Tag Archive | birds calgary blog

BirdYYC2020 – WhatsApp Group for Rare Birds

About

A WhatsApp group has been set up to allow Calgary birders participating in the 2020 “Big Year” Birding Challenge to share instant updates on rare/uncommon birds sighted within the city limits. The big advantage of this group over email listservs will be that everyone can send out and receive updates quickly. It is essentially like sending a text message, much faster and more direct than email. Photos can be also be shared with the app.

WhatsApp groups are currently restricted to 256 members, which we hope will be more than enough to include all the birders who want to get “instant” bird news while they are out and about.

For those who do not want instant updates we will have a weekly report of rare birds on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Follow the challenge on Twitter at @birdyyc2020.

Joining the group

If you don’t already have WhatsApp on your phone, you will first need to download and install it (via iTunes, Android Play or the Microsoft Store, depending on what type of smartphone you have). The app is free. Once you have the app, you will need to send a request to one of the group admins with your request to join the Birdyyc2020 RBA group.

There are currently two group admins: Gavin McKinnon and Bob Lefebvre. In order to join the group please send a message to either one of them and they will add you to the group. A text message to their phone number is the easiest way to do it. Gavin 403-519-8703; Bob 403-370-0556. Include your name so that it will be visible to users when you post messages to the group.

The group is open to all birders interested in Calgary’s rare birds. All BirdYYC2020 challenge participants will receive an email with a link to join the WhatsApp group. If you received this email simply follow the link to join the group. To join the challenge, email Howard Heffler at hheffler[at]shaw.ca with “Challenge” in the subject line.

Group Guidelines

● The group is only to be used for sharing information about rare and uncommon species within the city limits of Calgary. Please remember that every message you send goes out to everyone in the group. Although general chit-chat and banter is expected please avoid having conversations in the group chat.

● If you find a bird on the list of ‘reportable’ species, send a message to the group as soon as possible. (A list of reportable species will be provided to participants.) Include as much detail as you think necessary to enable others to find the bird if they choose to go and look for it. If you do pursue (“twitch”) a reported sighting please send an update on whether you have been successful or not.

● Consider the welfare of the bird at all times. Do not send out news of sensitive or breeding birds. Please do not report the locations of owls or other species prone to disturbance on the group chat. If you are unsure of whether or not to post please contact one of the group admins before doing so.

We encourage participants in the challenge to also share their sightings on the listserv Albertabird. If you are not a member of Albertabird, see this post for information.

Don’t wait until January to start using the app! We have been using it for a while already, and we’d like to see it used next week during the Calgary Christmas Bird Count, and on other counts over the Christmas season.

Mew Gull, photographed on the Irrigation Canal in SE Calgary on October 13, 2019, by Gavin McKinnon, and shared immediately with BirdYYC2020 WhatsApp group users.

If you have any other questions or concerns, please contact Gavin McKinnon by email (gmckinnonbird[at]gmail.com) or phone (403-519-8703).

A Guide To Setting Alerts in eBird

Dec1

Calgary 2020 Big Year Birding Challenge

By Howard Heffler

Nature Calgary is promoting a friendly “big year” birding challenge within Calgary city limits in 2020. See this post for details of the challenge.

What Are eBird Alerts?

eBird Alerts are lists of noteworthy birds reported in the past seven days in a specific county, state, province, or country. The best place to learn about eBird alerts is on the eBird Help pages about alerts and targets.

In a previous article we described how to open an eBird account with your name and email address. It will be very helpful if you set the eBird parameters on “My eBird” to alert you about local sightings that should improve your chances of adding to your year list.

Setting eBird Alerts

You can get to the Alerts page either from “Explore” and then, near the bottom, open “Alerts.” Or, from “My eBird,” open “Manage My Alerts.”

There are three Alerts:

1. ABA Rarities

This alert is for observations of rare birds in the American Birding Association Area.

2. Rare Bird Alerts

Email alerts for rare birds in a particular area.

3. Needs Alerts

Email alerts for species you have not personally recorded in a particular region or time period.

The later two are likely the most relevant to participation in the BirdYYC2020 challenge.

