Last weekend I joined a small group of intrepid birders in braving the rain and heading out to explore Bowmont Natural Environment Park. This park is on the north bank of the Bow River, below the community of Varsity in northwest Calgary (click on the location above for a map). There is some great birding habitat in this area: riparian habitat, small ponds, deciduous woodland, and shrubby ravines. The area is actually scheduled for redevelopment to reduce the impact of dogs on the river and to reintegrate the old gravel pit into the natural park, among other goals. You can check out the redevelopment plan and, for the next couple of weeks, provide feedback on the City of Calgary website.
As was to be expected with the intermittent, at times heavy rain, the light was not very good for photography but I did get a few decent shots, as captioned below. There's also a species list at the bottom of this post which is probably fairly typical for this area at this time of year, although Violet-Green Swallow and Common Yellowthroat were nice treats and we were surprised not to hear any Warbling Vireo.
Osprey, Pandion haliaetus, bringing nesting material back to a platform beside the riverbank
Lincoln's Sparrow, Melospiza lincolnii, is differentiated from other Melospiza sparrows by gray "eyebrow" and slightly buffy sides, finer streaking on the breast, and of course voice.
Downy Woodpeckers, Picoides pubescens, don't always come to the hand even in the winter, so it was a nice surprise to have a visit from this male.
This White-crowned Sparrow, Zonotricha leucophrys, was clearly a male - indistinguishable by appearance but singing boldly while his mate was keeping a low profile further down in the bush.
There were lots of Grey Catbirds, Dumetella carolinensis,mewing from inside the silverberry bushes. They don't just do cat impressions either - also Robin, Flycatcher, Kinglet, and on and on. Check this out...
The Winter List is traditionally kept between December 1st
and February 28th and records all the species seen between those
dates in the designated area. The Alberta Provincial list is usually about 120-150 species, with traditional winter
residents such as Bohemian Waxwings, American Tree Sparrows, and of course
Snowy Owls keeping company on the list with more rare winter hangers-on like
the Northern Shoveler at Weed Lake and a vagrant Northern Mockingbird in
Vulcan.
Snowy Owl, Bubo scandiacus, near Mossleigh, Alberta
What have I been up to over the last couple of months? Not much blogging and only a little bit
of birding with the Friends of Fish Creek winter birding course. Nevertheless, as of the end of the
winter listing period, I was up to fifty species for the year so far. The big question today is: why does the
list end on February 28th? To illustrate my point, here are the conditions in front of our house yesterday (March 3rd)…
Snowy weather in Calgary
Even in these kind of harsh conditions, evidence of birds is
everywhere. Judging from the
noise, the nicely sculpted tree pictured below was sheltering
a dozen or more House Sparrows and a few Black-capped Chickadees in front of a neighbour's house. Between the dense foliage and the layer
of snow, I suspect they were cozier than I was! (I should probably mention that
two of the birders over at Birds Calgary were actually out birding in this and turned up a dozen species)
Winter is clearly not yet done here in Alberta but signs of
spring are all around. On this
past Saturday’s bird group outing we had Mallards and Common Goldeneye
vigourously courting and copulating in the river, we saw our first starlings of the year, and several of the magpies we saw
were carrying nesting material.
A winter Black-billed Magpie, Pica hudsonia
I’ll be taking a break from the course for the spring
session. This change should leave
a little more time for photography and blogging, as well as home life. I’m also interested to see how early
morning starts and smaller groups impact the birds I see, although I’ll
certainly miss the group birding and learning experience. Whatever birds I see, there’ll
certainly be more time to share with you!
A highlight of the winter session - a digiscoped Barrow's Goldeneye, Bucephala islandica, at Carburn Park showing two of it's most obvious identification traits: a steeper peaked head with shorter bill than Common Goldeneye and the crescent shaped white patch in front of the eye.
Some of my childhood was spent in Ontario and I clearly remember seeing Pileated Woodpeckers a few times in the forests around Peterborough and Ottawa, mostly while out cross-country skiing. When I started keeping track of my bird sightings a few years ago, I assumed it would be a quick addition to my Alberta list. No such luck! Eventually I followed some advice to Griffith Woods in early March of this year and got my "tick" - a quick disappointing flash of distinctive white underwing vanishing into the trees across the Elbow River. With that backdrop in mind, you may understand why I was approaching this past weekend's Friends of Fish Creek Birding in Bebo Grove, where Pileateds had been reported all week, with more than the usual excitement.
