Canmore Spring Bird Walks 2018

It was spring of 2017, and in a rare moment of quiet solitude, I was thinking. Thinking about my hotspot, Policeman’s Creek (see the eBird hotspot here for species and details) and how it was so little birded by anyone but me. Then it struck me – an idea that has prospered in Banff, something that a friend and I had halfheartedly tried in Canmore once – guided walks! It had failed on the first attempt in Canmore, but undaunted I began preparations for that year.  And what a success it was! For a new event in Canmore, the participant numbers were great, and we detected almost fifty species across four walks – including a bird not reported in the county for over forty years (Bullock’s Oriole)!

Due to such accomplishment then, I am once again leading these walks on Policeman’s Creek. Commencing at 7:00 AM at Canmore’s well known Big Head sculpture on Main Street, the walks will be held on April 29th, May 13th and 27th and June 10th. Already I have seen unusual numbers of waterfowl passing through the creek, and the spring promises to be a good one.

NSHO
Northern Shoveler, male

I hope to see you all out on April 29th for the first walk! Contact me at [email protected] for more information.

Here are the posts about last year’s walks:

May 7th                                May 21st

June 4th                                June 18th

2017 – Looking Back on my Favourite Photos From the Past Year

It’s New Years Day, and with a bright new year dawning, I felt it was time to look back at 2017 – events, experiences, but mainly my favourite birds and photos from the year. I hope you enjoy this collection – a bit long, but I couldn’t leave any out!

Policeman’s Creek Trail:

Boreal Chickadee
Boreal Chickadee
Pileated Woodpecker
Hammond's Flycatcher
Hammond’s Flycatcher
WETA (1 of 5)
Western Tanager male
Preening Merlin
Preening Merlin
WETA
Western Tanager

Bohemian Waxwing
Bohemian Waxwing
Yellow Warbler
Yellow Warbler
Rufous Hummingbird
Rufous Hummingbird

Banff Area:

Harlequin Ducks
Harlequin Ducks
Harlequin Ducks
Harlequin Ducks
Lincoln's Sparrow
Lincoln’s Sparrow
Common Loons
Common Loons

Ontario Trip:

RBGU
Ring-billed Gull
Blue-headed Vireo
Blue-headed Vireo

Trip of a Lifetime (Southern Alberta)

Short-eared Owlet
Short-eared Owlet
Baird's Sparrow
Baird’s Sparrow
Caspian Tern
Caspian Tern!
Tree Swallow
Tree Swallow
Purple Martin
Purple Martin

Miscellaneous Locations:

American White Pelicans
Preening session!
Sharp-tailed Grouse
Sharp-tailed Grouse males face off
Mountain Chickadee
Mountain Chickadee
STGR
“Pick me!”
Clark’s Nutcracker
Black-capped Chickadee

Trumpeter Swan

As for my favourite birding experiences? Well, the first of the year was a trip to Waterton area, followed by an amazing time with some Sharp-tailed Grouse in April. The Great Canadian Birdathon (part one and part two) was great as usual, and the “Trip of a Lifetime” (parts one and two) lived up to its name. Ontario was fun if not particularly productive, and this year’s Canmore Christmas Bird Count was miles above that of 2016. All in all, 2017 was a stunning year, but with hopeful thoughts of Long Point, Southern Alberta (again!), and maybe even California, 2018 promises to excite. Here’s to the New Year!

Feathers on Friday

Mallard Hen
Mallard Hen

With both the kids (Dec. 9th) and the adult (Dec. 16th) Christmas Bird Counts fast approaching, I chose this Mallard hen from the 2016 Bird Count as this week’s Feathers on Friday. Let me know if you are in Canmore and want to come to either!

Other Feathers on Fridays:

Wolf Song Blog                                         Birds In Your Back Yard

Back Yard Bird Blog

The Great Canadian Birdathon – Day Two

We awoke at 5:25 AM for a 5:45 kick-off on Policeman’s Creek, where we successfully saw the Great-horned Owls, Hammond’s Flycatcher and Rufous Hummingbird. Overall, however, the creek was quiet. We did manage Wilson’s Warbler and Northern Waterthrush, as well as a hotspot rarity – three male Blue-winged Teal. After this, we made a short stop up to Silvertip, where a friend had a Cassin’s Vireo, which we heard consistently, but failed to see, unfortunately.

Rufous Hummingbird
Rufous Hummingbird

We continued to the Cave and Basin, where we spent just over an hour. The first thing we heard was the local Barred Owl – and his mate! Two Townsend’s Warblers were nice additions to the list, and a Bald Eagle fly-by provided good views in the morning light. At Vermillion Lakes we were afforded a nice surprise in four Trumpeter Swans. The Common Loon pair on the third lake swam by (side note – these loons now have one chick, which hatched June 16).

Common Loons
Common Loons

Fighting time, we drove behind an impossibly slow (it seemed) car to hope desperately for Pipits and Red-necked Grebe at Lake Minnewanka. When we finally got there, we drove slowly along the top of the dam, when I spotted some small shapes out in the water. We stopped, and I snapped three photos at the same time as Gavin. Zooming in on our cameras, we were delighted to find that these six birds were, in fact Harlequin Ducks!

Harlequin Ducks
Harlequin Ducks
Harlequin Ducks
Harlequin Ducks

This was the first time I had ever seen a Harlequin in breeding plumage, and the beautiful ducks edged the unseen Cassin’s Vireo for the top spot in the highlight lists.

