Ospreys have returned and have started to nest on platforms across the city. When this Osprey arrived at the platform at MacLeod Trail and Highway 22x on April 24, he first had to evict a pair of Canada Geese who had thoughts of nesting there too. Photos by Joe Harley.
Joe also got some great shots of an Osprey with a fish south of Carburn Park. This is one of the pair that is nesting at the Lafarge platform along MacLeod Trail just south of Southland Park.
The Ospreys are back on the nesting platform at the Calgary Zoo. So far there are just a few sticks on the platform, so if you tune in to the live Enmax web cam, over the next few weeks you can watch them build the nest, lay eggs, and raise their young until they fledge.
Below is a link to the web cam. We will also have a link on the right sidebar of our Home Page throughout the nesting season. Check out the U of C Peregrine Falcon nest cam too!
Posted by Bob Lefebvre
Last month when I was out looking for Snowy Owls, I came across this Merlin feeding on a European Starling.
Since at least 1995, Peregrine Falcons have nested on Craigie Hall at the University of Calgary. For the past few years, there has been a live nest cam so that we can watch the falcons at the nest, and see the young falcons hatch and fledge.
The first returning Peregrine was sighted on March 25 this year, and by April 9 the pair was ready to nest. The first egg was laid on April 16. We will have a link to the nest cam on the sidebar of our Birds Calgary home page throughout the breeding season.
Rob English saw this immature Bald Eagle in Hull’s Wood, Fish Creek Park, in early February. It got a little tangled up in the branches as it lifted off.
Rob English caught these two Bald Eagles, an immature and an adult, having a dispute over a perch.
Rob English got these photos of a recently fledged Bald Eagle in Carburn Park in early August 2012. The bird had just recently left the nest across the river.
There was one of the adult eagles with this young one:
Posted by Matthew Sim
We’ve done posts here on this blog about leucism before, which is when a bird has reduced pigmentation, meaning it has more white in it’s feathers than normal for the species. We’ve had some examples before, including a leucistic House Finch, American Robin, Ruby-throated Hummingbird and others. For the past few months, Calgary has had a very neat leucistic bird in the area. This Rough-legged Hawk frequents the area around Highway 40, just west of Calgary.
Now compare this with a more normal Rough-legged Hawk.
On January 1rst, I found this leucistic hawk on Highway 40 near its intersection with Range Road 40.
Mitchell Kranz spotted this juvenile Golden Eagle on January 20 near Lake McGregor, northeast of Vulcan.
The same day, he also saw no less than 15 Snowy Owls between there and Blackie.
You can see more of Mitchell’s photos here.
This Sharp-shinned Hawk was keeping a close eye on the feeders in this Brentwood yard on November 10, 2012. Photos by Eric White.
Birds Calgary 