You can set your region of interest to Calgary. It is important to remember that the eBird region named “Calgary” refers to an area larger that the City of Calgary.

After selecting Calgary as your region of interest, you can “View” the alerts or you can “Subscribe.” If you subscribe, eBird will send you an email – daily or hourly.

By setting your “Needs Alerts” eBird will notify you of all species reported in Calgary for the past seven days that would be new to your list of species on eBird. To be most useful to the BirdYYC2020 challenge, check the box “This year only.”

The Rare Bird Alerts will inform you of ABA Code 3 and above reports in the region, whether or not they are on your needs list.

You can also set alerts for any other other region you are interested in, for example if you plan to travel. Alerts can easily be changed at any time from “Manage My Alerts” on your “My eBird” page. It is a very useful feature of eBird and birders participating in the 2020 challenge should take advantage of it.

A Beginner’s Guide to eBird

Nov30

Calgary 2020 Big Year Birding Challenge

By Howard Heffler

Nature Calgary is promoting a friendly “big year” birding challenge within Calgary city limits in 2020: BIRDYYC2020.

This article is for beginners with eBird to give them the essential information to get started and, we hope, the confidence to explore the powerful features of eBird.

What is eBird?

eBird is a publicly-accessible online database consisting of bird sightings from all around the world. The best place to learn about eBird is on their website.

Since 2002 eBird has amassed over one-half billion reports from birders around the world. It is a project of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and is supported entirely by grants, sponsors, and donations. It is free and available for everyone to use.

The first step is to go to the home page and open an account with your name and email address. You will have to select a username and a password. That’s all there is to it.

Using eBird to enter your sightings

There is a vast amount of data on the eBird website that you may access, but the two things to consider initially are; (1) entering checklists, and (2) looking up data. There is a “help” button on the top menu bar on the home page. Believe me, the help pages are very good.

In the Field

I think most people keep track of their sightings while they are birding in the field using the eBird mobile app. The first step is to get the app – available for free on both the Google Play and App Stores. After you download the app and open it on your smartphone, the screen looks like this:

eBird app — The eBird smartphone app home screen.

The idea is to enter your sightings while you are birding. There are several ways to do this and you will soon find your favorite techniques after a bit of practice. You will have to spend a bit of time at your computer looking through the instructions on the eBird help pages.

In a nutshell; open the app, start a new list, select a location, enter your sightings at that hotspot, stop the list (when you are finished at that hotspot), review it, and submit.

I admit it takes a bit of time initially to learn. But, after some practice, you will appreciate the many ways it is helpful to your birding.

At your desk

It is also possible to submit checklists from your computer when you get back home. Open eBird and look for the “submit” button at the top of the home page. You then select the location where you were birding (if you visited several locations, you will need to submit a checklist for each), enter the time and date, type of observation, and begin to enter your sightings.

eBird page — The eBird desktop interface.

Again, remember that each checklist is to be associated with one hotspot. It might be a public hotspot such as, Calgary–Inglewood Bird Sanctuary, or it might be a location you define yourself. It is not a list of all the birds you saw that day at a variety of locations.

I encourage you to look through the help pages on the eBird website. They are very well thought out. Remember, there are many thousands (even millions) of birders just like you. Everyone one of them at one time was a beginner with eBird.

Looking up Data

I consider eBird to have two modes: data in and data out. “Data in” refers to entering your sightings. “Data out” refers to looking up information that has been compiled from the vast number of reports from the many millions of checklists; including your own checklists. There are many more things that can be done with this data than I can even begin to describe. Here are a few things you will initially want to do.

Check out Hotspots and Species

On the eBird home page, open the “Explore” page. From there you can find a hotspot, look at what birds have been reported over any time period, see the location on Google maps, and study the historic data in any way you could imagine. Most likely, you will want to see what birds were seen in the past few days to help you anticipate what you might find there.

Alternatively, you may want to explore by species name. In this case you enter the common name of a species and eBird displays a map of all locations where this species has been recorded. You can then zoom in to the desired geographic scale – perhaps right to a hotspot near you where that species was reported in the past week. There are a few sensitive species that do not allow you to zoom in to specific locations. In Alberta these are Gyrfalcon, Great Grey Owl, Northern Hawk-Owl and Burrowing Owl.

