Purple Martins' Majesty

Another school year is finished with a mad flurry of activity but CalgaryBirder now finds himself enjoying vacation sunshine on the west side of Vancouver Island.  En route, we spent two rainy days in North Vancouver and I took the opportunity to checkout the Maplewood Flats Conservation Area.  This is considered to be a "must see" birding spot in BC's Lower Mainland and, as it's been well covered by local bloggers, I'll simply leave you with these two links and move on to the digiscoped photos:

1. Birding in Vancouver has a site guide with recommended trails, and,
2. BirdtrekkerBC has some photos and a species checklist

The species I particularly wanted to see were Purple Martins, which nest on the piers out on the mudflats.  So far I've missed these in Alberta - just haven't been in the right place at the right time.  There were certainly no trouble to find as they were bombing around the shoreline hunting and calling loudly.

Nestboxes out on the mudflats 

Purple Martins pausing for a rest between feedings.  The two birds with the pale faces are juveniles.

Other birds also make use of the piers (I think that's the right term?).   This is a Bald Eagle, like I needed to tell you that!

The "flats" part of Maplewood Flats looks like this.  I didn't see any shorebirds, as early July is the narrow window between northbound stragglers and southbound early-birds.  There were 6 Great Blue Herons, almost all in the arc of this photo.

Purple Martins weren't the only life bird for the morning.  Although I'm fairly certain I've seen this particular flycatcher before, I've never had the chance to confirm the ID, which is by song.  Anyway, here's the bird:

An Empidonax Flycatcher, but which one?

And here's the ID...

Handheld videoscoping doesn't give great results but it's the soundtrack that counts - "rrritz-bew" is unmistakably a Willow Flycatcher, common enough but still eluding me in Alberta.

I'm off on a sea kayaking trip tomorrow but will keep the blog updated with some more sightings, although if you want a sneak preview have a look under "Checklists".

Sparrows of South Calgary with Friends of Fish Creek

For this week's birding course our group met in the extreme south of the city.  Here the suburbs are quickly consuming the prairie along the Bow River and the landscape is rapidly changing.  A state-of-the-art water treatment plant has just been completed next to the new freeway bridge.  Two housing developments are being expanded, one on each side of the river, and a new golf course abuts the provincial park boundary.  We explored a strip of land that is being preserved against the river, where there are some decent sized islands providing refuges of habitat for various species.  Here's a map of our route:


View Pine Creek FFCPP Birding in a larger map

We enjoyed observing Ospreys and Bald Eagles nesting and feeding along the river but the highlight was probably the sparrows.  There were four species observed by the group and we had great practice identifying them by sight and sound.  I've included a photo of each along with an embedded sound file from the Xeno-Canto public archive.

The Clay-coloured Sparrow is often tricky to see and is easily identified by its call - a series of insect-like buzzes.  The unstreaked breast, grey nape, and buffy feathers behind and below the eye are good field marks visible in this photo.

There were lots of Savannah Sparrows, which are more visible than the other species often singing from the tops of fence posts or grass stalks.  Their song, a mixture of chirps and buzzing sounds tells us to "take, take it EAAAZZZY"!
 

This Song Sparrow popped into view close to the Clay-coloured pictured above.  Why isn't this another Savannah Sparrow? The lack of the yellow spot above the eye, the longer tail and the larger bill are all reasonable field marks but again what is distinctive is its voice.  These birds start with 2-4 distinct tones and then sings a lazy trill of notes.
  

