Tag Archive | birds calgary blog

Sunday Showcase: Great Grays of Grand Valley Road

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

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

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Photo by Ian Neilson

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Photo by Ian Neilson

Troy Porcupine 2

Photo by Troy Bourque

Sunday Showcase: Bald Eagle Fledgling

Rob English got these photos of a recently fledged Bald Eagle in Carburn Park in early August 2012.  The bird had just recently left the nest across the river.

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There was one of the adult eagles with this young one:

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Leucistic Rough-legged Hawk

Posted by Matthew Sim

We’ve done posts here on this blog about leucism before, which is when a bird has reduced pigmentation, meaning it has more white in it’s feathers than normal for the species. We’ve had some examples before, including a leucistic House Finch, American Robin, Ruby-throated Hummingbird and others. For the past few months, Calgary has had a very neat leucistic bird in the area. This Rough-legged Hawk frequents the area around Highway 40, just west of Calgary.

Leucistic Rough-legged Hawk

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Now compare this with a more normal Rough-legged Hawk.

Rough-legged Hawk

On January 1rst, I found this leucistic hawk on Highway 40 near its intersection with Range Road 40.

Sunday Showcase: Female Rufous Hummingbird

Photos taken by Rob English near Highwood House, SW of Calgary, in June 2012.

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Here are a couple of shots of a male Rufous Hummingbird taken at the same time, to show the difference.  For more of Rob’s photos of a male Rufous, see this post.

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Wednesday Wings: Golden Eagle & Snowy Owls

Mitchell Kranz spotted this juvenile Golden Eagle on January 20 near Lake McGregor, northeast of Vulcan.

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The same day, he also saw no less than 15 Snowy Owls between there and Blackie.

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You can see more of Mitchell’s photos here.