The first thirty minutes of our outing was extremely quiet with a handful of Black-billed Magpies, Pine Grosbeaks, Black-capped Chickadees, and a flyover Sharp-shinned Hawk.
A Sharp-shinned Hawk (possibly the same bird), Accipiter striatus, that we connected with later in the morning
Eventually we made it to the creek where we enjoyed the company of Brown Creepers, Boreal and Black-capped Chickadees, and Golden-crowned Kinglets. Unnoticed by the main group, the star of the show - a Pileated Woodpecker - flew across the creek behind us and alit on a trunk right in front of three birders who had lingered by the water. As soon as they got our attention it flew off downstream, landing among some picnic tables that were a more comfortable distance from our mob of nearly two dozen birders.
More deeply unsatisfying views of my nemesis (this is a 420mm lens) - right in the centre of the frame, apparently headless!
Given the woodpecker's tolerance of birders earlier in the week, I decided to play a hunch and headed off by myself to make a giant (and hopefully nonthreatening) loop around through the trees to get the sun behind me and hopefully to move closer to the bird. As you can see from these photos, it worked...
Male Pileated Woodpecker, Dryocopus pileatus
Pileated Woodpeckers are, probably needless to say, the largest of North American woodpeckers, about the size of a crow. They chisel away at trees with their large powerful beaks, often foraging close to the ground where they excavate rectangular holes to feed on ants and other insects inside the tree. The whole woodpecker family has evolved a number of fascinating adaptations to enable this feeding behaviour: stout bills with an elastic layer of tissue between bill and skull bones, long barbed tongues that curl around the back the skull, nasal tuft feathers (visible above) that protect their nostrils from flying wood chips, and stiffened central tail feather shafts (visible below) that help prop the bird up on the trunk.
Going up!
That was the main excitement of the morning - certainly no Citrine Wagtail or Hepatic Tanager but a stunning bird and an important sighting for me. We concluded our morning by heading down to the westernmost bridge in the park, on the off chance of an American Dipper, but "settled" for the first Common Redpolls of the season, along with more friendly Black-capped Chickadees and a particularly characterful Red Squirrel.
This weekend's Friends of Fish Creek Park outing headed to South Glenmore Park, where our focus was on songbirds. We were particularly interested in locating a hybrid Rose-breasted x Black-headed Grosbeak that had been sighted in the area. The clouds cleared by the end of our morning and we spent about three hours traipsing through the forest in the near constant company of Least Flycatchers, Yellow Warblers, and Red-eyed Vireos loudly marking out their territories.
On my way to meet the group, I stopped by the sailing club on the south edge of the reservoir. The water level is still very low as the city prepares for forecasted high river levels. There were hundreds of gulls, predominantly Franklin's Gulls, along with Ring-billed, feeding on the mud as well as Great Blue Herons and the usual selection of waterfowl. I snapped this terrible digiscoped image to give you a sense of what this all looked like - imagine another 3 frames of the same stitched on the left hand side of the image:
Once we started walking, a Least Flycatcher was among the first birds to give good views to all participants. I think it was somewhat frustrating for some novice birders to locate such a drab bird in the dark understory but once we were all on the little flycatcher he put on a good show feeding and calling loudly.
Least Flycatcher, Empidonax minimus, photo from Brooks, May 2012, not on this trip
We walked on through the forest and heard Veery singing from the bushes. A new species for me but definitely on the "BVD" (better view desired!) list. Here's a recording of the song from xeno-canto. Our leaders for the outing gave two descriptions of the call which seemed to me a very accurate characterization - the song sounds like the bird is "winding down" and "singing from the bottom of a rain barrel". You can actually see the winding down part in the sonogram.
Eventually we reached an overlook with well stocked bird feeders. These attracted Pine Siskins, White-breasted Nuthatch, American Goldfinch, Brown-headed Cowbird, Clay-coloured Sparrow, and another visitor which you will see below. Here are a few photos taken at the feeders before we returned by the same route.
Female Brown-headed Cowbird, Molothrus ater
Enjoying some niger seed, a Pine Siskin, Spinus pinus (isn't that a fantastic latin name)
Clay-coloured Sparrow, Spizella pallida
At one point there were three of these Red Squirrels, along with a Least Chipmunk, enjoying the sunflower seeds on and under the railing.
