Tag Archive | Field Trips

Wings over the Rockies Nature Festival

Apr6

29th Annual Festival is May 5-11 in Invermere, B.C.

One of the oldest and best nature festivals in western Canada takes place only a three-hour drive from Calgary, in and around Invermere, B.C. in the Columbia River Valley. People come from all over North America to attend this seven-day event. Ticket sales begin on April 8th, so read about the events below and plan your trip!

(Wings over the Rockies website and tickets here.)

Wings over the Rockies

Nurturing a Living Legacy with Nature for 28 years

The Wings over the Rockies Nature Festival, May 5 – 11, 2025, is based out of Invermere, BC. For 28 years, we have hosted a premier 7-day nature festival to celebrate the Upper Columbia Valley. Our mission is at the heart of everything we do: supporting and promoting conservation, education, stewardship, and sustainable economic development in our beautiful valley. This year’s festival features over 90 incredible events, including field excursions, engaging luncheon and evening presentations, our annual photo contest and an incredible online auction. Highlights also include a special film screening of the documentary “Wildflowers”, the much-anticipated music event with multi-award-winning Canadian legend Harry Manx, and our traditional Gala Celebration—a sit-down dinner and presentation featuring keynote speaker Dr. Rob Butler, renowned ornithologist, author, and artist.

What we do together matters 

Last year, the non-profit Wings over the Rockies Nature Festival Society, through the Columbia Valley Foundation, created the Ross MacDonald Memorial Legacy Fund. This legacy fund provides funding for projects in the Columbia Valley that support community environmental education and/or land-based conservation such as habitat restoration, maintaining or improving ecological conditions, or species at risk protection. Each year, the success of our festival, in part, contributes to this important legacy fund.  

Belted Kingfisher

The 2025 Theme 

This year our events will center around the theme “Our Place in Nature.” Through thought-provoking presentations, immersive field experiences, and inspiring discussions, our keynote speaker, presenters, and field leaders will guide attendees in celebrating the wonders of nature while deepening our understanding of our place within it. Together, we’ll explore perspectives that connect us to our diverse cultures, rich histories, and our shared responsibility for the planet we call home.

The 2025 online Events Calendar preview is now active. On-line ticket sales will begin April 8, 10:00 AM MDT. www.wingsovertherockies.org.

Come join like-minded lovers of nature and enjoy the wonders of the Upper Columbia Valley.

Wings over the Rockies

City Nature Challenge Events

Apr23

Register now for CNC events this weekend.

The City Nature Challenge is unique in that anyone can participate anywhere in the area from April 26-29. But if you want to take part with an organized group there are many events being offered.

To contribute to the CNC you have to post your observations on the iNaturalist app or website. If you would like to learn how to use iNaturalist, or if you need a refresher or have any questions about the CNC, organizer Matt Wallace is offering a tutorial tonight, Tuesday April 23, at 7 pm. This will be done over Zoom. Here is the link to the meeting.

CNC Map
The CNC area includes Calgary, Cochrane, Airdrie, Chestermere, Okotoks, Foothills County, and Rocky View County. Any iNaturalist obserations made in this area from April 26-29 will contribute to this project.

Matt has organized a number of events throughout the weekend. These include all-day blitzes, birding walks, and more specialized events such as pond study and a pollinator walk. Click the link below to see all the events!

Register for CNC events on this page!

For Nature Calgary members, there are three events on Sunday April 28 which are not full. These include a Birding Blitz on St. Patrick Island near the Zoo, a Bryophyte Blitz in the Weaselhead, and a Plant Walk in Glenbow Ranch Provincial Park. See this page to register.

City Nature Challenge

More information from Matt Wallace:

April 26-29 take photos of wild plants and animals in your yards, neighborhoods, and favorite parks. Then upload your observations to the iNaturalist app or to iNaturalist.ca before Midnight May 5. This is the sixth year I have organized the Calgary CNC and it has grown immensely. There are over 700 cities involved worldwide and we are competing with them to see how many observations we can make, the number of species we can document, and the number of people we can get to participate. The two metrics I am most concerned with for our area are the number of observations and the participants. 

My personal goal for CNC is that we can make a combined 10,000 observations or more during the four days. I also hope that we can make 250K observations by 2025 (We are currently at 169,000 observations just in Calgary). If each of us were to make even 10 observations over the weekend, we could make the CNC target and could be the top-performing Canadian city (49 participating Canadian cities this year).

The area which you can participate in during CNC includes: Calgary, Cochrane, Airdrie, Chestermere, Okotoks, Foothills County, and Rocky View County. Participate in groups, at events or even go exploring on your own. Heck, make a “big day” out of the four days if you’re up for the challenge. I have helped to organize around 15 events across the region all happening Friday-Monday which can all be found on the website below.