The Vesper Sparrow was our last sparrow of the morning.  I heard one singing far off in the distance and eventually another member of the group picked out a bird several hundred metres away on top of a rock.  After setting up the scope we were able to confirm Vesper Sparrow with a similarly fuzzy image to the one above (which was actually taken near Strathmore on last year's May species count).  The song of the Vesper Sparrow often starts with one or two pairs of clear even-toned notes followed by a fast musical trill.Larkwire rather charmingly translates this as "oh, oh, my, my, it's-such-a-beautiful-day"

Weed Lake Shorebirds

This afternoon I headed out to Weed Lake, a short drive east of the city near the town of Langdon.  There had been reports of Black-crowned Night Heron, which would be a new bird for me.  This lake is also a decent spot for shorebirds.  As it turns out, with relatively high water levels in so many places in the province, there was much to be seen.  Here a few digiscoped images.

See how many species you can see in this photo (click to enlarge).  I put my answers at the bottom of this post, if you have any additions or subtractions to my list PLEASE let me know in the comments.

I was excited to see some Sanderling, a new bird for me.  I based my identification on size (compare to the Willet and ducks), the reddish breast with abrupt transition to a white belly, and the behaviour (remaining relatively far from the water and moving around very rapidly).  There are six of them lined up in the centre of this image, the Willet is the pale bird to the right.  These little sandpipers can be tough so if you have any suggestions, please let me know.

There were, of course, many waterfowl on the lake with rapidly growing young.  They included many species of duckling, huddling together in huge rafts far out on the lake...

... and some grebelings (a new term that I have just made up, although I'm probably not the first person to do so!).  In this case, they were Eared Grebes hanging out with a Ruddy Duck mom and three young - she is at the centre of the image.

After leaving the main body of the lake, I drove through some wetland to the south on the charmingly named Dead Horse Road.  A Great Blue Heron flushed from the side of the road, either startled by my van or by the three Red-winged Blackbirds that were in hot pursuit.  Fortunately the target species Black-crowned Night Herons were further from the road and apparently less threatening to the blackbirds.  I found a total of three birds hanging out in the reeds, two very close together, perhaps a breeding pair?

On my way home I saw this Solitary Sandpiper - it was far away from all the other sandpipers ;)

Answers to photo number one: I was able to ID Willet, Black-necked Stilt, Long-billed Dowitcher, Sanderling, Lesser Yellowlegs, Wilson's Phalarope, and Forster's Tern.  Your feedback is welcome. 

Lastly, I was able to get some video of some dowitchers doing their trademark sewing maching impersonation and will post it as soon as I have it uploaded.  Stay tuned!

Raptor Commute

Another sunny day meant another pleasantly meandering bike commute.  I headed for Confederation Park where I soon heard a harsh "jaaay, jaaay" from the bushes that took my mind back to Ontario.  Sure enough there was a Blue Jay, noisily foraging in the bushes.

Further down I met an experienced birder - really nice binoculars are a good sign of someone who might be able to teach me something!  He kindly put me on to an accipiter which he identified as a probable Cooper's Hawk.  I had some good views and snapped a few shots but, as I re-examine the photos, the size (11-13" based on the branch diameter) and the squareness of the tail have me thinking Sharp-shinned Hawk.  Comments would be appreciated as Cooper's would be a lifer for me so I am particularly wary on rushing to judgment.

Unidentified Accipiter, top image is 1/4 frame crop of 170mm image, bottom image is further crop from same, Click to Enlarge

Further along I found a Northern Flicker, looking very unconcerned about traffic, cyclists, or accipiters...

Northern Flicker, Colaptes auratus

...as well as this muskrat feeding in the creek.

Muskrat, Ondatra zibethicus

After picking the kids up I was heading up the 10th St. hill when I spotted a Merlin engaged in what I can only describe as a dogfight with an American Crow.  I watched these aerobatics for a moment, until they disappeared from view over the crest of the hill.  Rounding the corner at the top of hill and somewhat out of breath from the climb, I was pleasantly surprised to find a merlin, presumably the same bird, sitting in the top of a spruce tree.  A beautiful falcon and this one nicely showing off the paler brown of the prairie subspecies. 

Merlin, Falco columbarius (richardsonii)

 Not bad for an hour of cycle commuting!