But what about that Grosbeak? We had seen nothing and heard little by the time we made it back to the parking lot but two of the group had taken a slight detour and found the bird singing right beside the main bike pathway. Once I heard this I went back by myself and soon heard the bird in the spot they had described. Rose-breasted Grosbeaks sound like "Robins in a hurry":
However, in a moment of classic birding frustration, despite the continuous singing within 30 feet of my face, I could not see the source of this distinctive song. So, in conclusion, did we find the elusive hybrid? Fourteen birders did not, two saw the bird as clear as day, and one (I) heard a Grosbeak right in front of me, grudgingly checked it off my list, and want to return for another look soon.
The last couple of weeks have been a little hectic. My grandfather in England passed away peacefully at the age of 91. I went over for the funeral and that had the roll on effect of putting me behind at school, just as report cards are coming due. Nonetheless, I'm really glad I was able to go over and, as this is a nature blog, I should mention that there was some good birding in the UK. I will post more on Granddad and the British birds at a later date.
In the here and now, it was nice to rejoin the Friends of Fish Creek Provincial Park birding group after a two week absence. Last weekend we looked around Bowmont Park and this week we went back to the Weaselhead Natural Area to look for Calliope and Rufous hummingbirds. These smallest of birds once again proved to be great ambassadors for birding and the session was very well attended despite the recent heavy rains and muddy trails. Here are a few photos from the day:
Strictly an ID photo! This profile view shows the purple and white throat streaks characteristic of a male Calliope Hummingbird, Stellula calliope. This is the smallest bird species in North America, north of Mexico.
A somewhat clearer image of a Rufous Hummingbird, Selasphorous rufus, showing its buffy red flanks and shimmering orange-red gorget (throat feathers).
In the same bushy riverside area where we found the Rufous Hummingbirds there were lots of very approachable Cedar Waxwings, Bombycilla cedrorum. These ones had pulled a flower from a caragana bush and...
...were passing it back and forth between them, an activity that helps to strengthen bonds between mates and within flocks. Both of these images also show the red waxy droplets on the wings, from which we derived their name.
The Eastern Phoebe we had seen back in April was now a pair with a nest under the bridge. This individual waited for us to move on before delivering the package in its beak to the waiting young.
I'm out of the province at the moment but wanted to leave behind something for the week. This past holiday weekend we returned to Kinbrook Island near Brooks for a family camping trip. Our two year old daughter had her first tent camping experience and everyone had a relaxing, if slightly sleep deprived, weekend. As I have written previously, Kinbrook Island Provincial Park is a wonderful birding location combining prairie grassland, prairie wetland, and deciduous woodland habitats to create a real migrant trap. For the most part, I was not actively birding - well I guess I always am, but you know what I mean - and we still saw nearly 50 species, including 11 "first of year". Here are a few photos - as always, click any image for a slideshow:
Kinbrook Island has a healthy population of Tree Swallows, nesting in tree cavities all around the campground. Perhaps the apparent absence of Starlings is helping them to be more successful here than some Calgary city locations.
Baltimore Orioles were present in much larger numbers than I remember from last year. Sometimes there were four or five birds chasing and calling to each other immediately above our tent site.
I associate Mourning Doves strongly with growing up in Ontario, where we could have half a dozen picking up seeds from under our feeders. Their call is a nice soothing sound to wake up to.
There were probably a lot more warblers to be seen, given more time to quietly look for them. That being said, this is the best look I've ever had at a Tennessee Warbler.
Yellow Warblers were all over the campground, seemingly calling from every other tree.
Warbling Vireos have also returned, searching for insects in the poplars
Our weekend gave me first of year sightings of both common Alberta Kingbirds - Eastern and this Western Kingbird
The Western Kingbirds were putting on a good show - drawing the attention of even the non-birders with their noisy fighting and displaying above our heads.
The past weekend began with the fourth Saturday of the Friends of Fish Creek Park Spring Birding Course. I was a little tired out after a week in the Gulf Islands with thirty-two of my Junior High students but made this an "NMT" outing by biking to the reservoir, which is why all images in this post are through a scope. It was certainly worth the effort as the weather was lovely with the sun periodically peaking out from between the clouds. We were entertained by a pair of Red-breasted Nuthatches emptying wood chips from their nest hole and, despite the songbirds being a little thin on the ground, we also watched a Ruby-crowned Kinglet singing boldly from the top of a tall spruce.
