Tag Archive | calgary bird blog

Perfect Pelicans

Jun25

Last Tuesday when I was down at the Bow River, I was witness to a great birding spectacle; photogenic pelicans putting on a show of flying, landing and swimming. I was able to count up 27 of these social and gregarious birds at one time, half of them circling in the sky while the other half loafed around on the banks of the river. Among the world’s largest birds and gracing the air with a wingspan of over 2 meters, the American White Pelican can swallow fish up to 30cm (12 inches) long and must eat 2 kg (4 lbs) of fish a day.

Several Pelicans made a show of coming in for a landing.

They came closer and closer…

Until it seemed as though they were right beside me…

Their feathers were absolutely stunning against the blue sky.

This Pelican was demonstrating the mechanics of a good landing…

Before finally putting down the landing gear.

If you look carefully at this last photo, you may just be able to make out a Franklin’s Gull at the far right of the screen. This gull was flying at roughly the same altitude as the pelicans and shows the massive size difference between the two. After Tuesday, Pelicans have become a bird I love to watch.

Posted by Matthew Sim

Family Time For The Birds

Jun24

I had a day off this last Tuesday so I took the opportunity to go biking and birding in Fish Creek Provincial Park. It was a beautiful morning; the sun was out, the sky was blue, the birds were singing and the weather was warm; finally! I got to Fish Creek at around 8:30 a.m. entering the park just off the intersection of Canyon Meadows drive and Acadia . I was preparing to go down the steep hill into the park only to find that the trail was flooded! Instead I followed the trail around the ridge until I entered the park beside the ranch.I did some random wandering on small paths through Fish Creek, finding a pheasant, a kingfisher, several catbirds and 3 Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers, among other birds. I then carried on to bridge number 11, leading to Hull’s Wood. Rounding a bend in the path I was surprised to see a male Pileated Woodpecker, just  meters from the path. Before I could get my camera out of my bag, he had flown further away; apparently he was surprised to see me!

I reached Sikome Lake and rode my bike up the hill, in hopes of finding some Great Horned Owls and their owlets; I was not disappointed! There in their regular tree, was the Great Horned Owl family, two young ones and one adult.

As I continued my circuit, I found some more interesting birds, including some Green-winged Teal.

And the Pelicans! The water is so high in the river that pelicans are everywhere; I was able to count up to 27 pelicans at one time, half in the water, half circling in the sky, their bright white feathers contrasting magnificently with the clear blue sky. Another post on the pelicans will follow this one. However, this day, was truly the day of families. At one secluded spot near the river, I found 4 different nests all within a couple of feet of each other. The first belonged to a Downy Woodpecker, the second to a House Wren and the last two to Tree Swallows.

At the Downy Woodpecker nest, the male would visit the hole every couple of minutes and would be instantly greeted with the call of the hungry young in the inside. He continued his work incessantly, feeding his ever hungry offspring.

The House Wrens hardly ever came in and out of their nest but the male was always nearby, singing very loudly and stopping only for the occasional break.

The Tree Swallows would vigorously defend their nests from potential threats, such as the kestrel that flew over several times. The Kestrel in turn would chase away a Swainson’s Hawk that could have been a potential threat to the Kestrel’s family.

As I was leaving the park in late morning I came across a coyote sitting on a hill, looking very content as well as many Savannah Sparrows singing.

Family time for the birds is a busy time of year; I saw 52 species of birds that morning and I had luck as I got to see  some of them raising their families.

Posted by Matthew Sim

Rare Bird Alert Calgary: June 23

Jun24

Have you seen an unusual bird in Calgary? If it is on this Reportable_Birds (PDF), please report it to the Nature Calgary Rare Bird Alert line at 403 221-4519 and leave a message after the beep at the end of the recording. If you would like some help with species identification, us email us at zoxox@shaw.ca  To report injured wildlife call the Calgary Wildlife Rehabilitation Society at 403 239-2488, or the Alberta Institute for Wildlife Conservation at 403 946-2361.

This Bird Albert was recorded on Jun 23, 2011.

