This spring a family of Great Horned Owls nested in the Burnsmead area of Fish Creek Provincial Park. Max Ortiz Aguilar got these photos of the family after the young had hatched and were almost ready to start branching.
Great Horned Owls – mother with two downy young. Burnsmead, April 16, 2017.
Photo by Max Ortiz Aguilar.
Great Horned Owl, male standing guard by the nest, Burnsmead, April 16, 2017.
Photo by Max Ortiz Aguilar.
To see more of Max’s wildlife photos, go to his site, Photos by MOA.
Here are some photos of waterfowl taken by Michael Kim in the Canmore area this spring.
Hooded Merganser, Exshaw, May 1, 2017. Photo by Michael Kim.
Hooded Mergansers, Exshaw, May 2, 2017. Photo by Michael Kim.
Great Blue Heron, Lac des Arcs, May 6, 2017. Photo by Michael Kim.
Great Blue Heron, Lac des Arcs, May 6, 2017. Photo by Michael Kim.
Ruddy Duck, Exshaw, May 1, 2017. Photo by Michael Kim.
Red-necked Grebe, Exshaw, May 1, 2017. Photo by Michael Kim.
Bufflehead, Exshaw, May 3, 2017. Photo by Michael Kim.
Northern Shoveler, Lac des Arcs, May 22, 2017. Photo by Michael Kim.
Horned Grebe, Exshaw, April 1, 2017. Photo by Michael Kim.
Barrow’s Goldeneye, Canmore, April 2, 2017. Photo by Michael Kim.
Barrow’s Goldeneye, Canmore, April 4, 2017. Photo by Michael Kim.
In May we posted some photos taken by Lorraine Glass in Bowmont Park in NW Calgary (see this post). Gord Smith was inspired by these photos to go and see what he could find. Here are his photos from May 22 and May 27, 2017.
Western Tanager (male), Bowmont Park, May 2017. Photo by Gord Smith.
White-breasted Nuthatch, Bowmont Park, May 2017. Photo by Gord Smith.
Northern Flicker (male), Bowmont Park, May 2017. Photo by Gord Smith.
Yellow Warbler (male), Bowmont Park, May 2017. Photo by Gord Smith.
Yellow Warbler (male), Bowmont Park, May 2017. Photo by Gord Smith.
Gray Catbird, Bowmont Park, May 2017. Photo by Gord Smith.
Song Sparrow, Bowmont Park, May 2017. Photo by Gord Smith.
Northern Flicker (male), Bowmont Park, May 2017. Photo by Gord Smith.
Northern Rough-winged Swallow, Bowmont Park, May 2017. Photo by Gord Smith.
If you have some photos of local birds you’d like to post here, send them to us at birdscalgary@gmail.com.
Correction: The unfortunate rodent is a Northern Pocket Gopher, not a Meadow Vole. Pocket Gophers are the ones that make mounds of loose soil above their underground burrows. The soil mounds are commonly seen, but the animals themselves rarely venture above ground. When they do, it is usually at night and they don’t go more than a few feet from the mound. Hence they are rarely seen – this is the first photo of one from the Calgary area that I’ve seen. – Bob Lefebvre
Tony LePrieur got this great shot of a Great Gray Owl with a captured Northern Pocket Gopher recently near Calgary.
Great Gray Owl, Turner Valley area SW of Calgary, July 3, 2017. Photo by Tony LePrieur.
Posted by Bob Lefebvre
Most Calgary birders are aware by now that the ring road construction adjacent to the Weaselhead Nature Area in SW Calgary is well under way. A huge area has been cleared in preparation for building a bridge over the Elbow River.
This project has been discussed for decades, and birders have been very concerned about building a bridge and highway through such an environmentally sensitive area. I think it has long been assumed that when the time came, if it did, the builders would be sure to follow best environmental practices to minimize the impact on this area. In particular, it was hoped that a clear span bridge like the Stoney Trail bridge over the Bow River would be built. Instead, the plan is to build an earthern berm or cut-and-fill bridge, which will fill in the valley up to the road level for most of the span, essentially forming a dam across the floodplain. This design will have many negative consequences for the birds and other wildlife in the valley, and create a great many problems during flood events.
Aerial photograph taken June 3, 2017, Courtesy of the Weaselhead/Glenmore Park Preservation Society and John Mader. The Weaselhead Nature Area is on the right, and the ring road construction showing the diversion of the Elbow River on the left. As you can see, there has already been a stunning amount of disturbance, cutting off the Weaselhead from the ecologically diverse Elbow Valley to the west. Photo from the website http://www.yyccares.ca/recent_pictures.
A concerned group of local citizens is petitioning the Alberta Government to build a better bridge over the Elbow. Please visit their web page YYC Cares. There is a great deal of information on their site, and you can sign the petition there.
