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Lights Out For Migration!!

Help migrating songbirds by keeping our night skies dark.

Spring migration is well under way, but as far as songbirds go, it will really pick up steam for the month of May. Songbirds migrate at night, and they can become disoriented by artificial light. This can cause them to be drawn off their normal path and into a more dangerous urban area, where they may collide with windows and other human structures, or be taken by predators.

Sparrows, warblers, and other songbirds will soon be moving through the city in large numbers. Lincoln’s Sparrow, Orange-crowned Warbler. Photos by Bob Lefebvre.

In 2021, Calgary became one of Canada’s first certified Nature Canada Bird Friendly Cities. Bird Friendly Calgary is the local organization whose mission is to highlight and mitigate threats that have contributed to a decline in bird populations of an estimated three billion over the last fifty years. As part of these efforts, Bird Friendly Calgary has a “Lights Out” initiative they would like to pass on to the local birding community. It is asking for everyone to turn off all unnecessary lights between 11:00 PM and 6:00 AM during the migration periods of spring and fall. For spring they are targeting April 1st to June 15th with special emphasis on the month of May. 

Please try to keep your houses and yards as dark as is safe at these times.

Lighted office towers are also a great threat to migrating birds and bats, and a huge number die or are injured each year in collisions with office buildings across North America. The Calgary Urban Species Response Team is active during migration in searching for such birds and bats in the downtown core, and trying to rescue any injured ones. The hope is that they can find out where the major problem areas are, and find ways to mitigate the loss of bird and bat life. See their site to find out more about this problem and the great work they are doing.

Time to Plan Your Participation in May Species Counts in Southern Alberta

Posted by Bob Lefebvre

Planning for the May Species Counts is already under way. There are two southern Alberta counts besides the Calgary one that many Calgarians take part in – Brooks/Lake Newell, and Milk River/Writing-on-Stone. The Brooks count is in its 24th year and MR/WOS is in its 22nd. The organizers would like to get more people participating in both counts. Since birders from the city have to arrange accomodation for these, you have to start your planning now. (Note that the Calgary count is May 27-28, the same weekend as Writing-on-Stone, so you will have a choice to make.)

Below is the information about the counts and booking camping. There is more information in the attached brochures. If you have questions, please contact the count organizers.

Lark Sparrow
Lark Sparrow. Photo by Bob Lefebvre, May 31, 2020.

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Hello Alberta Bird Counters! We are pleased to announce that the 2023 Brooks and Writing-on-Stone Bird Counts will take place on the following dates:

·       Brooks-Lake Newell Bird Count: Sat. May 20 and Sun. May 21

·       Milk River – Writing-on-Stone Bird Count: Sat. May 27 and Sun. May 28

If you plan on camping we highly recommend booking early!

Tillebrook Provincial Park: general reservations for May 19-21 will open at 9 am on Saturday February 18. www.reserve.albertaparks.ca or 1-877-537-2757

Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park: general reservations for May 26-28 will open at 9 am on Saturday February 25www.reserve.albertaparks.ca or

1-877-537-2757

Note: a small non-refundable fee of $12 per person will be charged to all Brooks participants to help cover the rental of the Brooks Legion meeting room.

Please indicate interest in participating to Debra Hornsby in advance of registration. Registration forms will be emailed by March 27. The 2023 count brochure provides further information and a draft count schedule.

We look forward to seeing all of you — and thousands of migrating birds — at the end of May!

To indicate interest contact: debra.hornsby.banff*@*gmail.com

More information: Donna Wieckowski astolat*@*shaw.ca

 (NOTE: Remove *’s before emailing)

2023-Brooks-WOS-Bird-Count

Rocky Mountain Eagle Watch – Volunteers Needed!

Posted by Bob Lefebvre

In 1992, Peter Sherrington and Des Allen serendipitously discovered that large numbers of Golden Eagles and other raptors were migrating along a corridor on the front ranges of the Rocky Mountains in Kananaskis. Prior to this it was thought that not many Golden Eagles migrated. Peter and a group of volunteers began observing and recording the migrating birds. Over the next ten years they observed over 80,000 Golden Eagles (plus over 16,000 other raptors from 17 other species) passing through the corridor.

Hay Meadow
Observers at Hay Meadow, Kananaskis, Alberta. Photo by Caroline Lambert

The Rocky Mountain Eagle Research Foundation, a non-profit organization, was set up with the goal of increasing knowledge of Golden Eagle, Bald Eagle and other raptor migrations in Western Canada. For over thirty years the foundation has organized spring and fall migrant watches at three sites in the foothills.

Mount Lorette
The Hay Meadows site with Mount Lorette in the background. Photo by Caroline lambert

Caroline Lambert, one of the Principal Observers, is appealing for new volunteers to join the team of observers. Anyone can join the observers at the sites to help – it’s a very interesting place to visit and I encourage anyone with any interest to get in touch with the foundation and see where and when to go – but they also have a need to recruit more volunteers who can commit to observing for full days at regular times.

Golden Eagle
Golden Eagle, photographed by Caroline Lambert

Here is Caroline’s description of what is involved, and the rewards of taking part in this important project.

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It’s a deep connection to nature like no other. Going to the same place regularly and staying there for a full day allows the birds and other animals to come to you, and over time you witness how the season changes, oh so gradually. That’s what it’s like at the semiannual eagle migration count in Kananaskis. A casual visitor, coming for a few hours at the peak of migration, will see just a snapshot of this. They might witness a few dozen eagles flying by, maybe a Red-tailed Hawk or Northern Goshawk, the usual chickadees, nuthatches, maybe the American Dipper. If they’re lucky, they might see some elk, or a moose, or deer grazing in the meadow. But the long-time observers have seen just about everything the area has to offer. Eighteen different species of raptor have been seen at the site, mostly eagles, but also Turkey Vultures, Ospreys, harriers, five different species of hawk, five species of falcons, and the three accipiters, with Northern Goshawk an almost daily occurrence. While cougar sightings have been admittedly very rare, most of us have seen all the other mammals in the area, including wolves and lynxes.

The eagle count at Kananaskis, run by the Rocky Mountain Eagle Research Foundation, has been running for over 30 years, and many of the older observers are no longer able to help out. We’re looking for dedicated people to help fill our ranks. We appreciate everyone who shows up with a pair of binoculars to help spot birds, but what we need most are people who will commit to a regular schedule, first as an Assistant Observer, and later as a Principal Observer. The Assistant Observer only needs to be able to spot birds and describe to the Principal where the birds are so the Principal can ID them, but the Principal Observer needs to be able to identify all the raptors that fly by. It takes some time to acquire the skills to do that – usually our Principal Observers start out as Assistant Observers and learn on the job, which is the best way to learn – out in the field, with an experienced person at your side. This isn’t for everyone as you need to be out at the site all day (mid-morning until sunset for assistants, sunrise to sunset for principals), constantly scanning the skies, and the weather can be a challenge, but for those who do this regularly, the rewards that keep us coming back and looking forward to the next season are there – the sighting of a wolf, or a Gyrfalcon, or one of those glorious days when hundreds of eagles fly by. We smile when the dipper comes by, almost every day, dipping as dippers do, and often singing. We marvel at the bluebirds, robins, and Varied Thrushes that show up in mid-March when it still seems too cold for them. It keeps us coming back season after season – not just for what we witness, but knowing that we are contributing to our knowledge of raptor demographics, especially eagles, as citizen scientists.

Even if you can’t help out, then donations to help compensate observers for expenses would be much appreciated.

The spring 2022 eagle migration count starts on March 1 and runs until April 22. Detailed information, including location and how to get there and how to donate, can be found on the website at eaglewatch.ca.

Hope you see you out there.

Caroline Lambert, Canmore

Bald Eagle
Bald Eagles at Hay Meadows, Kananaskis, Alberta. Bald Eagles are the second-most frequently observed raptors. Photo by Caroline Lambert
Northern Goshawk
Northern Goshawk at Hay Meadows, Kananaskis, Alberta. Photo by Caroline Lambert

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Please check out the website – it’s full of fascinating observation records and a history of the counts. And even if you can’t get out to the sites yourself, you can support the project with a donation, or purchase a lifetime membership for just $20!

Online Film – Avian Summer

Posted by Bob Lefebvre

Photographer and filmmaker Rick Andrews has produced a wonderful wildlife documentary about some of our local birds. Avian Summer has fantastic high-resolution video of birds that migrate into Southern Alberta each spring, where they come to find a mate and raise the next generation, before migrating south again in the fall. Watch the trailer below.

Avian Summer by Rick Andrews – trailer.

The full film is available to rent or purchase on the Vimeo platform. The cost is $8 for a three-day rental, and $25 to buy. You can watch it on your phone, tablet, or computer. (I played it on my phone and streamed it to our TV, and it looked fantastic.) Proceeds from Avian Summer will benefit the Growing the Grassroots Endowment Fund in support of nature-based interpretive programming at the Helen Schuler Nature Centre in Lethbridge.

I really enjoyed this thirty-seven minute film. It focuses mostly on waterfowl, raptors, herons, and cranes, and a few songbirds. There are a lot of great sequences of birds raising their young.

Rick Andrews is a conservation wildlife photographer and filmmaker from Southern Alberta. He has many other excellent films available for free on Vimeo, so be sure to check them out. (It is free to sign up on Vimeo.) Rick’s collection of films showcases resident wildlife in Southern Alberta, including the full-length documentary Wildlife of the Oldman River Valley (2018), as well as several documentary shorts including Great Horned Owls (2020), Country Club Marmots (2019), and Lethbridge Wild Turkeys (2018).

Here is the poster from the film’s online premier, which was on June 25. The question & answer session with Rick is available to view on the Helen Schuler Nature Center Facebook page here.

Check out these excellent productions, and help support conservation in southern Alberta.

You can follow Rick Andrews on Facebook here.

Friends of the Helen Schuler Nature Centre Society.

Birds, Bats, and Building Collisions

Posted by Bob Lefebvre

Window strikes, or birds colliding with windows, is a big problem – not just in residential yards, but in urban downtowns where tall glass structures are a big obstacle to migrating birds (and bats too). Many birds migrate at night, and skyscrapers can cause a lot of bird mortality. You may have seen some of the disturbing photos of hundreds of dead birds of many species that are collected in Toronto’s downtown every year by the Fatal Light Awareness Project (FLAP). A similar effort is undertaken in Ottawa by Safe Wings Ottawa.

Toronto, unlike Calgary, is located on a major migratory flyway. So how big is the problem here, and what can be done to minimize the damage? This is what Kathleen Johnson has set out to discover, by creating the Calgary Migratory Species Response Team.

Chipping Sparrow
A Chipping Sparrow found in downtown Calgary by Kathleen in the spring during one of her preliminary checks for birds killed by window strikes.

Kathleen has done an amazing job of assembling a team of experts and setting up a detailed and well-prepared group of volunteers to begin surveys of Calgary’s downtown. The CMSRT will plot the locations of all birds and bats found, to learn where the problem areas are. The Calgary Wildlife Rehabilitation Society is directly involved as well, so that any injured animals can be rescued.

CMSRT Poster

This weekend there will be a two-part orientation session for anyone wishing to volunteer. The first part will be an information and training session at the Central Library downtown, and the second part will be in the field (downtown) early Sunday morning. See the event on Facebook here.

Please visit the group’s Facebook page to learn more about this effort. You can also follow them on Twitter (@CalgaryResponse). If you want to volunteer, email them at calgaryresponse[at]gmail.com.

Tonight, August 22nd, Kathleen will give a brief overview of the project at the Birds & Beers event (6-9 pm, at the Legion at 9202 Horton Road SW) and will have more information available for anyone interested in getting involved. This is a really exciting initiative and I hope everyone can get behind it and help out!

Birds & Beers, May 2, 2019: The Raptor Allure of Windy Point

The next Birds & Beers event in Calgary is on Thursday May 2, at the Horton Road Legion, from 6 to 9 pm. We will be in the big auditorium this month, and will have a special presentation: “The Raptor Allure of Windy Point” by Peter Roxborough.

Bald Eagle
Bald Eagle. Photo by Daniel Arndt.

Local birders are aware of the Golden Eagle migration monitoring that has been conducted for many years at Mount Lorette in Kananaskis country, but few are aware that Windy Point, in the Sheep River Valley west of Turner Valley, also offers fantastic raptor watching on migration. Peter Roxborough will do a presentation on this amazing birding spot.

The Legion is located at 9202 Horton Road SW. Everyone is welcome to attend Birds & Beers. As is usual when we have presentations, these begin after 7 pm. So come at 6 pm (or earlier since the kitchen will be busy), order a meal and have a drink, visit with your fellow birders, and then stay for the presentation. If you can’t make it early drop in later for the show.

Upcoming Birds & Beers events are scheduled for Thursday May 30 and Thursday June 27, at the same time and place. There will be presentations at both of these events too.

Winter Birding Course, January to March 2019

Today is the last day of the Fall session of the Friends of Fish Creek Provincial Park birding course. After the Christmas season and all the local Christmas Bird Counts, the winter session of the course will begin on January 7, 2019 and run until the end of March. This is a great time of year to get out birding every week since you see the gradual transition from winter birding to spring migration. From late February to the end of March there are many new species arriving here every week.

White-winged Crossbill, Fish Creek Park, March 6, 2016. Photo by Tony LePrieur.

For more information and to register for the course, go to this page.

 

August Birding in the Bow Valley

Posted by Ethan Denton (BirdBoy)

While top locations like Confederation Park and Mallard Point are the go-to spots for fall warbler migration in our part of Alberta, it’s often worth checking out some less-birded hotspots for rarities passing unnoticed. The Bow Valley is a perfect example of this, as Policeman’s Creek, Vermillion Lakes and Flowing Waters Trail are more than capable of holding their own in the fall flurries. I’ve been birding these exact spots over the past month, and I would encourage all you Calgary birders to try them out during September.

