Christmas Bird Count - Calgary

Plans for a quiet Christmas around town enable me to participate in three Christmas Bird Counts this year.  The first of these was last weekend's Calgary count where I counted with four other birders in South Glenmore Park and the Weaselhead Natural Area.  This area has been referred to as "the long walk" by some as it's a relatively remote area for an urban count, has historically low species diversity and is therefore assigned to birders willing to spend six or seven hours wandering the woods in winter weather.  Nevertheless, I've had fun on this count the last couple of years and looked forward to our day out.  Here are a few shots of some of the twenty-one species we encountered.

Although I've seen a lot of Golden-crowned Kinglets, Regulus satrapa, I've not had much luck photographing them.  That's perhaps not surprising as they are Alberta's tiniest songbirds, barely bigger than our smallest hummingbirds, and weighing in at just six grams - less than a loonie!  Their flight reminds me of hummingbirds too as they flit around the shadowy branches of spruce trees looking for food and somehow eking out a living at thirty below.  This particular bird finally sat still in the sun long enough for me to get a decent shot.

Believe it or not, this photo is also an improvement on previous work.  Of course that's easy when I have never managed to photograph Brown Creeper, Certhia americana, in Alberta!

Pileated Woodpecker, Dryocopus pileatus, started the year as a bit of nemesis for me - never seen in Alberta or anywhere since I started birding in earnest a few years ago.  I finally found one in the spring and then got fantastic looks a few weeks ago.  Two of the members of our group, who were newer birders, had been having similar issues so it was nice to relive my experience through them as we got great looks and a startlingly close flypast from this female.

I don't have much to say about this photo except that it's a Common Redpoll, it's very pretty, we saw a hundred and thirty others just like it, and no, we didn't see any Hoary Redpolls.  But that's fine because these birds are perfectly lovely with their streaks intact.

Boreal Chickadees, Poecile hudsonicus, are a target species for this count area and we found a half dozen of them hanging out with various flocks of Black-capped Chickadees.  They are distinguishable by their brown caps, reddish-brown flanks and different calls but this uncharacteristically bold individual made life easier by feeding a few feet away while we ate lunch.

At the end of the day, we had another great count experience and I look forward to the next one - Sheep River/Turner Valley on December 29th.  There's a full list of counts on the Birds Calgary website and lots of time to get involved.  Hope to see you out there!

An Early Migrant at the Friends of Fish Creek Spring Birding Course

This Saturday morning, and for most of the next 11 Saturdays, I'm assisting with guiding a spring birdwatching course run by the Friends of Fish Creek Provincial Park.  These courses are very popular with well over 100 participants going out basically every day of the week to various locations in Calgary.  If you're interested, there are a few spots available for some days and the course information can be found here (update April 14th: link no longer works - just goes to FFCPP website as registration is closed).  We had a nice morning birding North Glenmore Park and the Weaselhead.  Highlights included great views of a very early arriving Eastern Phoebe,   a small flock of White-winged Crossbills feeding low down in the trees, and a Northern Shrike - a life bird for me.  It was also nice to see small groups of Trumpeter Swans on the Glenmore Reservoir, along with that other harbinger of spring waterfowl, a Northern Pintail.  A few photos follow below, along with a complete species list.

A pair of Blue Jays flew through the parking lot while I was waiting for the rest of the group to arrive - nice birds for Calgary

Maybe they call it a Least Chipmunk because it fits in a tuna can bird feeder.

In a few days there will be no Pine Grosbeaks left in Calgary, as they head north, but this youngster was still hanging out doing it's best at a spring song. 

A Red-breasted Nuthatch, also looking for treats at the feeders

This Eastern Phoebe has returned unusually early to a customary nesting site under the wooden arch bridge on the Weaselhead trails.  We didn't see any insects but this bird was certainly finding them on the surface of the snow-covered creek.  While the bird sat on a bankside perch performing the tell-"tail" phoebe tail flick, I was able to snap this shot which captures another good field mark - the dark smudges on either side of the breast.

