Tag Archive | birds calgary blog

Sunday Showcase: Mountain Bluebird Fallout

Apr21

Posted by Dan Arndt

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

male Mountain Bluebird

female Mountain Bluebird

female Mountain Bluebird

male Mountain Bluebird

male Mountain Bluebird

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!

You lookin' at me?

You lookin’ at me?

female Mountain Bluebird

female Mountain Bluebird

male Mountain Bluebird

male Mountain Bluebird

male Mountain Bluebirds

male Mountain Bluebirds

male Mountain Bluebird

male Mountain Bluebird

male Mountain Bluebird

male Mountain Bluebird

Peregrine Falcons at U of C

Apr20

Since at least 1995, Peregrine Falcons have nested on Craigie Hall at the University of Calgary. For the past few years, there has been a live nest cam so that we can watch the falcons at the nest, and see the young falcons hatch and fledge.

The first returning Peregrine was sighted on March 25 this year, and by April 9 the pair was ready to nest. The first egg was laid on April 16. We will have a link to the nest cam on the sidebar of our Birds Calgary home page throughout the breeding season.

Click here for the live nest camera feed.

Bird Studies Group: Fur & Feathers Big Year

Apr2

This Wednesday, April 3, Brian Elder, Phil Cram and Mike Mulligan will talk about their experiences doing a bird and mammal Big Year in Canada in 2012. Along with Ray Woods, they were successful in finding over 500 species. You can read about their experiences on their blog, Fur & Feathers 500. Better yet, come out to the Bird Studies Group meeting and hear all about it.

The meeting will take place in room 211 of the Biological Sciences Building at the U of C. Doors open at 7 pm, and the meeting begins at 7:30.

Here is more information and a map to the location.

See you there!

Spring Birding Course 2013

Mar27

Posted by Bob Lefebvre

Once again the Friends of Fish Creek Provincial Park Society will be offering a twelve-week Spring Birding Course, beginning April 1. There will be at least twelve different groups going out on various days of the week. Right now many of the sessions have the full complement of 15 participants, but there are still some openings as of today. Contact Chris at the number or email below to see if there is room on the day you want.

Last Spring Dan Arndt and I decided to lead a group at a new time, 7:30 am on Sundays. We hoped that the earlier start would allow us to find more of the early birds as the days got longer. The session had fifteen participants and was very successful. For this spring we offered two 7:30 sessions, on both Saturday and Sunday mornings, with me leading one and Dan leading the other. Up to now there aren’t enough participants registered to justify two groups, but we are still taking registrations. If enough people sign up we will go ahead with two groups. The first 7:30 am sessions are scheduled for April 6 and April 7.

The course consists of weekly field trips to various parks and natural areas in the city, each lasting about  three hours. So join us if you want to get out once a week to learn about the birds of Calgary and meet other birders.

Spring Course 2013 (2)

Q & A: Follow-up on Attracting Birds to Feeders

Mar12

Last May we answered a question from a reader who had been trying unsuccessfully to attract birds to her yard in Calgary. The yard was in an awkward location at a small townhouse without trees or shrubs. Although she was putting out many types of high-quality seeds, the birds were not coming.  We gave some advice on attracting birds, which you can read about here. We are happy to report that after nearly a year of persistent effort, finally there are birds coming to the yard.

———-

Hi,

Nearly a year ago I approached you looking for suggestions on how to attract birds to my feeder in my awkward yard.  While I was not successful last year, I’m happy to announce that my patience has finally paid off.  
 
I thought I’d send you an update because others in a similar situation may find what I did will help them as well.  When we got our Christmas tree (real) I kept the branches that were cut off the bottom, and was able to take a bunch more from other people’s trees as well.  When I got home I bunched all the branches together and made several boughs out of them, tied them with wire, put a pretty bow on them and hung them from our balcony.  Within 24 hours I had birds foraging through my boughs and feeding at my feeders!
 
The last month has been wonderful, I’m finally able to watch birds from my own window and I have a steady flock of Common Redpolls and finches that come throughout the day.  I’m not sure what I’m going to replace the boughs with once they’re all dried up, but I’ll figure something out.  I’ve attached a few photos just to demonstrate my situation and solution.  I hope my experience may help someone else in the future.
 
Thanks again for all the suggestions, all the best.
———-
Here are the photos of her yard:
Rachel Paris 1
Rachel Paris 2

Sunday Showcase: Great Grays of Grand Valley Road

Mar10

Grand Valley Road northwest of Cochrane has been a really good place to find Great Gray Owls. Logan Gibson photographed this one while it was snowing on February 25:

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On March 2, Brett Mahura found three different Great Grays on Grand Valley Road:

Brett Mahura GGOW 1

Brett Mahura GGOW 3

Brett Mahura GGOW 2

Furry Friday: Porcupine

Mar8

This North American Porcupine was spotted feeding on a Water Birch on the Inglewood Golf Course during the Calgary Christmas Bird Count on December 16, 2012.

Troy Porcupine 1

Photo by Troy Bourque

_96B2562 - Version 2 (1024x909)

Photo by Ian Neilson

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Photo by Ian Neilson

Troy Porcupine 2

Photo by Troy Bourque