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.

Birding When You Can't Bird

Two weeks of silence on this blog correlates to two weeks of little to no birding for me.  A big flock of Common Grackle's moving through the neighbourhood were a treat (and a new NMT bird) while walking the dog.  A Blue Jay was a colourful and relatively rare sight in urban Calgary.  And a Bald Eagle made a majestic low pass over our raft when I was out with my students on the river on Friday - it was nice to see Grade 8's getting excited about birds.  Anyway, those are slim pickings for migration season but the new school year and some busy goings-on at home have kept the scope in the cupboard and the field guide on the shelf.

All this inactivity has got me thinking about ways we enjoy birds when, for whatever set of reasons, we can't actually go out and "bird".  The first, and for many people only, point of engagement with wild birds are feeders.  My own experience with these in Alberta has been somewhat frustrating.  With memories of vast flocks of American Goldfinch swarming over the niger seed at my Mom and Dad's house in Ontario, when we moved into this house I gamely hung feeders in the front and back yards filled with bags of supermarket bird seed.  This did not go well.  The front yard was largely the domain of House Sparrows, with the occasional brave Black-capped Chickadee and Rock Pigeons picking over the mess underneath.  The backyard was just House Sparrows.

With some help from the experts at The Wild Bird Store, on Macleod Trail , I now have a plan.  With three feeders, all in the backyard, there is one place for the inescapable House Sparrows to fill up on millet (on the plus side, I'm feeding the Merlins too!)  The two feeders closer to the house hold high quality nuthatch and chickadee mix and a finch friendly mix.  As you can see, the results have been positive.

A young House Finch, Carpodacus mexicanus

Adult House Finch (on the right) seems prepared to brave the aggressive sparrows...

...but the sparrows don't like that

By far the best views I've had of a Pine Siskin, Spinus pinus, and looking forward to more over the winter

It will be interesting to see what sort of birds I can attract once winter begins.  In any case I will keep the blog updated with any worthwhile photos.

On the topic of photos, I'll have another post in the next few days highlighting another way to bird when you can't bird and showcase a few talented fellow Albertan photographers.

Fall Migrants at Namaka Lake

"Of course as soon as the first snow hits, everything just disappears"

That's a comment overheard at the last Nature Calgary Bird Study Group meeting.  As we approach late September in Alberta there is a certain inevitability to the first snowfall and it will indeed chase away many lingering migrants.  With an uncertain and dwindling number of good migratory birding days left, I've been trying to squeeze in a few trips.

On Friday morning I managed to swing by Confederation Park on my way to school.  Large flocks of Wilson's and Yellow-rumped Warblers were a nice way to start the day.  My NMT list (explanation here) grew as well, with Orange-crowned Warbler, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, and (with the help of some experienced fellow birders) a Red-eyed Vireo.

Red-eyed Vireo looks like it means business!  Image From Flickr Creative Commons taken by SeabrookeLeckie.com

Feeling suitably pumped up by that experience I dragged myself out of bed in the dark this morning and headed out to Namaka Lake, 70km SE of the city near Strathmore.  This is a designated Important Bird Area and a spot that I had been wanting to check out for some time.  Namaka certainly made a great first impression.  A fiery sunrise lit up the sky ahead of me all the way there and I arrived at the east access point five minutes before the sun broke the horizon.  As I walked towards the lake the grass was lit up golden brown.  I couldn't resist the urge to stride through stands that were five feet high, with the loaded ears bouncing off my chest sending seeds for next year flying out in all directions.  

Overblown pastoral prose aside, the lighting was pretty great for the birds too.  One of the first that I saw was a Le Conte's Sparrow.  A life bird for me and, based on my reading back at home, an amazingly cooperative example of its kind!

Le Conte's Sparrow, click to enlarge, image colour has not been manipulated - the sunrise was just this awesome! 

On the lake itself there was no shortage of bird life either.  A few late shorebirds were hanging around the shoreline: a flock of Semipalmated Sandpipers hanging out with a couple of Lesser Yellowlegs, and a few Killdeer scattered around.  The waterfowl were much more numerous with American Coot, and three Grebe species (Eared, Horned, and Western) being particularly noticeable.  The real treat on the water though was the American White Pelicans.

I know it's out of focus but this image cracks me up for some reason.  American White Pelican and a family of Ruddy Ducks

 The flocks of pelicans gorging themselves was quite a sight and I captured some digiscope video.

The video looks pretty decent in fullscreen.  Sorry about the sniffling - it was a cool but great morning of birding!

Fallout

Last week was the first week of school - 3 days of meetings and planning followed by 2 days of new kids, new classes, and new routines makes for an exciting and busy week.  That should explain the lack of posts, as well as the monumentally poor timing (from my perspective!) of 36 straight hours of rain resulting in a substantial fallout in the Calgary area.

What is a fallout?  In birding terms, fallout refers to a weather system that grounds migratory birds and/or forces seabirds to land.  A recent example is the frenetic birding on the east coast as a result of Hurricane Irene which merited its own blog.  You can also read a nice summary of the hurricane birding to be found here.  White-tailed Tropicbirds and South Polar Skuas are fantastic birds for New England (or anywhere?) but there were also some remarkable science stories that emerged from this storm.  I was particularly struck by this tale of a radio-tagged Whimbrel, which flew more or less straight through the hurricane and emerged unscathed.