We had great views of a small group of White-winged Crossbills feeding unusually low in the trees.  As crossbill photos go, this one turned out ok.

Checking my list when I got home, I was surprised to find that this White-breasted Nuthatch was my first of the year - must be a book-keeping error! 

A nice morning of birding with a friendly and keen group of people - I'm looking forward to the next one!  Here's the list of species seen/heard:

1. Canada Goose
2. Trumpeter Swan
3. American Wigeon
4. Mallard
5. Northern Pintail
6. Bufflehead
7. Common Goldeneye
8. Ring-billed Gull
9. California Gull
10. Northern Flicker
11. Red-tailed Hawk (2, one of which was Harlan's)
12. Northern Flicker (heard only)
13. Eastern Phoebe
14. Northern Shrike
15. Blue Jay
16. Black-billed Magpie
17. American Crow
18. Common Raven
19. Black-capped Chickadee
20. Boreal Chickadee
21. Red-breasted Nuthatch
22. White-breasted Nuthatch
23. American Robin
24. Bohemian Waxwing
25. American Tree Sparrow
26. Song Sparrow (heard only)
27. Pine Grosbeak
28. White-winged Crossbill
29. Common Redpoll
30. Pine Siskin
31. House Sparrow

Rosy Finches - Third Time's the Charm

One of my target birds for 2012 was the Gray-crowned Rosy Finch.  These little songbirds spend the summer nesting in cliffs or rock piles in high alpine or arctic tundra, such as at Sunshine Meadows near Banff.  However, rather than spending July hunting out nesting pairs while dangling from cliffs and dodging grizzly bears, a simpler option is to look for them in the winter when large flocks descend to valley floors to feed and to spend the cold season in more sheltered conditions.  Having struck out twice in recent months I was not holding my breath as my daughter and I drove over to Exshaw early on Sunday morning to check the feeders along Barrier Mountain Drive.  However, this time the supposed "sure thing" did materialize and, as you can see from these photographs, we had great views of a large flock along with a few dozen Pine Siskins and a couple of Mountain Chickadees.

I really needed my wider angle lens - less than a fifth of one flock of Gray-crowned Rosy Finches, Leucosticte tephrocotis

The particularly neat thing about this sighting is that the flock contained both of the two main subspecies (out of 6+) of this type of Rosy-finch.  The littoralis subspecies ("Hepburn's Rosy-Finch") and the nominate tephrocotis subspecies are both fairly migratory and since western Alberta is close to the overlap of their ranges it's not surprising to see them together.  Why are there so many subspecies?  The most likely explanation is their breeding habitat, which puts small populations in relatively isolated alpine and island locales.  This reduces gene flow between the groups, particularly the four less widespread subspecies.  Drawing meaningful taxonomic lines is challenging and some scientists consider the whole Rosy-finch complex (3 North American and 1 Asian species) to be a single species.  This conclusion is supported to some extent by the extensive hybridization observed and by DNA sequencing.  In any case it's an interesting example of the complexities of avian genetics.  Here are a few pictures from Exshaw showing the key differences (click to enlarge as usual).

Leucosticte tephrocotis tephrocotis - note the gray crown which stops at the eyeline

Leucosticte tephrocotis littoralis - aka. "Hepburn's Rosy-Finch", note the completely gray head

On reviewing my pictures later in the day, I realized that by pure luck I had both subspecies in the same frame on one shot

Hope you enjoyed these finches as much as I did!

Information for this post taken from Dunn and Alderfer's Field Guide to the Birds of North America, 6th ed. (great subspecies maps!) and Kaufman's Lives of North American Birds.

A New View on the Local Patch

My local patch, just a couple of blocks from my house, is Confederation Park.  This past week I picked up a new teleconverter - an attachment that goes between the camera body and lens on an SLR camera to increase the magnification of the lens.  The park can be good for songbirds, small birds of prey, and miscellaneous "inner city" waterfowl so it seemed like a good place to try out my new purchase.  This being February there wasn't a huge amount to be seen but I did find a flock of House Finches (first of the year - no, I haven't been out much!), before biking downtown via Prince's Island where there were several hundred Mallards with a few Canada Geese that seemed happy to pose.

Female House Finch, Carpodacus mexicanus

A male counterpart in the same bush

"Who's the fairest goose of all?"

Adding some more glass hasn't made this lens any less pin sharp - if you enlarge the image you can see the reflection of the city skyline in this lady Mallard's eye 

For the photogeeks, this is the teleconverter in question.

I'm using it with a 300mm f4 lens.  This type of teleconverter results in the loss of one aperture stop - in other words you get half as much light into the camera - so the effective result is a 420mm f5.6 lens that remains relatively compact.  I look forward to getting more practice in San Diego and on Vancouver Island over the next couple of months.

Christmas Bird Count Continued

As promised, a few more Christmas Bird Count images to brighten up your mid-week.  More on Flickr if you're interested and Dan Arndt posted his own recollections of our count over on the Birds Calgary blog.

Our count group in the Weaselhead

Common Redpolls busy feeding

Hairy Woodpecker hammering away

A fairly appalling photo of a lifer juvenile Northern Goshawk

I believe I already mentioned there were a LOT of Pine Grosbeaks (male above, female "on approach")

Christmas Bird Count

I joined 5 other birders for the 60th Annual Calgary Area Christmas Bird Count today.  We had a terrific day out exploring South Glenmore Park and the Weaselhead in lovely warm winter weather.  This year continues to be a great one for finches with dozens and dozens of Pine Grosbeaks.  We also found a few pleasant surprises such as Northern Goshawk, Hoary Redpoll, Ruffed Grouse, and Boreal Chickadee.  Here are a few photos with comments as necessary - I'll post some more later in the week.  I have also uploaded some to my Flickr account and Dan Arndt said he would be doing likewise in the next day or two.

If the day had a "theme" bird, I think this was it.  I forget the final tally but we certainly saw a lot more than the 6 Pine Grosbeaks of last year's count!

A single Boreal Chickadee tagging along with half a dozen Black-capped gave me best ever views of this species.

A pair of Ruffed Grouse flushed up into the trees as we walked along a trail beside the reservoir.  The intricate pattern of this bird's feathers is remarkable.

We engaged in what John Acorn refers to as "the Great Redpoll Debate" but remain confident that this is a Hoary Redpoll (in front of a Common) based on the white tail coverts, broad white band on the wing, and overall "frostier" appearance.

A Short Walk in Inglewood

A warm sunny evening led to a short post-work stroll around Inglewood Bird Sanctuary on Thursday and I found a couple of rarities along with good views of some of the "usual suspects".  I'll let the photos tell the story...

Over the clatter of three Belted Kingfishers, I hear a House Finch, (Carpodacus mexicanus),  I wonder if I can get a better  photo from the other side....

....looks like no!

 Ducks in love...

American Wigeon pair, Anas americana

Common Merganser pair, Mergus merganser

Mallard pair, Anas platyrhynchos

Redhead pair, Aythya americana

Wood Duck, Aix sponsa, two males - waiting for love?

Walking along the trail a robin-sized bird with a flash of tan on its wing flies across the trail.  I wonder if I'm going to get my first decent look at....

...yep!  The enigmatically named Townsend's Solitaire, Myadestes townsendi

and again from behind.

Arriving at the river a quick scan reveals not very much of interest, except one of those Goldeneyes on the far side looks a little out of place.  Crescent shaped white in front of the eye, steeper sloped forehead, bill a little shorter, must be a...

....Barrow's Goldeneye, Bucephala islandica

Better views on take-off and in flight seem to support this conclusion.  Sorry about the lousy photos - digiscoping equipment is in the budget for the next couple of months - all photos can be clicked to enlarge for marginally better views!

I made out 1 male and 3 female Barrow's Goldeneyes, with the larger white area on the wings of the male Common Goldeneye in the upper right of this image clearly highlighting the differences.