Located in the heart of Canmore, Policeman’s Creek is a great spot to go for unusual birds, and has not disappointed this autumn. Around eight Blackpolls, a Magnolia, two MacGillivary’s and a Canada Warbler (only the third eBird record for the county) fill the warbler quota, while Warbling and Red-eyed Vireos, Say’s Pheobe and Eastern Kingbird join in. Merlin, Peregrine and Prairie Falcons all made appearances.


Yellow Warbler, Policeman’s Creek


Canada Warbler, Policeman’s Creek


Say’s Pheobe, Policeman’s Creek


Magnolia Warbler, Policeman’s Creek

Bow Valley Provincial Park’s Flowing Waters Trail is a short walk around some of the best habitat in the area, and supports dozens of fall migrants. Cassin’s and Blue-headed Vireo, American Redstarts and Nashville Warbler have all been seen there recently, and it’s one of the best spots to find Western Tanager, Eastern Kingbird and Warbling Vireo in the valley.


Warbling Vireo, Flowing Waters


Eastern Kingbird, Flowing Waters


Warbling Vireo, Flowing Waters

Vermillion Lakes will only now be starting its high point for the fall, but this 220+ species location boasts an impressive track record of Black-bellied and Golden Plovers, Baird’s and Pectoral Sandpipers, and ducks such as Eurasian Wigeon and Red-breasted Merganser. This fall, I’ve already seen two Stilt Sandpipers, a Pectoral, and both species of Yellowlegs. For those who rarely visit the mountains, Clark’s Nutcrackers and Mountain Chickadees are common. MacGillivary’s and Magnolia Warblers have turned up here this fall, and more may be coming.


Pectoral Sandpipers, Vermillion Lakes – 2017


Ring-billed Gull, Vermillion Lakes


Common Raven, Vermillion Lakes

Anyone interested in consistent reports of what’s in the valley should check out the Bow Valley Birding Facebook page, and for more photos my personal blog, www.birdboy.ca

Thanks for reading, and I hope you take some time to bird the Bow Valley soon!

World Migratory Bird Day, Sunday May 13

Head down to the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary this Sunday, May 13, between 11 am and 3 pm for a celebration of World Migratory Bird Day.

Migratory Bird Day

This free event for the whole family will feature guided tours of the sanctuary, nature-themed games and crafts, and lots of information about Calgary birds from local birding experts.

Read about the event on this website

 

Migrant Sparrows: White-throated and Chipping

Posted by Bob Lefebvre

More birds from my backyard. The White-throated Sparrows were around for just a couple of days in the first week of May (although I heard one singing in the neighbourhood this morning, possibly a late migrant grounded by the strong winds and rain we had yesterday). Chipping Sparrows passed through last week, and I counted up to thirty in my yard one day, along with a few of the closely-related Clay-colored Sparrows.

White-throated Sparrow, Calgary, May 7, 2017. Photo by Bob Lefebvre.

White-throated Sparrow, Calgary, May 7, 2017. Photo by Bob Lefebvre.

The above photo shows the sharply contrasting white throat patch and the yellow lores that are keys to identifying this species. Some White-throated Sparrows have tan and black rather than white and black head stripes, but they should always show the white throat and a least a little yellow on the lores.

The tan and black variation is a colour morph which some White-throated Sparrows have throughout their lives. It is not a juvenile characteristic, like the tan and gray head stripes of the White-crowned Sparrow. All White-crowns have tan stripes as juveniles, and white stripes as adults. Here is an old photo of an adult White-crowned Sparrow. Besides the lack of a white throat and yellow lores, note the clean gray breast and spotted back feathers which are quite different from the White-throated Sparrow. The pale bill (pink or yellow) also stands out.

White-crowned Sparrow, Calgary, May 10, 2010. Photo by Bob Lefebvre.

Below are a few of the Chipping Sparrows that were in my yard. There were thousands in yards all over the city that week.

Chipping Sparrow, Calgary, May 18, 2017. Photo by Bob Lefebvre.

Chipping Sparrow, Calgary, May 18, 2017. Photo by Bob Lefebvre.

Chipping Sparrow, Calgary, May 18, 2017. Photo by Bob Lefebvre.

Both of these species breed in the city. White-throated Sparrows are common in the Weaselhead, the west end of Fish Creek Park, and other parts of the city where the boreal forest intrudes. You can hear their beautiful song there right now. Chipping Sparrows breed throughout the city, even in suburbs in low numbers. Their song is a long, dry, steady trill, which is sometimes mistaken for an insect sound.

Other birds I’ve had pass through my yard recently on migration include White-crowned Sparrows (in pretty low numbers this year) around the end of April and first week of May, Ruby-crowned Kinglet at about the same time, and a Baltimore Oriole briefly on May 21.