WEDNESDAY June 22
–AMERICAN BITTERN (1) – wetland in NE corner of Inverlake Rd & Rge Rd 175 by Gary Kurtz

TUESDAY June 21
–COMMON LOON (1ad) – Blizzard Lake (S of Hwy 552 on 160 St SE) by Terry Korolyk

SUNDAY June 19
–SHORT-EARED OWL (1) – along 232 St SE on E side of Basin 3 at Frank Lake (6 km E of High River on Hwy 23) by Andrew Slater
–NELSON’S SPARROW (5) – Basin 3 at Frank Lake by AS
–BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT-HERON (2) – location and observer as above

SUNDAY June 12
–GREAT EGRET (1) -NW of Taber along the Oldman River at Hwy 264 bridge by Terry Poulton
–BAIRD’S SPARROW (a number) – 1-2 miles W of dam at Travis Reservoir by TP
–MCCOWN’S LONGSPUR (5) – E of Hwy 864 along Twp Rd 120 by TP
–CHESTNUT-COLLARED LONGSPUR – large numbers in location as above; & also E end of Travis Reservoir just W of Hwy 845 along TwpRd 142 by TP
–COMMON NIGHTHAWK – E end of Travis Reservoir as above; & in Little Bow Valley as far S as Hwy 522 by TP
–GRASSHOPPER SPARROW (2) – field in the NE corner of TwpRd 104 and RgeRd 150 (N of Purple Springs) by TP
–BREWER’S SPARROW (1m) – location and observer as above

The next scheduled update of the bird alert is on Mon Jun 27.

Birds of the Weaselhead

Jun22

Last week we went for a walk through the Weaselhead area of SW Calgary.  It was very wet and the rivers were high, but we did manage to find some nice birds.

The creek near the junction with the Elbow River.

Eastern Phoebes are nesting under both of the wooden bridges…

There are lots of Least Flycatchers in the area…

It appears that Beavers have chewed through this retaining wall, just to make it easier for them to get from the forest to their pond…

We saw this male Calliope Hummingbird do its spectacular U-shaped display flight, where it climbs to a height of about 80 feet, and then dives rapidly towards the ground, and up again…

We never saw any Pileated Woodpeckers, but there is evidence of their activities on many of the big trees…

Cliff Swallows at their mud nests under the bridge over the Elbow River…

A Spotted Sandpiper was feeding on top of some logs in the river…

Cedar Waxwings were busy flycatching along the waterways…

And there were several Red Squirrels, looking for handouts…

Posted by Bob Lefebvre

Update on the MacLeod Trail Osprey Nest

Jun21

This is a a guest post from one of our readers, who cared enough about the Ospreys to contact Enmax about the nest removal. Thank you for your email Susan.

Hi there. I know a lot of people were concerned about the Osprey nest that was removed from the top of an Enmax pole on MacLeod trail just south of Canyon Meadows Drive.  Thought I’d send this your way for your information.

I just got off the phone with Doris Koffman at Enmax, she is in the Environmental department, and is very well informed about the Osprey, not only on MacLeod trail but in other areas of the city. I felt very confident with the conversation I had with her in that I felt she answered the questions we had about the removal of the Osprey nest on MacLeod Trail.

I asked her why Enmax had removed the nest, and if there were eggs or fledglings in the nest.  Doris told me that there were no eggs nor fledglings in the nest at all. You probably are aware when Enmax “cleaned” up the nest 10 days to 2 weeks ago. It was posing a significant fire/electrical hazard, not only to the public but also to the osprey themselves as they have a very large wing span that could very easily come in contact with 2 wires at the same time, which, if this happened, the bird would not have survived.  Just recently, somewhere else in Calgary an osprey nest had become fully engulfed in flames when it came into contact with the power lines. I asked her again if there were any babies or eggs in our MacLeod Trail nest and she assured me that there weren’t and that this pair of osprey were likely infertile.

She mentioned that Enmax puts up alternative electric-less poles for the sole purpose of relocating birds of all types and that directly across MacLeod Trail into Fish Creek park there is a potential site for one of these poles for the Ospreys.

She seemed as genuinely concerned about the Osprey as we have been so I guess it was all in the name of safety, thankfully we can still see these beautiful birds flying around that area and they are still around to fly another day.