Types of subjects we love to see shared on iNaturalist include Birds, Plants, Butterflies, Insects, Fungi, Lichens, Mosses, Mammals (pretty much everything and anything but NO people or pets).

See my previous 2024 CNC post here.

Have a fun weekend and help this project reach its goals!

Field Trips for City Nature Challenge This Weekend

Apr19

CORRECTION: A previous post said that these trips were scheduled for Saturday and Sunday. The correct dates are Sunday April 21 for the Reader Rock Garden trip, and Monday April 22 for Britannia Slopes.

There are two opportunities in Calgary this weekend to go out in the field and learn how iNaturalist and the City Nature Challenge works before the actual competition on April 26-29. On Sunday April 21, join Gus Yaki and Calgary Challenge organizer Matt Wallace at Reader Rock Garden from 1:30 to 3:30 pm. Learn how to take photos with your smartphone or camera and record the observations on the iNaturalist app on your phone or on the website on your desktop computer.

I took this photo at Pearce Estate Park during last week’s workshop. When I uploaded the photo, the iNaturalist artificial intelligence suggested it was in the Bulrushes and Cattails family, and another iNaturalist user later identified it as Broadleaf Cattail. Photo by Bob Lefebvre, Pearce Estate Park, April 13, 2019.

See this page for all the information on this workshop and field trip. No registration is required for these free events; just show up and join the fun!

On Monday afternoon, April 22, from 2 to 4 pm, join Gus and Matt at Britannia Slopes for another workshop/field trip. See this page for all the information.

If you can’t make it to the workshops but want to participate in the Challenge, get the iNaturalist app on your phone or open an account on the website, and you can learn to make observations on your own. Here is the iNaturalist Canada page.

There will be many events held during the challenge that everyone is welcome to participate in. See this page for all the events.

Any observations submitted within the city limits from April 26-29 will automatically be included in Calgary’s totals. So you can participate in the organized events, make observations on your own, or both. You don’t necessarily have to be able to identify the species you record, as the iNaturalist site will make suggested ID’s, and the iNaturalist community will follow up. The period from April 30 to May 5 will be used to try to finalize the identifications of all species identified in Calgary during the challenge. Any iNaturalist user can help with this.

Smartphones are excellent for recording photos of plants but if you are taking photos of mammals and birds you can usually get a better shot with a camera. Then you have to upload the photos to the iNaturalist site on your computer. When I went to the workshop last week, I used both phone and camera and took photos of birds, mammals, plants including fungi and lichens, and even signs of animals such as this:

This is recorded on iNaturalist as Canadian Beaver. Signs and evidence of wildlife are also included in the database. Photo by Bob Lefebvre, Pearce Estate Park, April 13, 2019.

Using iNaturalist is a great way to document our biodiversity, and to learn about our wildlife. This is from the iNaturalist.ca website:

“We can build a living record of life in Canada that scientists and environmental managers can use to monitor changes in biodiversity, and that anyone can use to learn more about Canada’s amazing natural history.

“Every piece of information on a species, combined with the vast network of citizen scientists can give a big picture of Canada’s natural history and can be a key contribution for conservation decisions.”

FFCPPS Spring Birding Course 2019

Mar24
Mountain Bluebird, Inglewood Bird Sanctuary, April 16, 2013. Photo by Dan Arndt.

The popular spring session of the Friends of Fish Creek Provincial Park Society (FFCPPS) Birding Course will begin on Monday April 1, 2019. The course consists of weekly field trips to various parks in the city. You can expect to see over 150 species on this twelve-week course.

Here is the course description from the FFCPP website:
During the spring, hundreds of bird species pass through or reside in Fish Creek Provincial Park. Through the Spring Birding Course you can see, hear and learn about fascinating bird species, view them as they return from their wintering grounds and enjoy watching new spring arrivals. Whether you are new to birding or are an experienced birder, these outdoor sessions will enhance your knowledge about birds and provide an opportunity to meet others who enjoy birds and nature. This course is also great for families who would like to spend time together in nature, explore Fish Creek and other natural areas, and learn about birds and conservation. Lifelong naturalist Gus Yaki, and other experienced birding instructors, conducts these outings as a fundraiser for the Friends of Fish Creek.

You can read more about the course and register to participate here.

This Birds Calgary post from last year shows photographs of some of the amazing birds that were seen during the 2018 spring session!

Winter Birding Course, January to March 2019

Dec9

Today is the last day of the Fall session of the Friends of Fish Creek Provincial Park birding course. After the Christmas season and all the local Christmas Bird Counts, the winter session of the course will begin on January 7, 2019 and run until the end of March. This is a great time of year to get out birding every week since you see the gradual transition from winter birding to spring migration. From late February to the end of March there are many new species arriving here every week.

White-winged Crossbill, Fish Creek Park, March 6, 2016. Photo by Tony LePrieur.

For more information and to register for the course, go to this page.

