Wednesday Wings: Chasing Rarities – Purple Sandpiper – First Alberta Record

Posted by Dan Arndt

Local photographer Eddy Matoud stumbled across this incredibly rare bird on Thursday, May 9. Once the dust had settled and it had been positively identified as a Purple Sandpiper, I knew I couldn’t miss my chance to see this bird for myself. Late Friday afternoon I headed down to Inglewood Bird Sanctuary where Eddy had found it the first time, and spent about an hour photographing it, digiscoping it, and just observing its behaviour. Sadly, it was gone the very next day, disappointing many who had gone out early in the weekend in hopes to see it.

Enjoy the photos!

Purple Sandpiper – a very rare visitor

At least there’s plenty of food around for it.

Splish splash

Drying off the wings

Now that’s a stretch.

Don’t shoot! I’m unarmed!

Streeeeetch!

Fetch, Piper, fetch! Good bird!

Another light snack

Migration is a hungry task.

What are YOU looking at?

Yep, still here.

What do you mean “lost”? I know exactly where I am…

No, that’s not an egg.

K, bye!

 

Postcards from Mexico – Calgary Birds on their wintering grounds

Posted by Dan Arndt

While on vacation, I had planned to look for some of our old favourites from Calgary who might also be down here enjoying the warm weather for the winter. Thankfully, I wasn’t disappointed. I was a little surprised though at just what species I did find down here, and which ones I expected to find, and didn’t.

I do want to clarify too, that many of these birds spend all year long down here, but their range extends all the way back home to Calgary, which, as the crow flies, is about 4100 km. Quite staggering, when you consider that many of them make the migration from Calgary to this part of the world with very few stops for food or shelter.

Here are just a few of our fine feathered friends enjoying the sun, sand, and tequila down here in Mexico!

Belted Kingfisher

Gray Catbird

American Coot

Double-crested Cormorant

Eurasian Collared Dove

Great Blue Heron

American Redstart

Sanderling

Northern Waterthrush

American White Pelican and Peeps (along with a couple cormorants and Brown Pelicans)

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

Yellow Warbler

Least Sandpiper

Spotted Sandpiper

Friends of Fish Creek Birding Course – Week 6 – Western Headworks Pathway

Posted by Dan Arndt

Another week, another great week of birding one of the incredible natural areas of Calgary. This time we headed down the Western Headworks Pathway, one of the primary irrigation canals of the Bow River, which extends all the way to Chestermere Lake and provides water to farms even further east and south from Calgary. Our walk took us from just south of 17th Avenue SE all the way to 50th Avenue SE and back again, all the while keeping us incredibly close to the birds and allowing for some decent shots despite the gray, gloomy skies and incredibly poor light all morning long.

One of the best sightings early on were this pair of Yellowlegs, one Greater and one Lesser, showing off the differences in overall body size, bill shape, and bill length.

Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs

Greater Yellowlegs

Shortly after that we came across a large mixed flock of Mallards, Northern Shovelers, Green-winged Teal, and even a lone Northern Pintail was in the mix!

female Northern Shoveler

A constant reminder of just how close to the Bow River we were was the nearly incessant flocks of gulls, ducks, and even one large flock of nearly forty female and juvenile Common Mergansers.

female Common Mergansers

One raft of Mallards seemed to weave in and out of a flock of American Wigeon and even involved a few Hooded Mergansers, but this lone Pied-billed Grebe nearly escaped our notice hidden amongst some vegetation.

Pied-billed Grebe

female Hooded Merganser

male Hooded Merganser

At least two of the male American Wigeon were in full breeding plumage, but instead of the usual white crown on the bird, these Wigeon had yellowish crowns. Very strange.

American Wigeon

Another bonus bird that hasn’t been seen on many of our walks for the past year are these Eurasian Collared Doves. While common in residential neighbourhoods, they aren’t often found in the usual spate of parks the Friends of Fish Creek courses will visit.

Eurasian Collared Doves

In contrast, these Rock Pigeons, while posing beautifully on a train bridge, are as common as, well, Rock Pigeons on our walks.