Thought I’d pass this on to you, not sure how or where else we could put this message for all the other concerned Osprey fans.

Regards, Susan LeBlanc

Rare Bird Alert Calgary: June 20

Jun21

Have you seen an unusual bird in Calgary? If it is on this Reportable_Birds (PDF), please report it to the Nature Calgary Rare Bird Alert line at 403 221-4519 and leave a message after the beep at the end of the recording. If you would like some help with species identification, us email us at zoxox@shaw.ca  To report injured wildlife call the Calgary Wildlife Rehabilitation Society at 403 239-2488, or the Alberta Institute for Wildlife Conservation at 403 946-2361.

This Bird Albert was recorded on Jun 20, 2011.

JUN 15

BAND-TAILED PIGEON: reported by Carrie Mashon at a feeder at her home in Dorothy, AB. Not seen after June 15

JUN 16

SHORT-EARED OWL – Ron Kube saw one on Twp Rd 192 north of Frank Lake
VEERY – Gus Yaki and Friends of Fish Creek heard one in Weaselhead

JUN 17

BLACK-BILLED CUCKOO – POSSIBLE – reported by Terry Korolyk who saw a large dull brownish bird with a very long brownish tail moving in a deciduous tree on either Auburn Rd, Adrian Rd or 7 St visible above a gray sound barrier wall from Southland Drive just west of Blackfoot Trail.
LONG-BILLED CURLEW – south of Hwy 566 on Hwy 9 northeast of Calgary, by Corinne Griffin

The next scheduled update of the bird alert is on Thu Jun 23.

Photo Feathers: Rose-breasted Grosbeak (?)

Jun20

I took these pictures in the Weaselhead/South Glenmore area on Friday June 17.  I have seen male Rose-breasted Grosbeaks there before so I assumed this was a female Rose-breasted, but it’s possible that it is a Black-headed Grosbeak or hybrid, or a juvenile.  All opinions on its ID are welcome in the comments.

Posted by Bob Lefebvre

Rare Bird Alert Calgary: June 16

Jun17

Have you seen an unusual bird in Calgary? If it is on this Reportable_Birds (PDF), please report it to the Rare Bird Alert line at 403 221-4519 and leave a message after the beep at the end of the recording. If you would like some help with species identification, us email us at zoxox@shaw.ca  To report injured wildlife call the Calgary Wildlife Rehabilitation Society at 403 239-2488, or the Alberta Institute for Wildlife Conservation at 403 946-2361.

This Bird Alert was recorded on Thursday June 16 at 10 am.

Bird Sightings:

June 9:
GREAT GRAY OWL, CONNECTICUT WARBLER, WILLOW FLYCATCHER at Pearanod? Wildlife Hab. S of Grand Valley Rd & Rge 52, SW of Cochrane , Dwight Knapik.

June 13:
BAND-TAILED PIGEON for the last week at the home of Carrie Mashon ? (403
822-2216) near Dorothy (near Brooks) .
CALLIOPE HUMMINGBIRD (3), EASTERN PHOEBE, Weaselhead area of FCPP, Gus Yaki and
FFCPP.

June14:
SPOTTED TOWHEE, CALLIOPE HB, E. PHOEBE, as above.
THAYER’S GULL (possible) Glenmore Res near the Yacht Club, Terry Korolyk.

The next scheduled update of the Bird Alert is on Monday June 20.

Bird Profile: Western Kingbird

Jun17

A large flycatcher with a yellow belly, pale grey head and breast and a black tail with white stripes down the sides, the Western Kingbird is one of my favorite birds. Eating mostly insects, the Kingbird is always ready to snatch its next meal; whether from a perch or on the ground.

Nesting in tall cottonwoods along river valleys, the Western Kingbird can be difficult to find in Calgary. Probably the best spot in the city to look for this neat bird is Lafarge Meadows, in Fish Creek, south of 22x where they nest.

More social than other kingbirds, at times, several pairs of Western Kingbird may be found nesting in the same tree. They readily attack crows, ravens, hawks and other larger birds that can be potential predators to them and their young.

The Western Kingbird has a distinguishing lemon yellow belly.

Posted by Matthew Sim