Unfortunately I didn't capture the nest cavity cleaning process in the above video but it's nice to see breeding behaviour in action anyway
South Glenmore Park is a mix of many habitat types: a stand of old growth spruce trees borders on aspen parkland which in turn borders on fragments of boreal forest in the Weaselhead Natural Area. Alongside these woodlands there are grassy fields, a river delta, and of course the reservoir itself. It was there where we found much of the bird activity with twenty-eight species on or beside the water, twelve of which were Alberta "first of year" for me, plus a life bird - the Say's Phoebe.
My life Say's Phoebe, Sayornis saya, seems much less interested in me than I am in him
The reservoir itself was covered in birds which gave great scope (and closer) views. The variety of waterfowl made for a productive learning experience for the participants as we were able to pick out and compare species. A Canvasback paddled around beside some Redheads, two pairs of Ring-necked Ducks hung out with a small flock of Lesser Scaup, and so on. Our group was perhaps most impressed by the Western Grebes, which were actively feeding and calling just a hundred metres or less from our viewpoint.
The Western Grebe, Aechmophorus occidentals, appears both stately and savage.
As is often the case, I learned a valuable bird identification lesson myself, in the form of a flock of thirty gulls with black heads that flew across the reservoir and landed on the far side. "More Franklin's!", I called out, assuming that they would match the hundred or so that were already there. "Bonaparte's Gulls", corrected our group's leader. Not exactly a rookie mistake - they are pretty close - but I should have known better and not made the immediate logical assumption, particularly as just four days earlier I had sailed through a flock of 5000+ Bonaparte's out on the West Coast. Birding is certainly a hobby where jumping to conclusions is all too easy!
Bonaparte's Gull, Chroicocephalus philadelphia, not on Glenmore Reservoir, but earlier in the week in the rain of the Gulf Islands.
In spite of this minor setback, I thoroughly enjoyed the morning's birding and am looking forward to next week's outing. More on the West Coast to follow in May...
Here's a list of species seen on this outing (plus two en route marked with *):
Yesterday morning was the second Saturday of the Friends of Fish Creek Park spring birding course. With temperatures around 0°C and a bitter wind blowing snow from the north, the turnout was a little lower than last week but we enjoyed some good birding and stayed out for the full three hours. If there was a theme to the outing, it was "birds in trees". This probably seems somewhat trite but as you can see from the photos below there really were some birds hanging out in unusual spots, high in branches and dead trunks around the Fish Creek boat launch. Two of the bloggers from Birds Calgary lead the Sunday morning outing and you can read about their observations from last week here.
The "as advertised" highlights were the two Great Horned Owl nests in this area of Fish Creek Park. Here's Dad keeping watch near one of the nest trees. The video below shows his mate on their nest at the top of a tall dead stump.
Other bird species also take advantage of the snags, hollows, and stumps in the surrounding forest to find nest cavities.
This is business as usual for a Hairy Woodpecker, excavating a nest hole (obscured by the bird's head)
Like the owls, Canada Goose Dad stand's guard while...
...Mom sits on the nest
Wood Ducks, this one a female, are one species of waterfowl that you might expect to find in a tree, although I've not often seen one quite so high up or quite so far out on a branch.
Why do all these birds nest in trees? Here's one excellent reason...
I was far too busy enjoying watching this Coyote hunting in the undergrowth just thirty yards away to get a good photo. Still, it's no surprise that all the geese were up high.
The one sighting of note from a biogeographical standpoint were American Pipits. They have been spotted in this area most days this week - migrating through to their mountain breeding grounds. We had not seen any all morning until an eagle-eyed Rob Worona checked a section of rocky ground beside the river. The flock let us approach to within a few yards, I snapped the photos below and we counted about 30 individuals. Then they took off and we realized that 80 birds had been hiding in the rocks in front of us. Remarkable!
Three remarkably rock-coloured American Pipits
A snowed-in American Pipit
As you can see, a productive morning of birding. To conclude, I'll leave you with the list of species seen and a shot of one of our most elegant birds, the Tundra Swan...
...at its most elegant ;)
31 species total heard/seen - passerines were keeping a low profile in the wind and snow!
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:
