Tag Archive | Fish Creek Park

New Year’s Day Bird Count

Feb2

Results of the January 1, 2024 Fish Creek Park Count.

Posted by Bob Lefebvre

The annual half-day bird count in Fish Creek Park was a lot of fun and a great success again this New Year’s Day. We had a high number of species, with high counts for several, and some new species for the count. It was another mild day, as it had been for pretty much the whole winter up to then.

Bow River
Sunrise in Fish Creek Park, January 1, 2024. Photo by Matt Wallace.

Forty-three birders went out to eight sections of the park. We found a total of 42 species, up from the ten-year average of 35. There were two new species not recorded before (Cackling Goose and Greater Scaup), and record high counts for six others.

Cackling Goose10
Canada Goose2,321
Trumpeter Swan3
Tundra Swan4
American Wigeon7
Mallard771
Northern Pintail1
Green-winged Teal4
Redhead2
Greater Scaup1
Bufflehead179
Common Goldeneye920
Barrow’s Goldeneye13
Common Merganser27
Ring-necked Pheasant2
Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon)17
Sharp-shinned Hawk3
Bald Eagle12
Great Horned Owl2
Belted Kingfisher1
Downy Woodpecker31
Hairy Woodpecker11
Pileated Woodpecker5
Northern Flicker53
Merlin4
Northern Shrike1
Blue Jay5
Black-billed Magpie133
American Crow2
Common Raven86
Black-capped Chickadee219
Mountain Chickadee7
Boreal Chickadee11
White-breasted Nuthatch42
Red-breasted Nuthatch33
Townsend’s Solitaire2
American Robin1
Bohemian Waxwing277
House Sparrow78
Pine Grosbeak12
House Finch20
Dark-eyed Junco1

Our group covered the Hull’s Wood/Sikome Lake/Boat Launch areas. Matt Wallace took some great photos of our day.

Fish Creek
Fish Creek near the Bow River. Photo by Matt Wallace.
Tundra Swan
We found a group of four overwintering Tundra Swans on the Bow. Photos by Matt Wallace.
Tundra Swan
North American Porcupine
We also count mammals. This Porcupine was snoozing up in a tree. Photos by Matt Wallace.
North American Porcupine
WAY up in a tree.
Downy Woodpecker
Despite the Park Rules, someone has been leaving seeds for the birds. This Downy Woodpecker was so used to being fed that it kept comng to our hands briefly even though we had no food. Photo by Matt Wallace.
Downy Woodpecker
We wanted to take a team photo, so Dan grabbed a few seeds so that the Downy would stay long enough to get in the photo too. Photo by Matt Wallace.

This count is not an official Christmas Bird Count, but it has a pretty long history now, and it is an important tool to monitor the long-term population trends in the park. If you want to learn more about the count in all areas of the park, come to Birds & Beers this Thursday, February 8, where the Count Organizer Jim Washbrook will present the results and answer questions.

Results of the Calgary and Priddis Christmas Bird Counts will also be presented at Birds & Beers. In case you missed it, here are some of the results from the Calgary Count, showing the species recorded and the numbers of each:

Christmas Bird Count
Christmas Bird Count

Birds & Beers, February 8, 2024

Feb1

Presenting the Christmas Bird Count Results

Next Thursday, February 8th, we will have another Birds & Beers meeting in Calgary. As usual, we meet in the big ballroom at the Royal Canadian Legion at 9202 Horton Road SW. The event starts at 5 pm.

Black-billed Magpie
A Black-billed Magpie seen by a Feeder Watcher on the 2023 Calgary Christmas Bird Count. Photo by Lou Zaganelli.

After some time for socializing, eating, and drinking, there will be a presentation on some of the recent Christmas Bird Counts that took place in the Calgary area. Matthew Wallace will present the results of the Calgary Count, Gavin McKinnon on the Priddis Count, and Jim Washbrook on the Fish Creek Park New Year’s Day Count. The presentation starts at about 7 pm.