Rock Pigeons

At the far south end of the walk we found our first Killdeer of the day, well hidden amongst the gravel and vegetation on the shore.

Killdeer

Our walk back was essenially better looks at many of the same birds, and as we came up alongside the Hooded Mergansers, something spooked them and flushed them up off the canal.

male Hooded Merganser taking off

Travel Tuesday – Elk Island National Park

Posted by Dan Arndt

While this blog usually focuses on the birds in and around Calgary, many folks travel for work, for pleasure, or just to see new great birds in other areas of the province. In the last year, I’ve been up to Elk Island National Park twice, and each time has been absolutely amazing. I look forward to my next visit, and hope it’ll be sooner than next summer, but time is always fleeting and it can be hard to justify a trip without other things to do up there. Plus, with the Friends of Fish Creek Autumn Birding Course starting up in a few weeks, many of my weekends are spoken for!

The Beaver Hills region of Alberta, which includes Elk Island National Park, are a unique topographical area formed by the retreat of the glaciers at the end of the last ice age. As they melted and stagnated, they formed what is known as “kame and kettle topography”. Why is this important to birds, you might ask? These kettle lakes are home to tens of thousands of gulls, shorebirds, and a water source for the surrounding boreal forest that established along the top of the “kames” which are regional topographical highs. In many cases, these are up to a hundred meters higher than the surrounding landscape, and gently sloped on either edge, forming something similar to the foothills style landscape that we’re so used to around Calgary.

Over Heritage Day long weekend, we spent three days up there relaxing by the lake, enjoying the calm, serene waters, and weathering the sometimes frighteningly extreme weather.

This storm cell over Astotin Lake was so severe that we were asked to evacuate our campsite and take shelter in our vehicle.

Thankfully, the weather lightened up over the next two days allowing for some good sightings of some beautiful and amazing birds, some of which paid us many visits at our campsite over the weekend. This juvenile Yellow-bellied Sapsucker was part of a family group that spent every day in the trees nearby.

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

Western Tanagers are some of the most colourful birds we get in Calgary, and it was great to find not one but two breeding groups on hiking trails in the park.

Western Tanager

The main campground is located a stone’s throw from Astotin Lake, which is home to dozens of Red-necked Grebes. Last year, there must have been nearly two-hundred just near the shoreline in late September, but this year, since it was a bit earlier, the numbers weren’t quite so high. The population was still healthy this August, as this adult shows.

A Red-necked Grebe finds his favourite fish breakfast.

Shorebirds were present in small numbers as well, though I would expect by this time, their numbers are much higher, and will continue to climb until late September as migration steps on its perpetual course. A few Semipalmated Sandpipers and Least Sandpipers seemed to be flocking with, and stalking, this Long-billed Dowitcher, who in turn followed around a Greater Yellowlegs every time it was startled and flew off in another direction.

Long-billed Dowitcher

Greater Yellowlegs

Semipalmated Sandpipers (centre, left) and Least Sandpiper (front right).

One of my favourite shorebirds was present on the shores of Astotin Lake, and seemed to be the mother (or maybe father?) of at least three juveniles that tentatively poked their heads out of the long grasses every few minutes. This Killdeer kept a wary eye on me and would fly away any time I moved toward it, or toward the young ones, so I simply sat on a picnic table and waited for him to come to me.

Killdeer

Some of the other birds present in good numbers were a couple of flocks of American White Pelicans, Song Sparrows, and even a few Eastern Phoebe made their presence known.

American White Pelican

This Eastern Phoebe looks downright evil with the flash reflection in its eye!

By far though, the flocks that outnumbered all other birds combined were the huge numbers of Barn Swallows swarming over the lakes, and the massive flocks of Franklins and Bonaparte’s gulls, both quickly losing their breeding plumage and entering their winter molts.

Mostly Bonaparte’s Gulls with a few Franklin’s Gulls thrown in just to make things interesting (and confusing!).

 

Good birding!

