Tag Archive | flycatcher

Birding Bowmont Park, rain or shine!

This last Sunday’s walk was once again plagued with the Sunday Morning Curse. While it wasn’t cold or windy, it was interspersed with rain throughout the morning, and during the last twenty minutes or so of our walk the skies opened up and drenched us. Oh yeah, and I didn’t have a rain coat with me either… At least I did manage a few decent pictures of some great new birds of the season for our group!

Bowmont Park

Bowmont Park

Early on, we were surprised by this little Orange-crowned Warbler in the budding poplar trees. It was one of the few warblers we saw (or heard) all day that wasn’t a Yellow Warbler!

Orange-crowned Warbler

Orange-crowned Warbler

As we passed one of the small ponds north of the pathway, we spotted a family of Mallards swimming around the edge of the pond, and a little further along found a Bank Swallow nesting colony. These swallows whipped about overhead, snatching insects from the air expertly, then whizzed back to their nest cavities to rest or to feed their mate.

Bank Swallow nesting colony

Bank Swallow nesting colony

We headed north into the wooded area, and found ourselves at a small pond, where we had good looks at a pair of Gray Catbirds, heard a few Song Sparrows, a lone Lincoln’s Sparrow, and had over a hundred swallows of various types swooping around overhead. We even had a few Northern Rough-winged Swallows feasting on the hatched insects over this pond.

Northern Rough-winged Swallow in flight

Northern Rough-winged Swallow in flight

Much to our surprise, we even heard a Common Yellowthroat calling, and while he had no qualms about calling, he certainly didn’t pose very long for any photos!

The star of the pond though were these little Mallard ducklings, peeping and quacking about the pond, but as soon as Mom and Dad landed on the pond, they made a bee-line for them!

Mallard ducklings

Mallard ducklings

Mallard Duckling

Mallard Duckling

 

After spending quite a bit of time with these little balls of fluff, we finally headed out of the woods and up the river valley slope. While the calls of the House Wrens were ever present, the first one we had good looks at was at the top of a spruce tree at the base of the slope. While it only stuck around for a few shots, the White-crowned Sparrows further up were much more photogenic.

House Wren

House Wren

White-crowned Sparrow

White-crowned Sparrow

And as we reached the top, the Gray Catbirds seemed to multiply, being seen all around us in every direction we looked. It wasn’t just the Gray Catbirds that popped into view either. American Goldfinches seemed to sprout from every branch like flowers. Take this little gent, for instance.

American Goldfinch

American Goldfinch

It was almost too soon, but as the rain began to come down harder, we nearly made a bee-line for the parking lot. We did, however, have time to spot this little Western Wood-Pewee zipping up from the banks of the river to snatch a mosquito or a midge before taking its place back down on the bank, over and over again until it had finally had its fill. They really are quite the adept little predators!

Western Wood-Pewee

Western Wood-Pewee

Western Wood-Pewee

Western Wood-Pewee

And with that, I’m all caught up and ready for another weekend of new birds as we head back to the Weaselhead in search of more of our many and varied feathered friends. Until next week, good birding!

May Species Count in the Weaselhead

I don’t think I need to mention again how much I love the Weaselhead Natural Area in SW Calgary. This year provided great weather for our Sunday walk, and gave us a bevy of amazing and beautiful birds, with plenty of opportunities to get the very best shots.

Weaselhead Natural Area

Weaselhead Natural Area

As it was part of the May Species Count, our group usually visits the Weaselhead a few weeks ahead of the rest of the Friends of Fish Creek outings, and Bob and I headed out even earlier in hopes of a few of the thrushes singing, and maybe some other early morning birds. We got our wish early on, with this Veery sitting out in the open just south of the first bridge, but sadly were shut out from hearing either the Swainson’s Thrush or Hermit Thrush which can often be found here.

Veery

Veery

After listening for the other thrushes, and taking our time getting back to the starting point to meet the others, we began our trip again, stopping at the top to listen for various other birds calling, and were lucky enough to see this lone Spotted Towhee singing from the top of a spruce tree just down the hill.

Spotted Towhee

Spotted Towhee

As we descended the hill for the second time, we spotted a few good birds on the way down, plus a bonus mammal, the Least Chipmunk, feeding at the bird feeders mid-way down the hill. At the bottom, we had some not so good views of White-throated Sparrows, but could hear their songs all throughout the morning.

 

As we reached the bridge, we had nearly three hundred Cliff Swallows flying overhead, and a few even came down to their nests, whether to rest or share food with their mates, I’ll never know. What I do know is that photographing swallows in general is one of the truest tests of a bird photographer. Thankfully, out of nearly fifty shots of the colony, I found one that turned out relatively ok!

Cliff Swallow returning to the colony

Cliff Swallow returning to the colony

We followed the pathway all the way to its end at the southern edge of the Weaselhead, and turned up good numbers of Yellow Warblers, and some of the first Least Flycatchers of the year, which could be heard all through the park with their distinctive “chi-bec” calls. Thankfully they’re also one of the easiest to identify by sight as well as sound, with their distinct thick eye-ring and buffy sides.

Least Flycatcher

Least Flycatcher

Down at the very south end, we heard the calls of a Northern Waterthrush, more Yellow Warblers than we could ever want for, and even a pair of elusive Sora. Hopefully the next time we see them they’ll be more cooperative for the camera!

We began the long trip back through the central portion of the Weaselhead, hearing our first Rose-breasted Grosbeak of the year, along with Red-breasted Nuthatches, Boreal Chickadees, and White-winged Crossbills, but the main reason for revisiting the central meadow was for the Calliope Hummingbirds who are annual residents here, and this year this male put on quite a show for us.

Calliope Hummingbird

Calliope Hummingbird

Calliope Hummingbird display

Calliope Hummingbird display

Calliope Hummingbird flaring his gorget

Calliope Hummingbird flaring his gorget

Once we’d had our fill of watching this hummingbirds antics, we headed to the north side of the Elbow River in search of the other regular hummingbird species here, the Rufous Hummingbird. Once again, we were not disappointed as we found a single male high up in a spruce tree, and even were lucky enough to watch as he faced off with another male in a territorial dispute. Here is the champion flaring his gorget in victory.

Rufous Hummingbird

Rufous Hummingbird

As we were preparing to leave for the next few stops along our May Species Count route, we were given a low and slow flyby by a male dark morph Swainson’s Hawk that’s been resident here in the Weaselhead for a few years.

Swainson's Hawk (dark morph)

Swainson’s Hawk (dark morph)

And that’s it for another week of birding for us. With last weekend’s May Species Count, and the weeks crazy schedule, I missed my regular post last week, so this week you get two (at least!) new posts from me. Watch for the next one on Thursday! Until then, good birding!