Posted by Bob Lefebvre
In May, Ethan Denton completed his 2017 Great Canadian Birdathon to raise money for bird research and conservation. He was part of a team with Gavin McKinnon, called the Saw-it Owls. Here are just a few photos of birds the team saw on their birdathon.
Harlequin Duck (male), Lake Minnewanka, May 20, 2017. Photo by Ethan Denton.
Harlequin Ducks (female on left, male right), Lake Minnewanka, May 20, 2017. Photo by Ethan Denton.
Common Loons, Vermillion Lakes, May 20, 2017. Photo by Ethan Denton.
Sharp-tailed Grouse (male) on lek, southern Alberta, May 14, 2017. Photo by Ethan Denton.
Sharp-tailed Grouse (male) on lek, southern Alberta, May 14, 2017. Photo by Ethan Denton.
You can read about Day One of their birdathon on Ethan’s blog, Bird Boy.
The Great Canadian Birdathon (formerly called the Baille Birdathon) is a program of Bird Studies Canada. Participants are sponsored to count as many birds as they can every May. You can contribute to Ethan’s personal donation page here. Gavin McKinnon’s page is here. Please help them to reach their fundraising goals!
Here are some photos of birds taken in South Glenmore Park on a Friends of Fish Creek birding course walk on April 29, 2017. All Photos by Max Ortiz Aguilar.
Red-necked Grebe.
Red-breasted Merganser (male).
Red-breasted Merganser (female).
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle subspecies).
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Intergrade of Audubon’s and Myrtle subspecies).
Cooper’s Hawk.
Downy Woodpecker (male).
Bufflehead (male).
Horned Grebe.
Osprey.
Song Sparrow.
Red-tailed Hawk.
Sandhill Crane.
Swainson’s Hawk.
Boreal Chorus Frog singing.
To see more of Max’s photos, see his website, Photos by MOA.
Here are a couple of the largest rodents you can see in Carburn Park in SE Calgary.
Muskrat, Carburn Park, May 23, 2017. Photo by Tony LePrieur.
Beaver, Carburn Park, May 23, 2017. Photo by Tony LePrieur.
These two species can sometimes be confused for each other, especially when they are swimming. Of course the Beaver is much larger but sometimes size is hard to judge in the field. Beavers have big flat tails but they are not always visible. Muskrats have long tails without fur. These photos show some of the differences that help with identification when the other traits aren’t clear: the big wide head with large nose and prominent ears of the Beaver, and the small face and often hidden ears of the muskrat. Fur colour can vary but around here muskrats seem to usually be reddish like this one.
Events & Lectures of interest to Calgary birders.
Hooded Mergansers, Exshaw, May 2, 2017. Photo by Michael Kim.
Nature Calgary Field Trips: Various dates and times. See this page. Some trips require registering in advance.
Thursday June 8, 7 pm. Alberta Wilderness Association. Living With Wildlife Town Hall.
Saturday June 24, 6 am to 11:30 pm. Canada 150 BioBlitz in the Weaselhead. Volunteers needed for birding walks at 6 am and 8:30 am. Events continue through the day.
Posted by Bob Lefebvre
For many years Nature Calgary has held a Big Day on the Victoria Day holiday – an attempt to find as many species as possible in one day, in this case all of them inside the Calgary city limits (we had 116 species this year). During the 2015 Calgary Birding Competition we decided to add a Big Day in the Calgary Region–the 80-km diameter circle centred in Calgary. We did the trip again last year. In both cases we saw lots of good birds (151 species in 2015, and 132 in 2016) but it is a long day with quite a few dead stretches of driving.
Great Gray Owl, one of two seen on our 80-km Circle Big Day in 2016. Horse Creek Road, June 18, 2016. Photo by Saravana Moorthy.
For this year, we decided to try something new: A Big Week instead of a Big Day in the 80-km circle. There will be a series of field trips offered from June 4 to 10, and we will try to reach a cumulative total of 175 species on these trips.
Most of the trips will be led by myself, Andrew Hart, and Rose Painter. We will kick it off with a day-long trip to the northwest corner of the circle, around Water Valley, on Sunday June 4. The final day will feature another long trip to the south and southwest. Both of these trips require registration because car-pooling will be required and spaces will be limited.
There will also be several field trips offered during the week, including trips inside the city to the Weaselhead and Inglewood Bird Sanctuary. A couple of other trips will be Twitch ‘n’ Tours, our term for for a field trip with a known starting point but for which the destinations are not decided until the last minute, so that we can chase rare birds or ones we have not been able to find so far.
If you want to see how many species you can find in the Calgary region in one week in June, join us for some or all of these outings. See the Nature Calgary field trip page for details and to register.