Sunday Showcase: Spring Willets

More great bird trips and photos from Marg Matheson and Alan Plumb.

Winter Killdeer

Last weekend on the Christmas Bird Count, I came across a very photogenic Killdeer. These abundant shorebirds, usually only stay the summer in Calgary, several birds, however, also stay the winter.

Despite our frigid winters, these hardy Killdeer seem to manage all right, we see them throughout the winter which must mean that they are surviving. They are definitely finding food, as can be seen in the photo below.

This Killdeer seemed to be finding enough food

At one point, I even saw this particular bird with a small morsel of food clenched in its beak.

This Killdeer was fearless and approached me; which is quite a nice change as a photographer! It also engaged in the species peculiar method of moving; they run for a few feet, stop, look around, flick their tail up, bob their head up and down a couple times, and then repeat this cycle over again.

Just finished a short run, the Killdeer stops, looks around and...

Bobs it's head out of the photo, leaving the photographer with an unusual result; but a good story!

Each year, Killdeer are seen wintering in Calgary, somewhere on the Bow River. Though it may seem like a daft idea to many of us, this species obviously are doing just fine!

A Merry Christmas to you from all of us here at the blog!

Posted by Matthew Sim

Sunday Showcase: Muskrat & Killdeer

Photos taken in Carburn Park by Rob English on Dec 6/11. Even in the depths of a Calgary winter, there’s always lots to see in our natural areas! Click to enlarge photos.

Nothing But Shoreline

The irrigation canal in southeast Calgary is drained in late September, and as the water level drops, it exposes lush shorelines with plenty for the birds to eat.  From mid-September to freeze-up is the time to get out to look for waterfowl, gulls, and late migrating shorebirds.

Fall colours reflected in the remaining water

I usually explore the sections from the canal headworks near the Max Bell Arena to south of 50 Avenue SE.  There are four parking areas, and you can go up and down a portion of the canal from each one.  It’s a long walk to do it all at once, but a fairly short bike ride.

Click to enlarge the map.

Max Bell Arena:  Access from Barlow Trail SE, just south of Memorial Drive.  There is a large parking lot north of the arena, and you can walk down to the canal headworks from there, and walk along the east bank.  If you want to get to the west bank, you have to cross over at the 17 Avenue SE bridge.

Bow Waters Canoe Club:   Access is off 26 Street SE, just south of 17 Avenue.  Cross the bridge to get to the paths on the west side.  The path on the east side between here and Gosling Way has some steep, difficult terrain, and it is almost impassable by bike.  This lot is fairly secluded and I don’t like to leave my vehicle there.  I prefer Max Bell or Gosling Way.

Gosling Way:  Go west off 26 Street SE at 34 Avenue.  This is the road that goes to the Inglewood Golf and Curling Club.  The parking lot, used by off-leash dog walkers, is just west of the bridge over Deerfoot trail, on the south side of Gosling Way.  It only holds about ten vehicles.  From this lot, walk down to the bridge over the canal and take the paths from there.  In the winter, you can also park at the golf and curling club, but it is a bit of a walk back to the canal.

50 Avenue SE:  It is difficult to park here.  There are only two small spots, each with room for two cars,  at the east end of the bridge over the canal.  It can also be a very busy road, so I avoid parking here as well, and usually just walk from Gosling Way.

The canal has a paved path on one side (sometimes on the east, sometimes on the west) and a dirt or gravel path of sorts on the other side.  I like to go on the east side in the mornings and on the west side in the afternoons, to keep the sun behind me.  This late in the year, the water is usually frozen in the mornings, so there are few birds around.  But on warm afternoons the ice melts, and the birds arrive.

Muskrat and female Hooded Merganser

Detail of Gosling Way Parking.  Click to enlarge.

Looking south from Gosling Way.

Looking north to the bridge on Gosling Way.

Pat and I have each posted about birding the canal before.  You can see Pat’s post here, and my post here.