Common Redpoll
A Common Redpoll seen on the Calgary Count. They have been scarce this winter here, but we had almost a hundred on the count. Photo by Lou Zaganelli.

Everyone is welcome at Birds & Beers! See you there!

Champions Monument Unveiled in Fish Creek Park

Oct11

Gus Yaki among seven honoured as Alberta Champions.

Posted by Bob Lefebvre

The Alberta Champions Society unveiled their seventh Field Of Fame on September 28. The monument honours seven prominent Calgarians for their contributions to the province. The monument stands next to the Friends of Fish Creek office at Bow Valley Ranch at the east end of Fish Creek Park.

Field of Fame 7
Field of Fame #7 in Bow Valley Ranch, Fish Creek Park. Photo by Bob Lefebvre

The monument honours Virnetta Anderson, Narcisse Blood, Michael Green, Roderick Mah, Chuck Mawer, Peter Prince and Gus Yaki. Yaki was a prominent naturalist and birder who passed away in 2020.

The monuments were unveiled after a nice ceremony on September 28. You can watch videos of the unveiling here. (In the long video, the unveiling of Gus’s monument starts at 119:30.)

Here is a link to an article about the event in the Calgary Herald.

Gus Yaki
Gus Yaki’s monument. Photo by Bob Lefebvre

The next time you are at Bow Valley Ranch, have a look at the Field of Fame.

Field of fame 7
The location of Field of Fame #7 in Fish Creek Park. It is the teardrop underlined in red, next to the first parking lot at Bow Valley Ranch.

Alberta Champions: Gus Yaki

Dec31

A monument to Gus will be erected in Fish Creek Park in 2023 by the Alberta Champions Society.

Posted by Bob Lefebvre

The Alberta Champions Society in Recognition of Community Enrichment was formed to commemorate, recognize and honour those Albertans that have made a significant contribution to the community in the city of Calgary and area. The Society has so far erected six “Fields of Fame” around the city as tributes to men and women of the past who contributed to the Calgary of today. The seventh set of monuments will be erected in Fish Creek Park in 2023.

Gus Yaki
Gus Yaki with an injured Ring-billed Gull found while leading a field trip in Fish Creek Provincial Park. Photo by Bob Lefebvre

From the Alberta Champions Society website:

The Fields of Fame are groupings of structural steel, architecturally designed which are placed at prominent locations throughout the city to commemorate the accomplishments of those Calgarians who have made a lasting contribution to Calgary. 

Each Field of Fame includes six steel “sheaves of wheat”, thirteen feet high, symbolic of the prairies and the farm and ranching culture that formed the early backbone of the Calgary area. 

Each sheaf of wheat includes a brief history on the individual being honoured, with a photograph and wording designed to highlight the import and significant contribution made by the particular individual to the fabric of the Calgary community.  

Field of Fame, Spruce Meadows
The Field of Fame at Spruce Meadows. (Photo from the Alberta Champions Society website; used by permission.)

Gus Yaki was a lifelong birder, naturalist, and conservationist who had an enormous impact on Calgary from the time he arrived in 1993 until his passing in 2020 at the age of 87. (See this for more about Gus’s life and work.)

Those of us who were fortunate enough to know Gus and to learn from him are very pleased to see him being honoured in this way, and to have the monument erected in a place that was special to him. Gus passed away in August 2020, and due to Covid, a memorial service could not be held. Gus’s son David Yaki then planned a memorial for 2021, but again Covid forced a cancellation of the event. So it is very gratifying that there will be an event to honour Gus when the Fish Creek Field of Fame is completed in late 2023.

Fish Creek Provincial Park
The future site of Field of Fame #7 in Fish Creek Park, near the Visitor’s Centre at Bow Valley Ranch.
(Photo from the Alberta Champions Society website; used by permission.)

The other six people being honoured along with Gus are Virnetta Anderson, Peter Prince, Charles (Chuck) Mawer, Roderick (Roddy) Mah, Michael Green, and Narcisse Blood. The seven monuments will be erected near the visitor’s centre in the Bow Valley Ranch area of Fish Creek Park. It is expected to be completed in late 2023.