My eBird

Of course, you will also want to look at your own data. On the eBird home page open “My eBird”. On the main part of the My eBird page you can look at your own data. On the right-hand side are several tabs. Likely the one you will use most frequently is: “Manage My Observations”. When you open this page, you will see all your checklists. They can be sorted by date, by location, or by region, and can be edited or shared.

There are many other actions you can do on or from “My eBird” such as setting up alerts to let you know about rare bird sightings or to advise that a bird you have not yet seen that year has been recently reported – we will discuss this feature in another article. One set of parameters I want to draw your attention to is: setting your eBird preferences. We want all participants in BIRDYYC2020 to share their eBird lists and make sightings on eBird visible. The purpose is to allow all participants to chase sightings by others. Specifically: from the eBird homepage, under My eBird, select Preferences; Data privacy – elect to NOT hide your eBird data.

One other feature of eBird that will be of special interest during the BIRDYYC2020 challenge will be how to establish a “Patch”. We will develop another instructional article on just that topic. The starting point on the eBird home page is the “explore” button. Try it and see how you do.

Closing

I can remember many times my Dad telling me when I was young: “Don’t play with that, you’ll break it.” That’s not true with eBird. You won’t break it. Sign in and go exploring around the whole site. Look through the help topics. Look at the data for one of your favorite hotspots. Explore the Region, “Calgary County”. Be aware that “Calgary County” is quite a bit larger that the City of Calgary.

Enjoy.

A Guide to Albertabird

Nov24

By Howard Heffler

Nature Calgary is promoting a friendly “big year” birding challenge within Calgary city limits in 2020 (BIRDYYC2020). (See this post for an introduction to the challenge.) This guide to Albertabird is one of a number of posts we will present to help everyone who participates.

What is Albertabird?

One useful tool for those taking part in the challenge is the online discussion forum “Albertabird”. This is a place where birders can share sightings, locations, and photos, so it will be useful to participants in
keeping informed during the year and giving them the best chance to see as many bird species within the city limits as possible. This article is for newcomers to Albertabird. Anyone can join Albertabird or use it as a resource – it is not just for BIRDYYC2020 participants.

The Albertabird email list was started in early 2000. Initially hosted by Yahoo Groups, a switch to the more compatible platform, Groups IO, was completed in late 2019.

This list functions within the guidelines found in the American Birding Association Code of Ethics. The Albertabird Moderators are Gerald Romanchuk, Malcolm McDonald, and Caroline Lambert.

Anyone can look at the site to read messages posted by members. Click this link to go to Albertabird in a new tab. There you can see what the site looks like.

Using Albertabird

To post messages to the list you must be a member. To join, you simply go to the site’s Home page and click on “Apply for Membership in this Group.” You will be asked to submit your email address. You should get a response to your request for membership in a day or two.

You can open the “Messages” page to see the latest posts. You can also go to “Subscription” and set the parameters in a way that suits you. You may elect to receive each message in an individual email or in other ways or to not receive emails. Once you are a member, you can post messages and photos for all to see. You can post either right on the website or by sending an email to Albertabird[at]groups.io.

Albertabird has been a powerful and useful tool for years, allowing birders to share stories and help others learn.

We encourage you to look frequently at Albertabird and to post stories about your adventures during the BirdYYC2020 challenge.

Albertabird Guidelines

The complete guidelines for users of Albertabird can be found on the Albertabird website under “files”.

A few points to remember are:

Do not to hit the “Reply” button when responding to a message unless you are intending to send your comments to all subscribers.
All posts should contain your name and location by city.
Be prepared to share directions to interesting birds, except for species at risk.
Do not share directions on private property until you have permission from the landowner to do so.
Do not post detailed information on a nest location, particularly for species at risk, to minimize disturbance to nesting birds.
The list allows attachments such as photos or files. Files should be kept as concise as possible in the interest of saving storage space
Photos can be attached to the message as a file or pasted into the message. (See the guidelines on the Albertabird website for more details and restrictions.)

Enjoy!