While our recent wet weather was considerably less dramatic than a Category 3 hurricane, the resulting clouds of warblers and vireos delighted local birders.  A particularly nice spot to catch migrating songbirds is an area of shrubby wetland in Confederation Park (click on the link at the top of this post for a map).  One observer reported eleven species of warbler on his morning commute around this location while another added Chestnut-sided Warbler to the list on the same day.  This area has the added bonus of being my "local patch" - a short walk from work and home.

Can you find 11 species of warbler in this photo?  (Photo taken with smartphone)

Joking aside, I didn't even have time to grab my camera but just headed straight over to the park after school to see what I could find.  Fall warblers are really not an area of strength in my birding skill set but there was much to see.  The bushes were jumping with tiny birds, busily refuelling for the next leg of their migration.  I was able to positively identify Wilson's Warbler, Tennessee Warbler, American Redstart, Northern Waterthrush, Blackpoll Warbler, and Yellow-rumped Warbler, several of which are new NMT (non-motorized transport) birds for me.  Other highlights included a pair of handsomely streaked Lincoln's Sparrows and a Rose-breasted Grosbeak.  This last bird was an Alberta first for me and a special species, as it was partially responsible for getting me into birding in the first place (read under "About Me" for more details).

Not bad for a half-hour of neighbourhood birding and whenever there is poor weather bringing the potential of fallout, I will remember to get out and investigate.

Looking for Warblers at the Bird Sanctuary

I joined a Nature Calgary outing to look for fall migrants at the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary.  After a slow start we eventually found 5 species of warbler: Yellow-rumped, Yellow, Blackpoll, Wilson's and Northern Waterthrush (which is of course, not a thrush).  There were a host of other great birds to be had, as can be seen below (click any image to enlarge)

Immature Great Blue Heron sitting on the rail within a few yards of us! 

Another immature, this one a Baltimore Oriole

Northern Rough-winged Swallow - dozens of them sitting on bushes by the water 

By far the best views I've had of Warbling Vireo - half-decent photos too!

Same vireo again, foraging in the branches

Western Wood Pewee - nice to have an expert guide to help sort out the Flycatchers

The only warbler I managed to photograph.  What species is this....?

...Yellow-rumped!  This is a hatch year bird.

Fish Creek NMT Birding

A nice sunny Thursday led to a great bike ride along the Bow River.  I took the C-train (Calgary's light rail transit) down to Fish Creek Provincial Park in the city's south and then rode home along the river.  It was a great opportunity to increase my NMT list (Non-Motorized Transport), for which I'm allowing myself transit use, as long as I return home under my own power - this seems within the spirit of low impact birding.  Here's my route back from the LRT station.  The distance was actually about 45km but the online map cuts the corners and I didn't want to pinpoint my house on a public google map!

View Fish Creek to Home via Bow River Pathway in a larger map

This route passes through a lot of Calgary's birding hotspots, mostly riverside poplar stands and some open grassland areas.  Here's what I saw along with some photos.

The first birds to pop in to view were Rock Pigeons and House Sparrows, but I soon found a more interesting Brown-Headed Cowbird juvenile which was waiting for food from some unsuspecting host.  A Northern Flicker was nearby and calling to its mate as it circled around a tall snag.  I then headed to the creek, finding friendly Black-capped Chickadees as well as Downy Woodpeckers and a White-breasted Nuthatch.  In the creek itself, this family of Common Mergansers were learning how to find food and navigate the swift water.

"Hey Mom, what are you looking at?"

"Follow me kids!"

Further down the creek I discovered a small colony of Bank Swallows and set up the scope to have a good look from a discreet distance.  I tried to digiscope a couple of shots but met with limited success on the swallows, although a nearby Spotted Sandpiper gave better results.

Is that Bigfoot? A UFO?  The second gunman behind the grassy knoll?  No, it's a Bank Swallow!

The Spotted Sandpiper worked out a lot better!

Continuing east towards the river, I saw an Osprey flying overhead and then a Swainson's Hawk high up over the south edge of the valley.  There were many flycatchers working an open area of meadow surrounded by poplars and Eastern Phoebe and Least Flycatcher were both identifiable, as were small flocks of Cedar Waxwings and a pair of American Goldfinch.  Watching over the whole area from a wire perch was this American Kestrel.

American Kestrel

Arriving at Hull's Wood and the boat launch on the Bow River, the kestrel's cousin the Merlin was high up in a tree, as well as the first American Robin of the day.  Close to the river there were many small songbirds evident such as Yellow Warblers and Clay-coloured Sparrows.   There were also tricky to identify immatures and fleeting glimpses such as the backside of what was probably a vireo.  On the upside there were several House Wrens which were both bold and vocal - my general sense was of a nervous breeding pair with some fairly mature and curious youngsters.

House Wren

Having taken about two and half hours to ride less than ten kilometres, I unfortunately needed to pick up the pace a little and headed up the Bow River.  There was still much to see: a Double Crested Cormorant flew up the river and an American White Pelican was heading in the opposite direction.  There were the usual Mallards and Canada Geese on the river and, just before I left the park, there were two Eastern Kingbirds, perched on the only piece of tall shrubbery in the middle of a huge meadow in Bankside.  A pair of Gray Catbirds were "meowing" to each other on the edge of a shallow pond and more Least Flycatchers were hunting nearby.

Gray Catbird

At Carburn Park, there were Common Goldeneye and Chipping Sparrows to add to the list as I rode through and a Bald Eagle on the far bank of the river - they are always worth stopping for.  Heading up the Western Headworks Canal, more sandpipers prowled the banks while a lone Hooded Merganser was hunting in the water and Cliff Swallows swooped under the bridges.  Rejoining the Bow River at Pearce Estates, another small pond revealed Red-winged Blackbirds and Tree Swallows, and the weir improvements had a flock of Ring-billed Gulls.  

That about wrapped up the day except for American Crows and remarkably the first Black-billed Magpies  of the day, which I managed to ride 44.6 of 44.9 km back to my house without seeing!  A surprising end to a relaxed day of birding and exercise.

Black Bird Down

The Black-billed Magpies nesting in the spruce tree in front of our house were unusually noisy the other day - every time we went in or out of the door they were positively screaming at us from the eavestrough.  In the evening, I had a few minutes to poke around in the rain to figure out what the fuss was all about and under our neighbour's hedge this little fledgling was hiding.

Black-billed Magpie, Pica hudsonia, fledgling

Given the number of outdoor cats in our neighbourhood I didn't feel optimistic about this young bird's chances, although Mom and Dad were clearly going to be pretty serious about defending it.  There was no sign of the fledgling the next day and the parents had settled down.  I've read that fledglings are much more capable of flight and/or self-defense than we generally assume so perhaps it made it through after all?

What's going on down there?

No pictures please!

Back in the saddle...

Literally!  After a family emergency and a persistent out-of-season cold I managed to get out again for the first time since the May species count day.  As usual it was a short after-work bike ride that did the trick and I headed down to Edworthy Park, then back along the south side of the river, through Lawrey Gardens.  There is a decent size colony of Cliff Swallows under the pedestrian bridge at Edworthy.  It was fun to stand on the bridge and have them swoop just a few meters away, although the best views of the nests were to be had from the riverbank (or what's left of it during this peak meltwater time).

Under the bridge - nests visible through the upper circle and at the top of the frame

Zooming in - Cliff Swallow, Petrochelidon pyrrhonota, in centre

and zooming in again (a bad digital crop)

There were more swallows to be found further along the trail, in this case Tree Swallows perching and presumably nesting in the dead trees along the river bank.  The Cedar Waxwings are back in force now too - I saw 5 individuals today and heard a few more, although neither the numbers nor the noise matched up with the flock in our yard and alley on the weekend.  Yellow Warblers were also vocal and numerous but the real treat of the day came, as is so often the case, just when it was time to head home.

As I was biking along a few hundred metres west of Crowchild Trail there was flash of gray across the trail and, as I screeched to a stop, a Gray Catbird alit on branch by the trail and then disappeared into the undergrowth.  It turned out to be a pair and a likely nest.  Perhaps unsurprisingly, given their proximity to the busy bike path, they were quite relaxed and cooperative and I had great views and managed to get a couple of decent shots in the shady undergrowth.

Gray Catbird, Dumetella carolinensis 

All in all a nice hour or so of weekday birding and great to be out enjoying the birds on a sunny day again.

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.

C.S.I.: Ornithology

The past week has been a slow one for both birding and blogging as school has been busy and various members of the family have been fighting colds.  On the bright side we're all doing much better than the bird below, whose remains I found earlier in the week in Queen's Park.

I was looking for a reported Varied Thrush but all I found was a whole bunch of American Robins that frustratingly kept looking exactly like Varied Thrushes out of the corner of my eye.  There were also Kinglets calling (and responding to an iPhone recording - hurrah for iBird!) but remaining firmly out of view - disappointing as I'm not counting heard birds for my Alberta list.  Anyway, the mess of feathers was an interesting find and here are a couple more pictures.  See if you can figure out what happened, I'll explain my theory, and then you can let me know what you think in the comments.

This is the branch above and slightly to the left of the path

My thought was that the feathers were in a relatively neat circle suggesting that they had been dropped from the low perch above the remains.  Looking at that perch closer up, there was some blood as well as other tissue.  Perhaps more tellingly, there was some bird faecal matter and clear scratch marks, which seemed too small for a hawk-sized bird but much too large for a merlin.  The creek at the north end of the cemetery, where I found this scene, has tall deciduous trees above a narrow gully lined with spruce trees - perfect hunting territory for an accipiter.

With those observations in mind, I think the bird was a Rock Pigeon killed by a Sharp-shinned Hawk, which enjoyed it's meal on the low branch across the trail.  That's obviously just a bit of harmless speculation but I think it's fun to try a little bit of nature interpretation.

In any case, it's clear that this bird met with a "fowl" end.