Yesterday, December 2, 2017, Tony LePrieur photographed some birds at Bebo Grove in Fish Creek Provincial Park, SW Calgary.
Northern Pygmy-Owl with Meadow Vole, Bebo Grove, December 2, 2017. Photo by Tony LePrieur.
Northern Pygmy-Owl, Bebo Grove, December 2, 2017. Photo by Tony LePrieur.
Pileated Woodpecker (male), Bebo Grove, December 2, 2017. Photo by Tony LePrieur.
American Three-toed Woodpecker, Bebo Grove, December 2, 2017. Photo by Tony LePrieur.
Photographs by Tony LePrieur.
Young Tundra Swan at Carburn Park, November 13, 2016.
The same swan at Carburn Park, November 13, 2016.
American Three-toed Woodpecker photographed at Bebo Grove, Fish Creek Provincial Park, November 13, 2016.
Posted by Dan Arndt
This year I participated in a few Christmas Bird Counts, and while I wasn’t able to get too many photos from some of them, I did manage a few here and there.
Calgary Christmas Bird Count:
As per usual, my area this year was the Weaselhead, and I managed a few photos of some good birds while down there. While we did miss out on some expected birds in that area, we didn’t have too bad a day overall. Of course the most reliable birds here are the Black-capped Chickadees, Red-breasted Nuthatches and Ruffed Grouse. One of the pleasant surprises in our area was a small flock of Common Redpolls, which quickly flew in, landed for a minute or two, and flew off as quickly as they arrived.
male Ruffed Grouse
Pentax K-5 + Sigma 150-500@500mm
1/1000sec., ƒ/6.3, ISO 2500
Black-capped Chickadee
Pentax K-5 + Sigma 150-500@500mm
1/800sec., ƒ/6.3, ISO 1000
Red-breasted Nuthatch
Pentax K-5 + Sigma 150-500@500mm
1/800sec., ƒ/6.3, ISO 1250
Common Redpoll
Pentax K-5 + Sigma 150-500@500mm
1/800sec., ƒ/6.3, ISO 800
Canmore Christmas Bird Count:
Most years, the Canmore Christmas Bird Count is one of the first ones I participate in, as it’s on a Saturday, and Calgary’s count is on a Sunday. This year, the beginning of the Christmas Bird Count window fell on a Sunday, and so the Canmore count was scheduled for the following Saturday. Because I wasn’t in quite as much of a rush to get home and get prepared for the Calgary count the next day, I had some time to actually spend a bit of time with the subjects, and explore a bit of a different range of habitats. My extra time paid off and I was able to find a couple more species in this area that I hadn’t found before!
American Three-toed Woodpecker
Pentax K-5 + Sigma 150-500@500mm
1/200sec., ƒ/6.3, ISO 3200
Brown Creeper
Pentax K-5 + Sigma 150-500@500mm
1/640sec., ƒ/6.3, ISO 3200
Mountain Chickadee
Pentax K-5 + Sigma 150-500@500mm
1/400sec., ƒ/6.3, ISO 2000
male Pine Grosbeak
Pentax K-5 + Sigma 150-500@500mm
1/640sec., ƒ/6.3, ISO 2500
Fish Creek Christmas Bird Count (and bonus bird):
The unofficial Fish Creek Provincial Park Christmas Bird Count is always conducted on New Year’s Day, which also gives me a great opportunity to get a solid start on my bird list for the year. For the past couple of years I’ve joined Phil Cram and the group that searches along the south-east corner of the park, including Sikome Lake, Hull’s Wood, and the area around the boat launch, so we tend to get a pretty good variety of birds. Following the morning count, I did manage a trip over to Bebo Grove to search for the elusive Northern Pygmy-Owl that had been seen here recently, and thankfully it didn’t disappoint, but not before I was heading back to the car to head home. Sure enough, just as I was preparing to leave, he had already been found by another photographer who pointed him out to me at the parking lot!
Canada Goose
Pentax K-5 + Sigma 150-500@500mm
1/500sec., ƒ/6.3, ISO 1250
Killdeer
Pentax K-5 + Sigma 150-500@500mm
1/640sec., ƒ/6.3, ISO 800
Northern Pygmy-Owl
Pentax K-5 + Sigma 150-500@500mm
1/320sec., ƒ/6.3, ISO 2000
This week marks the beginning of the Friends of Fish Creek Winter Birding Course, so check back here next Monday to find out what we saw on our first Sunday outing!
Posted by Dan Arndt
Better late than never, right? After another washout at the Weaselhead last Sunday morning with minimal visibility, high winds, and few birds anywhere to be found, I figured I’d be better off saving these birds until today!
Brown-Lowery Provincial Park is about half an hour south-west of Calgary, just west of Priddis, and south of Bragg Creek. There are a number of great trails through the park, though some of the hills are not for the faint of heart. Old growth white spruce, lodgepole pine, and a few rather boggy areas gave me some memories of my trips this past summer to the boreal forests of Northern Alberta, but also provide absolutely perfect habitat for two of the rarer woodpeckers in the Calgary area, both the American Three-toed and the Black-backed Woodpecker, as well as a good number of Ruffed Grouse that were scared up by our intrusions!
Enjoy the pictures, and good birding!
male American Three-toed Woodpecker
Brown-Lowery Provincial Park
female American Three-toed Woodpecker
Brown-Lowery Provincial Park
male Black-backed Woodpecker
Brown-Lowery Provincial Park
Ruffed Grouse
Brown-Lowery Provincial Park
Tony LePrieur found this male American Three-toed Woodpecker, and other birds, in Fish Creek Park on December 8.
American Three-toed Woodpecker (male)
Boreal Chickadee
Black-capped Chickadee
White-breasted Nuthatch
Red-breasted Nuthatch
Downy Woodpecker (female)
Downy Woodpecker (male)
Last Saturday’s FFCPPS outing was to Bebo Grove in Fish Creek Park, where we searched a stand of spruce south of bridge #5. An American Three-toed Woodpecker has been seen occasionally in this area all winter.
Bebo Grove, Fish Creek Park. Access the parking lot from 24 Street SW in Woodbine.
There are many dying spruce trees in this area because of the high water levels. When a spruce dies, wood-boring beetles move in, which in turn provide a food source for the woodpecker. The birds chip off chunks of the bark to get at the larvae. Listen for the soft tapping of the woodpecker, and look for trees which have the reddish-coloured wood under the bark exposed. The bark chips will be scattered at the foot of the tree.
Bark chips on the snow under this tree show that a woodpecker has been feeding here recently.
We quickly found the bird, a male, working on a dying spruce. (Males have a yellow patch on the top of their head). These birds are not timid around people, so we were able to get quite close to watch it worry the bark.
Hammering at the bark – wood bits flying!
Prying up a bark chip.
“Maybe if I go at it from this angle…”
This bird will probably move out of the city to breed before too long, so if you want to see it this season, you’ll have to get out there soon. Meanwhile, I’ll be in Griffith Woods Park looking for the elusive Black-backed Woodpecker.
Good birding!
Bob Lefebvre
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