Any questions or suggestions about BIRDYYC2020 contact:
 Howard Heffler: hheffler*@*shaw.ca
 Andrew Hart: andrewhart*@*shaw.ca
 Bob Lefebvre: wbird7*@*gmail.com
 Gavin McKinnon: gmckinnonbird*@*gmail.com

CMSRT Public Event Tomorrow, November 23

Nov22

On Saturday November 23 there will be a free public event to share the findings of the Calgary Migratory Species Response Team (CMSRT). The event runs from 12 noon to 1:30 pm, and everyone is welcome to attend!

This will take place at St. Mary’s University, 14500 Bannister Road SE, in Owerko Hall. The University is located east of Macleod Trail, just south of Fish Creek Park.

Come learn about the impact of bird and bat migration in an urban setting. The CMRST’s team of volunteers is on the front lines rescuing birds and bats that have been injured due to urbanization and compiling scientific data. Join us to learn how you can make a positive impact on the lives of migratory species living within our community. See the evidence of the CMRST’s work in monitoring birds and bats involved in window strikes in downtown Calgary, and in rescuing those that are injured.

This is a free family-friendly event. There is more information, including a map of the location, on the Eventbrite page linked to below, but there is no need to get a ticket – just arrive at noon to enjoy the programme below:

12pm – Welcome and Elder blessing.

12:15pm – Dr. Scott Lovell presents intriguing findings about bird strikes in the downtown core; Melanie Whalen speaks on found wildlife care and our findings on bats in the city.

12:45pm – Recognition of the generous contributions from our partnerships, volunteers, and stakeholders.

1:00 pm – Catered reception and specimen viewing – see the impact!

Go to the Eventbrite page here for more information.

Visit the CMSRT Facebook Page here.

Birds & Beers, November 27, 2019

Nov20

The next Birds & Birds social get-together will be held on Wednesday November 27, from 6 to 9 pm, at the usual location:

Royal Canadian Legion, Centennial Calgary Branch#285,

9202 Horton Road SW.

Wednesday November 27, 2019, 6:00-9:00 pm

Note that this is a Wednesday, not our our usual Thursday.

We are very pleased to have Chip Scialfa do a presentation at this meeting. He will speak on “Birding With Uncertainty: Psychology and Errors in Decision-Making.”

Avid birders are keen to add to their lists and often this means identifying birds that are uncommon and easily confused with other species. What are some of the psychological errors that we make when birding under uncertainty and how can they be minimized or avoided? Chip Scialfa, an experimental psychologist and keen birder, will talk about these issues in what will likely be a “mind-bending” presentation.

Chip is a very animated and entertaining speaker, so this promises to be a fun and informative talk. Some of you may have attended a version of this presentation at Nature Calgary’s Bird Study Group a few years ago, but Chip has modified and updated the talk considerably.

As usual, everyone is welcome to attend and there is no charge. We will meet in the big ballroom at the Legion. Food and drinks are available at reasonable prices, and children are welcome if accompanied by an adult. Come early if you want to avoid the lineup at the kitchen. The presentation will begin at about 7:15 so if you can’t make it at six pm, come later.

A few local photographers will have calendars with their bird and nature photos available for sale for the Christmas season, so bring cash! These usually sell for $20 for a full-size calendar.

See you there!

FFCPP 2020 Winter Birding Course

Nov17

The Friends of Fish Creek Provincial Park (FFCPP) is now taking registrations for the popular Winter session of the birding course, which runs from January 6 to March 29, 2020.

From FFCPP:

Winter is one of the best seasons for getting outside to learn about birds and other wildlife. Brave the cooler weather and explore the world of birds in Fish Creek Provincial Park. The 12 week Winter Birding Course is perfect for anyone who wants to see and learn about birds in their natural habitat, and it provides an amazing opportunity for families to get together and experience nature here in Fish Creek.

Experienced birder David Mitchell and over 30 volunteers lead these outdoor courses. Each session lasts approximately 2.5 hours and participants can sign up for 1 or 2 outings per week.

