All of the photos below were taken by Tony LePrieur in Fish Creek Park on November 3, 9, and 11.
Tag Archive | calgary birds
Show Us Your Butts: Contest Finalists!
Posted by Dan Arndt
It’s been quite a challenge this week narrowing down and picking our favourite for this contest, and now it’s your turn!
Take a look at our selected Top 11, and vote on your favourite bird butt!
Rufous Hummingbird Butt
Swan Butts
Mallard Butts
Killdeer Butt
Osprey Butt
European Starling Butts
Canada Warbler Butt
Green Jay Butt (taken in the US)
Gray-crowned Rosy Finch Butts
Osprey Butt in action
American Dipper Butt
And while we did receive a few mammalian submissions for this Bird Butt contest, I would like to give a pre-emptive honorable mention to Rob English, who provided us with this great photo of a Red Fox butt!
Red Fox Butt
Thanks for reading, voting, and have a great birding week!
A hummingbird nest
Posted by Matthew Sim
Last year, I discovered a location in Fish Creek P.P. where I found 2 (and possibly all 3 species of hummingbirds that commonly occur in Calgary) nesting. In June, I had found a pair of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds and not long afterwards, Hank Vanderpol and I discovered what appeared to be a female Calliope hummingbird sitting on a nest. A couple weeks later, a Nature Calgary field trip I led to the area discovered a Rufous hummingbird nest not far away.
This year, I was finally able to get out and search for the hummingbirds last week. It took me about an hour before I finally spotted a hummingbird moving about, but always returning close to me. That’s when I realized that this female Ruby-throated Hummingbird (for this is what it was), might have a nest nearby.
Female Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Sure enough, before very long, the female Ruby-throated Hummingbird had flown to her nest which had not been too far away from me the entire time.
At first the nest was tough to spot…
It was neat to watch the female as she sat on her nest, presumably incubating eggs. From time to time she would fly off but she was always alert and ready to defend her nest.
The most interesting part of watching this hummingbird though was the way she defended her nest from anything she perceived to be a threat, including a confused and startled Cedar Waxwing who twice made the mistake of landing too near the hummingbird’s nest. She swiftly drove the waxwing off despite the fact it probably wasn’t a threat; I suppose one can never be too cautious!
Returning back to her nest
I will do my best to follow this nest in the coming weeks and see what comes of it. Hoping that the female will successfully raise her brood of young!
Quite the act
Posted by Matthew Sim
Recently down here in Texas, the local Killdeer have started nesting and their nests can be found in many open spots, such as open lots and around athletic fields. Down at my high school, there were at least 2 nests around the track, which was quite surprising considering the amount of disturbance this location gets daily. While out for a walk last weekend, I found another nest near a local pond. I chanced upon this nest when the female Killdeer incubating her eggs scurried off her nest and proceeded to preform the Killdeer’s broken wing act to try and lure me away from her nest.
On the alert!
When Killdeer see a potential predator approaching their nests, they try to distract the predators from the nest by dragging one of their wings on the ground as though it were broken. They scamper away, stopping from time to time to make sure the predator is still following and then, when they feel a safe distance away from their nests, they fly off, returning to their eggs to continue incubating. It really is quite the trick!
Quite the convincing act!
I let myself be led away by this act but before I left I did make a brief attempt to find the Killdeer’s eggs, which I did, snapping a photo from a good distance away so as to ensure I didn’t disturb the Killdeer again before I left.
Sunday Showcase: Eagle Dispute
Rob English caught these two Bald Eagles, an immature and an adult, having a dispute over a perch.
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.
Now compare this with a more normal Rough-legged Hawk.
On January 1rst, I found this leucistic hawk on Highway 40 near its intersection with Range Road 40.
Wednesday Wings: Song Sparrow
This Song Sparrow has been overwintering in Votier’s Flats, Fish Creek Park. It spends quite a bit of time feeding in the open water of the creek. Photos by Bob Lefebvre.
The creek at Votier’s Flats.
Impressionism
Posted by Matthew Sim
It was a bright, sunny winter afternoon in Calgary, nearly two years ago to the day. I had just retreated from a chilly walk around my neighborhood and was warming up when I happened to glance out the upstairs window. Upon doing so, I noticed a strange shape down on the snow. It took me a minute to figure it out, but once I realized what I was looking at, the story began to come together piece by piece. See what you come up with.
When you looked at this shot, you might have said that you see a bird’s impression in the snow. You would have been right. Now, you might have been a little more specific and described seeing a raptor’s impression. If you got this far, you did great. It’s not very easy to deduce much else. However, some may have gone even further, observing the shape of the raptor, comparing with descriptions in field guides and creating a list of possible suspects based on the fact that this was taken in Calgary, during the winter. If you came up with a few possible suspects, great work. But did you go any further?
If you did, you might have come up with a Sharp-shinned Hawk. You would be right. The wings are too rounded for Merlin or any other falcon, shape too small and body shape not to the right proportions of a buteo such as a Rough-legged or Red-tailed Hawk and the shape is once again far too small for either an eagle or a goshawk. Therefore it must be a Sharp-shinned Hawk. My neighborhood in Calgary has a healthy population of 4-6 Sharp-shinned Hawks so this make sense. From here, we can piece together a story,
Imagine a Sharp-shinned Hawk flying maybe 30-40 feet high, perhaps a little lower, circling at times. From its vantage, the raptor notices a small movement in the fresh snow below. Diving down, it attempts to nab a vole caught out in the open, plunging deep into the unmarked snow. Then what? Tough to say, and it will be a great mystery; we can only speculate at the final result but here is a breakdown of the photo.
I still wonder about the impression in the top right; what happened? Did the vole escape the hawk’s clutches the first time only to succumb to the second attempt? Did the hawk attempt to lift off without getting enough momentum the first go? Or was the impression in the corner caused by snow falling off a tree limb?
It was quite interesting to see all the same, regardless of what the result was.
Sunday Showcase: More Starlings
Posted by Matthew Sim
This summer while I was up in Calgary, I noticed a lot of starlings as well, especially in Fish Creek P.P. On one of my excursions to the park, I positioned myself beneath a Starling’s nest hole and managed to capture a few shots as the bird descended to feed it’s young.
Preparing for landing…
Landing; note food in beak
At nest hole; seems to be startled by the ferocity of its two young!
Calgary Herald Bird Photography competition
Posted by Matthew Sim
Interested in entering a local bird photography competition? For those of you who haven’t yet seen the article, the Calgary Herald is having a contest for bird photos seen in and around Calgary with the chance to win a copy of the National Geographic Bird Watcher’s Bible: A Complete Treasury. There are 4 simple ways to enter:
1. Tweet your photo on Twitter with the hashtag #yycphotovote in the tweet.
2. Submit your photo via Instagram with hashtag #yycphotovote in the caption.
3. Post it to the Calgary Herald’s Facebook page.
4. Email the photo as an attachment to readercontributions@calgaryherald.com.
Swainson’s Hawk
If you haven’t submitted any photos, go ahead and give it a try! The winners will be announced next Sunday on the Calgary Herald’s Facebook page. You can find out more about the competition here.
Good luck!