 

Calendar – September 2018

Sep1

Events & Lectures of interest to Calgary birders.

Wilson's Warbler

Wilson’s Warbler. Photo by Tony LePrieur

Nature Calgary Field Trips: Various dates and times. See this page. Some trips require registering in advance.

Monday September 3. Friends of Fish Creek 14-week fall birding course begins. Sign up here to attend field trips once or twice per week. Outings offered six days per week. Youths aged 16 or younger can do the whole course for only $5 if accompanied by a registered adult.

Wednesday September 5, 7:30 pm, Cardel Theatre. Nature Calgary Bird Study Group presentation. Photographer Marcy Stader will speak on local birds.

September 5-11. Global Shorebird Count. Register here to count shorebirds in this time period around World Shorebird Day on September 6.

Thursday September 13, 6 pm. Birds & Beers. Legion, 9202 Horton Road SW. After 7 pm Phil Cram will give a presentation on long-term trends in bird populations in the Calgary Christmas Bird Count, which he has organized for many years.

Thursday September 27, 7 pm. Alberta Institute for Wildlife Conservation. Flights of Fancy – Peter Sherrington will speak on the topic of eagle migration. Alberta Wilderness Association, 455-12 Street NW. $35 to register. See this page to register and for more information.

Upcoming:

Monday October 15, 7-8 pm. Dr. David Bird, Watching Birds Naked. Presentation and book signing at the Wild Bird Store. $20 to register; information and location here.

Is it Fall Already? Back to Birding.

Aug17

Posted by Bob Lefebvre

My summer hiatus is over! Fall migration is well underway, with a variety of warblers, vireos, and flycatchers being seen in Confederation Park and along the Bow and Elbow Rivers. Flocks of young Robins and Chipping Sparrows have been passing through my yard daily. We even had a brief view of a hummingbird in our yard, which rarely happens.

The fall birding course offered by the Friends of Fish Creek begins on September 3. See this page to register.

The Bird Study Group of Nature Calgary resumes their season on Wednesday September 5 with a presentation by local photographer Marcy Stader. See the new Nature Calgary website for information on this and all upcoming talks at their Bird Study Group, and in their regular Speaker Series, which resumes September 19.

See the Nature Calgary field trip page for upcoming outings you can join.

Birds & Beers resumes with a special August get-together, next Friday, August 24. Our usual day for these if Thursday so we hope some of you who can’t make it on Thursdays (Brenda?) will come out this time for a drink or meal and a chat about birding. Meet at the Horton Road Legion at 6 pm.

The remainder of the fall dates for Birds & Beers are: Thursday, September 13 (with a presentation by Phil Cram); Thursday November 1; Thursday November 29.

Most of you probably know about the Alberta Birds Facebook group, where birders and photographers can post photos of birds from anywhere in Alberta. There are over 10,000 members of this popular page. Recently a new Facebook group was started called Calgary Birds. This one features photos only from within the 80-km Calgary count circle. Check it out, and join if you want to contribute photos.

There is also a Facebook group created by Ethan Denton called Bow Valley Birding which focuses on the Banff/Canmore area. This will be of interest to many Calgary birders who regularly visit this area. To me it this page is always surprising since the birding is a little different there and they seem to find a lot of rarities.

Good Birding!

Courting Mountain Bluebirds

May31

Vincent Tolley photographed this Mountain Bluebird pair just after the male had brought a meal to the female.

Mountain Bluebird

Mountain Bluebirds near Madden, north of Calgary, May 25, 2018. Photo by Vincent Tolley.

You can find Mountain Bluebirds at their nestboxes along rural roads all over the Calgary region this month. The best areas are NW, West and SW of town. Many of the boxes host Tree Swallows but if you are persistent you can find bluebirds.

On Thursday June 28 you can join Nature Calgary as Don Stiles leads a trip along his Bluebird Nestbox trail. See baby Mountain Bluebirds and Tree Swallows and learn about the nestbox program. For more information see this page.

You can see more of Vincent Tolley’s photos on his Flickr page.

Winter Birding Course Starts January 8

Dec2

There is still time to register to take part in the Winter 2018 session of the Friends of Fish Creek birding course. Go out on field trips with experienced leaders once or twice a week for twelve weeks, and learn about the winter birds of Calgary. You will also see the early-arriving spring migrants.

White-winged Crossbill, Weaselhead Nature Area, February 7, 2016. Photo by Tony LePrieur.

Field trips are held in several parts of Fish Creek Park, in Carburn Park, the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary, the Weaselhead Nature Area, Bowmont Park, Griffith Wood Park, and other locations.

It is still only $5 for children (accompanied by a registered adult) for the whole twelve-week course! See this page for details on how to register.

Follow the Friends of Fish Creek Provincial Park Society on Facebook.

Nature Calgary’s Big Week of Birding

Jun1

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.