The Alberta Champions Society appreciates all financial donations from the community. Donations help to cover the costs of the monument and its installation. See the Donations page here. For more information on supporting this project, contact Pat Christie, the Executive Director of the Champions Society, at pat.christie[at]telus.net. Donors will be recognized either at the installation or on the Champions Society website, and a receipt will be issued. I know the Christmas season brings a lot of appeals for donations, so save the link and perhaps consider donating later in 2023 if you can.

I will give further updates on this project and its completion date in the coming months.

I’d like to acknowledge the efforts of Champions Society Board Member John Currie, who knew Gus and had birded with him. John nominated Gus for this honour and spearheaded the effort to include him in Field Of Fame #7. Sadly, Mr. Currie, himself a pillar of the community, passed away in October 2022.

Gus’s son David has been spreading the word about this project and sees it as fitting, and permanent, tribute to his father.

Nic Blanchet, the Executive Director of the Friends of Fish Creek Provincial Park Society, was instrumental in getting approval for erecting the monument in the park, which was a challenging process.

Thanks also to Champions Society President Gordon Hoffman who gave permission to use photos and other material from the Champions website.

Gus Yaki
Gus Yaki, 1932-2020.

Join the New Year’s Day Bird Count!

Dec27

Fish Creek Provincial Park half-day count needs more birders!

Posted by Bob Lefebvre

Each year on January 1st there is a half-day bird count done in Fish Creek Provincial Park. Team of birders go out to sevearal locations in the park, and we count all the species we can find, and the numbers of each. We find around 35-40 species on average.

Great Horned Owl
The resident pair of Great Horned Owls in our section of Fish Creek Provincial Park, 2008. Sometimes we find one or two of the owls on the count, and sometimes not. Photo by Bob Lefebvre.

Jim Washbrook has organized the count for several years, and he invites interested birders to contact him to join one of the field teams. You can email Jim at jwashbrook1{at}gmail.com.

The Fish Creek count is not an official Christmas Bird Count (CBC). CBC’s take place each year within a fixed 15-mile diameter (24 km diameter) circle. CBC circles cannot overlap, and the Calgary count circle, which lies just north of Fish Creek Park, was established in 1952. Due to the long east-west geography of the park and its proximity to the Calgary circle, there is no way to fully enclose the park within another CBC circle.

The Calgary area showing the CBC circle, with Fish Creek Park (more or less!) outlined just south of the circle.

The Fish Creek Count was started in 1994 to document the changes in bird populations within the park in winter. As you can see below, species numbers, number of participants in the count, and of course temperature, can fluctuate from year to year.

FCPP New Year's Day Bird Count

Jim would like to increase the number of participants so that we can fully cover all the areas in the park. You will be placed in one area, with a team led by an experienced birder. Teams meet in their areas and begin at 9 am, and finish by noon. Maybe this year all the teams can again meet to compare notes afterwards, as we always did pre-pandemic. It looks like the weather will be pretty good, so it will be a great opportunity to come out and give it a try! And it’s a great way to kick-start your birding year!

Furry Friday: Beavers and Porcupine

May11

Here are some very photogenic mammals seen in Calgary in April 2018 by Tony LePrieur. The Beavers were photographed in Fish Creek Provincial Park, and the Porcupine in Carburn Park.

Porcupine

Porcupine

Porcupine

Beaver

Beaver

Beaver

Beaver

You can see more of Tony’s photos on this page.

Summer Birds by Tony LePrieur

Aug28

Posted by Bob Lefebvre

We’re back! After a really long summer hiatus, it’s time to get posting again. I have a lot of great photos that readers have sent in, and we’ll start with some of Tony LePrieur’s excellent photos of summer birds. Be sure to check back on Friday for his photos of a wide variety of mammals.