Start times Monday – Thursday: 9:15 am. Saturdays: 9:00 am, Sundays: 9:00 am and 1:15 pm
Fee: Once a week outing, Friends of Fish Creek Members: $60.00, Non-members: $100.00
Twice a week outings, Friends Members: $100.00, Non-members: $150.00

Registration Required. For more information or to register, please see this page.

Calgary 2020 Big Year Birding Challenge

Nov11

Posted by Bob Lefebvre

For the past two decades Nature Calgary has sponsored year-long birding competitions every five years. In 2000 and 2010 the goal was to see as many species as you could within the city limits in the calendar year. In 2005 and 2015 goal was the same, but the area used was the 80-km-diameter circle centered on the Center Street Bridge.

Willet, photographed by Brian Elder in Calgary during the 2010 competition. This won first prize in the photography portion of competition.

In keeping with the pattern, we’d like to announce the Calgary 2020 Big Year Birding Challenge. This will be a year-long event, in which participants try to identify as many species as they can within the city limits between January 1, 2020, and December 31, 2020. The challenge is led by Howard Heffler, Andrew Hart, Gavin McKinnon, and myself.

As in 2015, we will exclusively be using eBird to keep track of participant’s progress. Simply name your city limits patch “BirdYYC2020” and include in your patch all the locations for which you have submitted lists that are within the city limits. (If you already have a city limits patch, just rename it.) If you are not yet using eBird you will have to set up a free account first.

There are a lot of good articles on the eBird website about how to sign up, and how to set up patches. It is really quite easy, and the eBird site is also a tremendously useful resource for birders.

We are going to keep this very simple and informal. There will be no entry fees or prizes, no categories for different experience levels, and no waivers to sign. Rather than a competition, it will be a challenge – a personal test for each participant to try to reach new goals, explore new birding locations, and learn more about the birds of Calgary.

Participants are asked to send their name, ebird name and email address to Howard Heffler at: hheffler[at]shaw.ca. This will allow the organizers to communicate with active participants. At the end of the year, we will ask participants to share their species list to allow comparison with the results of the 2000 and 2010 competitions.

In the weeks and months ahead, we will be prepared to answer questions and take suggestions. We will use this blog for ongoing communication and to write helpful instructions for participants. We also will post stories on Albertabird and on Nature Calgary’s website. We encourage all participants to share their adventures and birding tips on Albertabird.

In the 2010 competition, Michael Harrison won with 240 species! (Amazingly, he saw every species while riding his bike, competing in the “Non-motorized Transport” category.) To read about the 2010 competition, see the 2010 blog here.

Of course, 240 is a very high total – about 265 species are seen within the city limits in a typical year, but many of those are one-day wonders. In a challenge like this, you should set a reasonable goal for yourself. My goal is to see more than 180 species, which is the best total I’ve had since I started using eBird in 2012. I would love to get 200!

A challenge like this is a lot of fun and gets you really involved in the local birding community. I hope you join us!

Please see the guidelines below for more information.

Calgary 2020 Big Year Birding Challenge

Nature Calgary is promoting a friendly “big year” birding challenge within Calgary city limits in 2020.

Background

There have been two “big year” competitions in Calgary; 2000 and 2010.

(There were also “Calgary Region” competitions in 2005 and 2015.)

Scope – an eBird “Patch” challenge

Challenge yourself to find as many species of birds as you can within the Calgary city limits in 2020!

All sightings must be within the city limits. See link below.

Calendar year 2020.
Open to all.
No sub-categories for participants.
No entry fee or prizes.
No waivers.
- Nature Calgary field trips would have waivers exactly as per current practice.

Objective – a friendly competition

Share sightings.
Promote interest in birds and birding.
Enjoy Calgary’s natural areas.
More field trips.
Compare results with 2000 and 2010.

Challenge Guidelines and Procedures

The organizers are proposing the following guidelines and procedures to make the challenge more enjoyable and rewarding for all participants.