Lately I’ve seen quite a few Canada Geese, Mallards, and Ring-billed Gulls, and a few Hooded Mergansers, Common Goldeneyes, and Greater Yellowlegs.  In past years I’ve seen Redheads, Blue-winged Teal, Killdeer, Long-billed Dowitchers, and Rusty Blackbirds all feeding along the shorelines.

Mallards and an assortment of Yellowlegs.

Muskrat and Mallard sharing the Muskrat’s lodge.  Background by Monet.

A Black-billed Magpie looks for food on the old canal bottom.

Posted by Bob Lefebvre

Digiscoping

Digiscoping is the activity of combining a digital camera with a spotting scope to record images through the scope.  Anyone who has ever looked through a good scope knows how impressive they are at turning distant specks that can’t be identified, even with binoculars, into sharply defined birds.  The combination of big lenses and up to 60X magnification really brings faraway objects into close focus.  Scopes are especially useful for waterfowl far out on lakes, and shorebirds on distant shorelines.

Today’s post features some wonderful photographs taken using digiscoping by local birder and photographer Daniel Arndt.

Eared Grebe and juvenile, by Dan Arndt

Digiscoping can be done with any point-and-shoot or SLR camera (or even a camera phone) coupled with any scope or binocular, but it can very tricky to get to good quality pictures by just holding the two together.  Here is a White-crowned Sparrow I photographed in my yard this week, using my camera phone held up to my 8X42 binoculars:

It’s very hard to tell when you have the shot in focus.  It’s even hard to get on the bird!  You get a better shot with just a good camera:

The same bird, from the same distance, taken with an SLR and 400 mm lens.  Note the leg band.

Here is another shot I took (in the winter) of a House Finch, using a point-and-shoot camera held up to my spotting scope.

However, the birds in these examples were only about twenty feet away.  I could identify them with the naked eye.  If you are dealing with distant waterfowl and shorebirds, the thing to do to get good photographs is to get an adapter that fixes your camera to the scope.  Dan Arndt’s outfit, pictured below, consists of :

Pentax K-5 camera with T-mount adapter
Meade ETX-90EC 90mm Matsukov-Cassegrain Telescope
Meade #844 Advanced Field Tripod
Meade Electronic Focuser
Meade MT-64 Camera Adapter
Pentax 39892 Waterproof Remote Shutter Release

Photo by Dan Arndt

Here are some of the amazing photos Dan took this summer at Frank Lake using his digiscoping rig.

White-faced Ibis with juvenile, and American Golden-Plover, by Dan Arndt

Lesser Yellowlegs by Dan Arndt

American Avocet by Dan Arndt

Black Tern by Dan Arndt

Black-crowned Night-Herons by Dan Arndt

American Golden-Plovers by Dan Arndt

You can see all of Dan’s digiscoping pictures on his Flickr page here, and while you’re there, explore all of his other excellent photographs as well.

Posted by Bob Lefebvre

Willet (or won’t it)

As colder weather begins to descend upon Calgary, it can be nice to reflect a little bit on some birds that we were familiar with during the summer months.

Many species of birds vary greatly from region to region. The Willet is one of these birds that are highly variable with two distinct subspecies, the eastern semipalmata darker, browner and thicker-billed than the western subspecies inornata that we see both in Calgary, and down here on the Gulf Coast.

A western inornata Willet

A large shorebird with a flashy black-and-white wing pattern seen in flight,  the willet was given its name thanks to its territorial call: pill-will-willet. A very vocal bird, the Willet, as biologist William Vogt wrote many years ago, has another call, a ringing kaaaty. When William Vogt studied a breeding pair of Willets back in 1938  he couldn’t help but call them Will and Kate, thanks to their calls.

Another western Willet

Several years ago, before I was a big birder, I traveled out east for vacation. I observed my first Willet out there and now I have the chance to compare photographs of eastern and western Willets.

While the shots of the Western Willets are winter plumaged birds, you can still see the smaller size, darker color and stouter bill in the eastern Willet pictured above.

I always find regional variations in birds intriguing and the Willet is a bird with an easily visible difference, making it a good subject to view and compare from the east to the west.

Posted by Matthew Sim