, I have spoken to her about the bread!)
The extreme cold weather we have been having is keeping birders from going out, and the birds are often sheltering, so one might think we would have a low number of species this year. But it is in line with the past few years:
Year
Total on Dec. 20
Final Total
2019
89
109
2020
98
119
2021
92
118
2022
91
???
(Data courtesy of Caroline Lambert. Caroline has done most of the work on the Calgary list again this year, as well as maintaining the Bow Valley list.)
There are several other Christmas Bird Counts in the region in the next ten days, so we should get a few more species on those. (Nature Calgary’s site has some information on some of the other counts if you wish to take part. There are also some Long-term Foothills Counts that may need addditional participants.) And then there is the long stretch from the beginning of January to the end of February to find more species. So we might end up with a total of well over 100 species again.
Northern Pygmy-Owl, Calgary, February 2008. We haven’t yet had a report of one in the 80-km circle. Some winters they are right in the city. Photo by Bob Lefebvre.
Some of the species that haven’t been reported yet this year but that we are still likely to find include Wild Turkey, Northern Pygmy-Owl, and Short-eared Owl. Those have all been seen in the five previous winters. American Kestrel and Red-winged Blackbird have also been seen in each of the last five winters, but I wonder if it is now less likely at this point that they will turn up. We have a good chance to get Clark’s Nutcracker (seen in three of the past five years but known to winter in nearby areas) and Black-backed Woodpecker (seen in four of the past five). Hoary Redpolls have also been seen in four of five years, but the low numbers of Redpolls around this year will make it a real challenge.
If you see somethig that is not yet on the list, please report it on the Albertabird site.
Meanwhile, over in the Bow Valley near Canmore and Banff, they have 55 species so far. They may not get to the record of 74 for the season, but should have a respectable total in the 60’s. You can follow the Bow Valley Birding Group on Facebook here.
Check out the Alberta Winter Bird List site to see the lists for Calgary, the Bow Valley, Edmonton, and the overall Provincial list.