Participants “register” by adding an eBird patch (or re-naming their existing Calgary city-limits patch.) with the name: “BirdYYC2020” by January 1, 2020.
Participants are asked to send their name, eBird name and email address to Howard Heffler at: hheffler[at]shaw.ca. This will allow the organizers to communicate with active participants. At the end of the year, we will ask participants to share their species list to allow comparison with the results of the 2000 and 2010 competitions.
We recommend that participants re-name their patch back to their own city-limits patch after the challenge year is completed.
Participants MUST share eBird lists and make sightings on eBird visible. The purpose is to allow all participants to chase sightings by others. Specifically: on eBird, under My eBird, select Preferences; Data privacy – elect to NOT hide your eBird data.
Anybody at any time can see who is leading and his/her total number of sightings to date by looking on eBird at patch totals.
We have created “BirdYYC2020 RBA”, a WhatsApp group for sharing instant updates on unusual birds within the city limits of Calgary. To join the group, send a message to Gavin McKinnon (403) 519-8703.

Helpful Hints and Participant Expectations

There are about 200 hotspots in the Calgary “county”. All the ones within the city-limits (90) begin with the prefix “Calgary” or “Fish Creek PP”.
Over the next few weeks we will develop detailed procedures and instructions for things such as:
- how to set up an eBird patch,
- how to set up eBird alerts,
- how to join Albertabird,
- how to use WhatsApp,
- how to use the mapping tools, and
- other topics that might arise.
We hope to make a seasonal list of birds to help participants target specific species during each season.
Some species will be identified as “reportable” so you know what will be of special interest to everyone else.
Of course, we will do what we can to ensure participants respect private property, drive and act safely and responsibly, and follow ABA ethical guidelines: especially as it relates to protecting sensitive species.
We have maps of the city boundary in PDF format available.
Here, also, is an online Google map of Calgary.

Any questions or suggestions contact:

Howard Heffler: hheffler[at]shaw.ca
Andrew Hart: andrewhart[at]shaw.ca
Bob Lefebvre: wbird7[at]gmail.com
Gavin McKinnon: gmckinnonbird[at]gmail.com

Ghostly Blue Jay

Oct27

This beautiful bird was photographed on an acreage near Big Hill Springs, NW of Calgary, on September 22nd by Shelley Mohl.

This Blue Jay has some sort of colour abnormality, likely leucism, caused by a deficiency of melanin in its feathers. The areas that should be black are brown, and there isn’t enough pigment to scatter the light to create much of a blue colour on the rest of the bird.

The Road To 300: Success!

Oct26

When we last checked in on Gavin McKinnon’s quest to find 300 species of birds in Alberta in 2019, he was at 291 species. That was at the end of July (see this post). Since he had already seen almost all of the more common species, progress was expected to be slow for the rest of the year, as he would have to track down rarities that showed up during fall migration.

I’m happy to report that Gavin did reach 300 species on October 11th! He was slowly adding new species until he reached 299. On October 9th an Ash-throated Flycatcher was reported in St. Albert. This is the first confirmed record of this species ever in Alberta. It is native to the SW United States and the Pacific northwest. On October 11th Gavin travelled to St. Albert and saw and photographed the bird.

Ash-throated Flycatcher, St. Albert, October 11, 2019. Photo by Gavin McKinnon.

Not only was this bird #300 for Gavin and a first Alberta record, but it was a life bird for him. A great way to reach his goal!

Here are few of the birds that got Gavin within striking distance of 300. He tried to photograph as many of the species he saw as he could.

Western Sandpiper. Photo by Gavin McKinnon.

By October 12th Gavin had reached 303 species, which is where he stands today. He has also seen a total of 370 species in Canada this year, which is tied for the third-highest total in the country. Here are links to those eBird pages:

Top 100 eBirders in Alberta. Top 100 in Canada.

You can see previous posts with photos and updates of Gavin’s Big Year here:

January and February

March and April

May

Birds Calgary

A birding blog for Calgary, Alberta and area

Tag Archive | birds calgary blog

BirdYYC2020 – WhatsApp Group for Rare Birds

A Guide To Setting Alerts in eBird

A Beginner’s Guide to eBird

A Guide to Albertabird

CMSRT Public Event Tomorrow, November 23

FFCPP 2020 Winter Birding Course

Calgary 2020 Big Year Birding Challenge

Ghostly Blue Jay

The Road To 300: Success!

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