West Coast Sailing 4: Larophilia

Gulls (Larids) are not everyone’s favorite bird – they’re loud, the steal food from people and other birds.  They are also one family of birds that has, on balance, benefited from human impacts on the environment, which probably means they are displacing other species in certain habitats.  And of course they poop.  A lot.  In one case on this trip, on one of my students.

With all that being said I think they are extremely cool birds.  They are intelligent and adaptable.  They are accomplished and graceful fliers.  They also, as I discovered in my bird rehab volunteer days, have an amazing gape to which this great photo barely does justice.

Source and License: Flickr Creative Commons, Photo by Ingrid Taylar

With that in mind, one of the things I wanted to do on this trip was try to sort out gull identification a little bit - Calgary is not really a gull hotspot!  Although I freely admit that a Thayer's or Iceland Gull could fly right in front of me and I would miss it, I think I've figured out a system that works for the more common species.  For example, dark iris + medium gray back + matching wingtips = Glaucous-winged Gull, here on the dock at South Pender Island.

Glaucous-winged Gull, Larus glaucescens

Of course the whole three-year gull thing, with partial molts and different plumages makes my head spin.  As far as I can make out the bird below, based on the heavy black bill and primaries matching the body colour is also a Glaucous-winged Gull, in this case a first winter bird.

Glaucous-winged Gull, Larus glaucescens

Lastly, while on the subject of gulls, we saw a neat phenomenon on the last night of the trip as we were anchored in Fulford Harbour.  There was a large flock of gulls and some alcids (auklets?) some way out in the channel, apparently feeding on a school of fish.  Over the course of an hour or so, as the fish moved closer to shore (presumably spawning and/or following the sunlight as it set) the alcids departed.  The gulls - predominantly and appropriately Herring Gulls - followed all the way to the shoreline, where there were two Belted Kingfishers that joined in the feeding, as well as several Buffleheads, perhaps cleaning up fish eggs?  In any case it was great to see several species working together in their respective niches and a great learning opportunity for the students on the boat who could really see the ecosystem working as a whole.

Gull spp. (mostly Herring) feeding on fish in shoal

One more West Coast post to wrap things up in another two days...

West Coast Sailing 3: LBJ Confusion

I know I’m not the only beginning field birder who is challenged by the “little brown jobs”.  I had a few hours birding around Victoria in February and was able to locate a lifer Spotted Towhee.  White breast, red flanks, black back and hood – straightforward enough.  Unfortunately this particular Towhee was feeding in a flock of several dozen sparrows which included such species as "the one with brown stripes", "the one with tan stripes", and "the one with brown and tan streaks".


Clearly an area that I need to improve if I want to get more serious about understanding sparrows and their behaviours, not to mention building my life list.  This issue was brought to a head when we took a hike on Russell Island, just off the south-east of Saltspring Island.  At the old homestead on the tip of island we found several American Robins along with some Dark-eyed Junco's (Oregon) and two of these guys.

This individual was very obliging in hopping out onto a branch in clear view in response to a quick "pishing" noise.  I grabbed my field guide back on the boat and quickly came to the excited conclusion, base on the white throat and yellow supraloral spot that this was an uncommon White-throated Sparrow.  Hmmm.... but the breast was just a little bit too streaky and those malar stripes are pretty dark.  I went home feeling less than comfortable with the ID.  


On the weekend, with my full library on hand, I had a look through the excellent "Sparrows of the United States and Canada: The Photographic Guide" by Beadle and Rising.  The photos available in that publication, combined with Sibley's description of the Song Sparrow as being "common and widespread in brushy areas near water", leads me to believe that Song Sparrow is the correct ID.  


Whether or not that ID is correct, I take three things away about LBJ identification from this experience:


1) Learn birdsongs
2) Get out with more experience birders more often
3) Accept that not every bird seen can be identified


Any confirmation, feedback, or tips for dealing with "little brown jobs" are welcome in the comments.