Harlequin Ducks
Harlequin Ducks

That concluded the Birdathon, and we ended with 112 species – not my best, but still good considering the locations visited. Anyone interested can see the full list here. Thank you everyone for donating, and if you haven’t already, please go to my site here. There is still time!

To see part one, follow this link: Great Canadian Birdathon Day One.

Canmore Spring Bird Walk June 18th

The last of the Spring Bird Walks started cool, with the sun just peeking through the clouds. Arriving early at the meeting place, I was fortunate enough to see a Great Blue Heron fly-by – not a common sight there. We headed down the boardwalk, not seeing much but hearing a lot. Waterfowl were in short supply, with only a few Mallards to count, but it was made up for by the now flying owlets.

Great-horned Owl
Great-horned Owl

Two owlets and the female were on the path side of the creek, and the owlets put on a show for us for some time. They bounced around in the branches, unscared of the humans and in full view before working up the courage to fly back across the creek.GHOWSinging from the same perch as always sat a male Yellow Warbler, and two Blue Jays offered views from a few feet away. There were plenty of swallows at Spring Creek, and a winnowing Wilson’s Snipe cam crashing down into the marsh near us.

Wilson's Snipe
Wilson’s Snipe

That concludes the series of walks on the boardwalk for this spring, but stay tuned for the walks I’ll be leading in late August and September, when we’ll hope for warblers, finches and hawks among others.

Black-throated Blue Warbler
Black-throated Blue Warbler from last September

Thanks for coming out, everyone, and I hope to see you in the fall!

You can read the rest of the Canmore Spring Bird Walk posts here:

May Seventh

May Twenty-first

June Fourth

Canmore Spring Bird Walk June 4th

A surprisingly low number of people came out for the third Canmore Spring Bird Walk, with only seven participants compared to 25 last time. The seven, however were treated to a bird not reported in Banff county for over fourty years, and only three times before that – a first spring Bullock’s Oriole! We started as usual at 7:30, but one end of the Boardwalk was closed, so we walked around to behind the Raman bar to see the back of the creek. There we picked up some Yellow Warblers, a Northern Flicker and European Starlings at nests, and Wilson’s Snipe winnowing.

Yellow Warbler
Yellow Warbler

We then worked our way around to the area where there stands a telephone pole, poorly disguised as a tree. My Dad had just mentioned that we rarely, if ever see birds in this “tree,” when I spotted a bird in it. Training my binoculars upon it, I was slightly to slow to catch it, as it flew across the field. We relocated it, however, and it proved to be a Bullock’s Oriole. Keeping us at a distance, it winged it’s way across the tracks and perched in a faraway tree. My photo proves the bird, but not much more than that!

Bullock's Oriole
Bullock’s Oriole

High water levels had pushed a Sora into view, but it still did a magnificent job of not being seen properly. Soras can pick their way through the marsh without moving a single blade of grass more than a millimeter. We also saw small numbers of Lincoln’s and Song Sparrows, and heard Policeman’s Creek’s first ever Willow Flycatcher.

Sora
Sora

Also, a quick update on the Boardwalk – the eBird hotspot now has 125 species, of which I have seen almost 120. Thanks for coming out last Sunday, and I hope you’ll all be here for the final walk of this spring, on June 18th at 7:30. We’ll still meet at the Big Head. Let me know if you think I should run some walks this fall in the comments, or by emailing me at [email protected]. See you next time!

The Great Canadian Birdathon 2017 (Day One)

Ten days ago today,  the team Saw-it Owls was kicking off their Great Canadian Birdathon. Starting at a Purple Martin colony in Chestermere, we headed to Weed Lake, then down to Carburn Park. We were starting at the Martin colony because, for the first time in my memory, the Peregrine Falcons were not nesting at the University. With two scopes, three cameras and four pair of binoculars, we set out. Purple Martins are not hard to find at their homes, and we were not disappointed, with nine individuals showing for us.

Purple Martin
Male Purple Martin

Weed Lake is usually a very good place for shorebirds, but the water levels are high this spring, and we only identified the disappointing tally of 3 shorebirds not seen anywhere else. Black-bellied Plovers were the highlights, but a Black-crowned Night-Heron flyover was a nice accompaniment to a conservative estimate of 5000 Franklin’s Gulls, among which rested a single Bonaparte’s Gull.

Franklin's Gull
Franklin’s Gulls

Carburn Park was a good stop, throwing up a California Gull, American White Pelican and House Wrens. We also saw Western Wood-Pewees, a Belted Kingfisher and three Bank Swallows. It was a good thing too, as South Glenmore Park was barren of birds, excepting some out on the reservoir.

American White Pelicans
Preening session!

Heading out of the city, we took a short stop where someone had seen a Golden-crowned Sparrow recently. We missed the sparrow, but there was a lucky Western Tanager and a Tennessee Warbler.

Western Tanager
Western Tanager

We dined in Cochrane, then headed out to Horse Creek Road Marshes. Sometimes tough to find, these marshes are a brilliantly consistent place for Yellow Rails, of which we heard 3. Nelson’s Sparrows were absent, but the buzzy call of a Le Conte’s Sparrow rang out three times. We of course, were 12 hours too early for the Sedge Wren reported there the next day.

Wilson's Snipe
Wilson’s Snipe are a common sight at HCR marshes.

That pretty much ended the first half of the 24 hours, as we saw little on the return drive via Sibbald Creek Trail. That is also the end of this post, but stay tuned for the second half from Saturday in the Bow Valley! There is still time to donate to this important cause, so please click this link to see my Birdathon page. Thank you!