First I wanted to mention that although it may seem like a quiet time of year, especially with the steady hot weather we have had, the past couple of weeks have been pretty good for fall warblers and other migrants. Confederation Park in the NW and several locations in the river valleys (notably Mallard Point in Fish Creek Park and Carburn Park in the SE) have had some good birds. Black-and-white, Townsend’s, Magnolia, Canada, Blackburnian, Mourning and Cape May Warblers have all been reported, among others. A Lark Sparrow has been seen at Mallard Point.

I also wanted to mention that a Peregrine Falcon has been seen perched on the Peter Lougheed Hospital in NE Calgary on two occasions by reader R. Michael Fisher, on August 12 and 20. It may be worth checking for it if you’re in the area.

And now for Tony’s photos.

Cedar Waxwing, Fish Creek Park, June 18, 2017. Photo by Tony LePrieur.

Eastern Kingbird, Fish Creek Park, June 18, 2017. Photo by Tony LePrieur.

Spotted Sandpiper, Fish Creek Park, June 18, 2017. Photo by Tony LePrieur.

Great Gray Owl, Priddis area, June 18, 2017. Photo by Tony LePrieur.

Great Gray Owl, Priddis area, June 18, 2017. Photo by Tony LePrieur.

Calliope Hummingbird, Weaselhead. June 18, 2017. Photo by Tony LePrieur.

Sora, Bridlewood Wetlands, June 25, 2017. Photo by Tony LePrieur.

Black-crowned Night-Heron, Fish Creek Park, June 25, 2017. Photo by Tony LePrieur.

Wood Duck female with chicks, Carburn Park, June 25, 2017. Photo by Tony LePrieur.

Yellow Warbler, Carburn Park, June 25, 2017. Photo by Tony LePrieur.

Yellow-headed Blackbird, Frank Lake, June 25, 2017. Photo by Tony LePrieur.

Wilson’s Phalarope, Frank Lake, June 25, 2017. Photo by Tony LePrieur.

Yellow Warbler, Fish Creek Park, July 3, 2017. Photo by Tony LePrieur.

Black-crowned Night-Heron, Fish Creek Park, July 3, 2017. Photo by Tony LePrieur.

To see more of Tony’s photos, go to his Flickr page.

 

Baby Owls of Burnsmead

Jul17

This spring a family of Great Horned Owls nested in the Burnsmead area of Fish Creek Provincial Park. Max Ortiz Aguilar got these photos of the family after the young had hatched and were almost ready to start branching.

Great Horned Owls – mother with two downy young. Burnsmead, April 16, 2017.

Photo by Max Ortiz Aguilar.

Great Horned Owl, male standing guard by the nest, Burnsmead, April 16, 2017.

Photo by Max Ortiz Aguilar.

To see more of Max’s wildlife photos, go to his site, Photos by MOA.

Birds of Burnsmead, Fish Creek Park

May20

Posted by Bob Lefebvre

For the week of April 10-16, the Friends of Fish Creek Provincial Park birding course groups explored the Burnsmead area of Fish Creek Park, along the river just east of the park headquarters, near the wastewater treatment plant. There are some ponds in this area, as well as a wooded area and the river itself.

Max Ortiz Aguilar went with the group on April 16 and got these photos of some of the birds there.

Ring-necked Pheasant (male), Burnsmead, April 16, 2017. Photo by Max Ortiz Aguilar.

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 Canada Goose, possibly guarding a nest site, April 16, 2017. Photo by Max Ortiz Aguilar.

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Common Mergansers (female in front, male behind), April 16, 2017. Photo by Max Ortiz Aguilar.

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Franklin’s Gull, April 16, 2017. Photo by Max Ortiz Aguilar.

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This photo and the next shows the pinkish hue these birds have when they arrive here from their wintering grounds off the coast of Venezuela, where they feed on shrimp that contain red pigments. The colour often fades by fall.

Franklin’s Gulls, April 16, 2017. Photo by Max Ortiz Aguilar.

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House Finch (male), April 16, 2017. Photo by Max Ortiz Aguilar.

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Red-winged Blackbird (male), April 16, 2017. Photo by Max Ortiz Aguilar.

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To see more of Max’s photos, visit his website here.