Mother Great Horned Owl with nestling. Photo by Ramona Casault.
A pair of Great Horned Owls have nested on Ramona Casault’s acreage west of Calgary for several years. Ramona calls the adults Winnie and Waldo. There are three chicks this year, the last of which hatched just last week.
The female (Winnie). Photo by Ramona Casault.The male owl (Waldo). Photo by Ramona Casault.
According to Ramona, both parent owls have taken turns brooding the chicks, and now sometimes will both be outside the nest tree and leave the chicks for a while.
All three Owlets. There’s quite a size difference! Photo by Ramona Casault.Cuteness overload! Happy Mother’s Day!
The new season of Birds & Beers will begin with a presentation by Gordon Sick about his trip to Newfoundland.
Atlantic Puffin with Capelin. Photo by Gordon Sick.
Newfoundland is for the Birds: It’s an Aukward Province We spent 3 weeks of the summer on the Newfoundland coasts and viewed a variety of nestlings, fledglings and adults of species including Puffins, Murres, Razorbills, Guillemots, Gannets, Shearwaters, Kittiwakes, Black-backed Gulls, Terns, Sandpipers and Plovers. We searched New Brunswick, PEI and Newfoundland for a Piping Plover, which was an interesting exercise, with results to be disclosed at the presentation. We’ll also show an iceberg and a whale breaching to prove that we were in Newfoundland.
Birds & Beers meetings are held at the Royal Canadian Legion, 9202 Horton Road SW. This year we have the big ballroom, which is a very large space with excellent sightlines for presentations. We have the room starting at 5 pm, which should give many attendees more time to have a meal and socialize. You can arrive later if needed, and the presentation will begin at about 7 pm.
Razorbills. Photo by Gordon Sick.
Everyone is welcome to attend, including children if accompanied by an adult. See you there!
The October Birds & Beers will be on Thursday October 12, again from 5-9 at the Horton Road Legion. Dianne and Bob Leonhardt will do a presentation on their recent trip to Mexico.
The next Birds & Beers is on Friday April 14. We meet at the Horton Road Legion in Calgary starting at 6 pm. Everyone is welcome, and there is good food and drink available. The Legion is located at 9202 Horton Road SW. We have the rooms starting at 6 pm, and you can eat and socailize for about an hour and a quarter before we have our presentation. This month will feature Gordon Sick again, with part two of his trip to central America: The Birds of the Galapogos Islands. Just as in last month’s talk about the birds of the Ecudorean Cloud Forest, there will be many great photographs of birds, and there is no overlap in the species shown in the two talks at all!
Waved Albatrosses. Photo by Gordon Sick.
Birds of the Galapagos Islands: This presentation covers migratory birds (Waved Albatrosses, Boobies, Magnificent and Great Frigatebirds, for example), as well as endemic birds (Darwin Finches and Mockingbirds, for example). We will cover some of the 51 species that were photographed. Some non-avian flora and fauna will also be included.
See you there! We will ask for a donation of $1 per person to go to the Legion to cover the cost of the room.
The next Calgary Birds & Beers meeting will take place this Friday.
Royal Canadian Legion, Centennial Calgary Branch#285,
9202 Horton Road SW.
Friday May 13, 2022, 6:00-9:00 pm
After 7 pm, there will be a presentation by the award-winning photographer Mark Garbutt, featuring birds of the world.
Green-winged Macaws. Photo by Mark Garbutt
Growing up in Western Quebec, Mark developed an interest in birding and wildlife at a very young age, and that passion has continued throughout his life. While many years of his adult life were spent in Alberta, he has also lived in Texas, Alaska, and the UK. This further fuelled his passion for nature and led Mark to a 20+ year career in leading photography trips for groups to Alaska, Brazil, Patagonia, the Galapagos, many countries in Africa, and India. In addition to leading trips, he and his wife are always looking for new nature destinations to explore, from the Arctic to the Amazon, South America, Europe and beyond. Mark has received many recognitions for his photography including Natures Best Wildlife Photography Award in North America and runner up in the BBC Wildlife Photographer of the year. He currently lives outside Okotoks and can often be found at Frank Lake.
Everyone is welcome. The meeting begins at 6 pm, with the presentation to begin at about 7:15. Come early and have a beer, socialize, and have something to eat. You are welcome to come at 7 just for the presentation if you prefer. We will be meeting in the back room of the Legion.
Since the snowstorm on Sunday, April 14, many Mountain Bluebirds have been reported in the city. These migrants were forced down by the weather. Over 100 were reported in Fish Creek Park, about two dozen at the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary, and about 40 in a yard in Maple Ridge. Rob English spotted these bluebirds feeding in the Mountain Ash trees near his home, and sent us these great photos.
male Mountain Bluebird
female Mountain Bluebird
male Mountain Bluebird
male Mountain Bluebird
After hearing about the large flocks all around the city, and that the numbers were quickly dwindling at Inglewood Bird Sanctuary, I headed out on Tuesday evening with the Swarovski ATX 85, Pentax K-30, and digiscoping adapter, and spent a good hour watching and photographing a flock of six stragglers. While I had hoped that they would stick around so our Sunday group would get a chance to see them, I couldn’t take that chance, and boy am I glad I did!
These fantastic photos of a male Rufous Hummingbird were taken by Marilyn Sanders just west of Calgary in the community of Stonepine, off of Highway 8.
I think it is safe to say that most of us here have an interest in birdwatching. Some of us are also interested in photographing birds, documenting what we see and also enabling others to enjoy these sightings . Bird photography can be very tricky though and doesn’t always come out the way we want it to. Through trial and error as well as tips from other nature photographers, I have slowly learned different tricks of the trade and am still learning. Here is one trick that I have found helps me a lot.
Take a look at the picture above. Probably doesn’t do much for you, right? Just a killdeer photograph, nothing exciting about the shot itself. What could have been done to make this a better photograph? I have found that getting low can often drastically improve the photo. Get down at eye level with the bird, you can often create better eye contact with the bird, bringing the viewer into a connection with the photo. The Killdeer will then seem more interesting, not only because of the lower angle, but because of the change in the depth of field of the shot.
Depth of field (also known as DOF), is the term for the amount of distance between the closest and farthest objects that appear sharp in the photograph. In the second picture above, a shallower depth of field (meaning a blurry background) makes the photo less distracting and more pleasing to the eye. In the photo pictured below, I took it one step further, instead of simply kneeling, I lay on my stomach, creating a very shallow depth of field and therefore, a picture that is more likely to catch your eye than the first photo.
Changing the depth of field is a remarkably simple technique but incredibly powerful in the way a photo comes out. By getting low, chances are you can improve your bird photography.
