SATURDAY MORNING BIRDING

       Our birding group met promptly at 10:00 AM and spent 2 1/2 hours in an area called Bower Woods. It's essentially a creek with a width of 2 or 3 hundred meters. However , it's heavily forested with mostly spruce and some poplar. It's just an excellent habitat for boreal birds.

      The pioneering Bower family gave this land to the city for parkland. The city has put in an excellent trail system

      My house is about 500 meters away from this stream . I've lived in this area since 1970 and have made great use of the area. Many photos I show have been taken in this area. 

      So here is the description of what we saw today. 

Bower Woods, Red Deer CA-AB 52.25039, -113.80132, Red Deer, Alberta, CA
7-May-2022 9:49 AM - 12:17 PM
Protocol: Traveling
4.138 kilometer(s)
17 species

14 observers

Canada Goose (Branta canadensis)  2
Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos)  4
Franklin's Gull (Leucophaeus pipixcan)  10
Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus)  4
Black-billed Magpie (Pica hudsonia)  1
American Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos)  8
Common Raven (Corvus corax)  2
Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus)  18
Boreal Chickadee (Poecile hudsonicus)  8     Excavating a nest near the top of a 2 m poplar snag
Ruby-crowned Kinglet (Corthylio calendula)  2
Red-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta canadensis)  6
White-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis)  7
American Robin (Turdus migratorius)  4
House Sparrow (Passer domesticus)  6
House Finch (Haemorhous mexicanus)  4
Chipping Sparrow (Spizella passerina)  7
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Setophaga coronata)  2

I did get one bird photo and a few of the birders.

       

BUSHWHACKING

     Bushwhacking is when you go off trails and make your way through the bush by going around or over anything in the way.  

     Today for birding we bushwhacked an area. It's hard going but you see some very different things. 

      We saw thousands of ducks on the river. Around every bend were hundreds of ducks. There were also many Canada geese and a few other species of duck mixed in with the mallards. The river is not frozen over but full of ice which is flowing along with the current.

      We did see and identify the following: blue jay, black-billed magpie, black-capped chickadee, boreal chickadee, bald eagle, Canada geese, gold eye, downy woodpecker, white-breasted nuthatch and a common raven. We also saw four mule deer.

      The weather was pleasant: sunny and about minus 3 C.

                 

RIVERBEND

       In the mid 80's our government set up a province wide park system. Much parkland was set aside in our city. Many facilities were built. The one I like best is the trail system . There are many km of paved trails. There are lesser used trails that are gravel. Many of the photos on this blog were taken in this park system.

     I rode about 47000 km on these trails over the years. 

    What I do most now in these parks is bird watch.

     Saturday we went to Riverbend. Riverbend is actually a golf course along the river. There is a trail along the river and the course is set back a 100 meters from the river so there is native habitat to walk through. So we see water fowl and boreal species at the same time.

     Saturday we saw 15 species of birds and a least weasel. 

     The highlight was swans . We only have swans during migration. We also saw a great blue heron which is somewhat late to e here.

     So we saw: common raven, black-billed magpie, mallard, trumpeter swan, blue jay, buffle head, golden eye, red head, Canada geese, scaup, white breasted nuthatch, boreal chickadee, downy woodpecker, great blue heron, black capped chickadee. 

   These are the swans visiting us.

  

  This photo is roughly the same place as the photo in my header. The header photo was taken in July and the photo shown was taken Oct. 31.

.

    Photo bombed by a ring billed gull.

BIRD WATCHING FINISHED FOR THIS YEAR

     Some of you know that I lead a bird watching group every Saturday morning.

     Yesterday was our final day for this year. There comes a time when it's too cold for binoculars, cameras and fingers. We start to see very few birds as we don't have many winter birds.

     Yesterday was dull and cold . I didn't think we'd see much. However , our list included:Canada geese, black-billed magpie, common raven, downy woodpecker, black-capped chickadee, boreal chickadee, red-breasted nuthatch, white breasted nuthatch  and northern flicker.

     I sent the group around a 1.5 km loop and I went back to the nature center to get coffee and cake ready. Yes, we have coffee and cake on the last day. They were supposed to be back before three and they weren't back. So they had a story. They had almost got all the way around when they encountered a mother moose with two calves on the trail. When she lowered her head they cleared out as fast as possible and had to walk all the way back around the trail. They were excited about their experience.

   Birding has changed a bit. Camera optics are better than binocular optics. Many times someone gets a good photo and we use that to identify a bird. The camera has a photo and it doesn't matter if the bird flies away.

   So we had our cake and coffee and talked about what we'd seen over the summer and look forward to next year. This year we saw about 90 species. There are a little over 200 species in this area.



    One of Lynette's photos that brings in the detail.

SATURDAY MORNING BIRDING

     For six months of the year I lead a Saturday morning bird watching group. We pick a spot in town or a short way out of town and spend two hours seeing what bird life is out there. I have 25 people who participate and from 10  to 15 attend each Saturday.

     The group is mixed with a few elderly and then most others are of working age. It's surprising when new people show up and say they've always birded but wanted to bird with a group. Most of the time they are excellent birders.

      Saturday , Sept 8 we went to a location called Nova Nature Trail.

     We have several large petrochemical plants here , one of them being Nova. Nova was built in the seventies and has expanded several times since. Now when large plants are made they buy a lot of land near them. They rent it back to the farmers.

     That's where the Nova Nature Trail comes in. The 255  acres was probably rented out for pasture. The company decided to make the land into a nature trail. They've done an excellent job. There are 10 to 15 km of trails The habitat varies from grass to brush to trees and  riparian.  There is a sleepy little stream the goes through the property. Beavers like this so the dams make some excellent wetlands.

     Saturday was cloudy, a bit windy and 14 C. Nine of us went out and had a great time. We found 24 bird species The garter snake that one of us nearly stepped on was and extra.

     The following photos were taken by Lynette Asselstine  Braun.

Off we go

   Look in there!

Shoveller

The great blue heron surprised us and then came back to have a look at us.

A grove of aspen

 A general view of the area. The company has build great trails and walk ways near the wetlands.

   With many sets of eyes and some very competent birders we can find quite a few species

BIRD WATCHING SEASON STARTS AGAIN

      I lead a local bird watching group. What it means is that I make up a schedule, publicize it and show up to take people around. I usually have a good idea what birds we might see in an area and then the challenge is to find the little critters. 

      I have about 25 people who attend some of the sessions. I get from 10 - 15 each time. I also have some very avid birders and some who are highly skilled. 

     Most of the sites we visit are in the city. They tend to be parks with some good native habitat. We spend about 2 hours at each site. 

    Last spring we were getting very good and would find 20 - 30 species in the two hours.

    Yesterday was the start of our fall bird watching schedule. We went to an area we had never visited. This summer someone told me of a new bike trail. The trail is made up of an old road allowance and part of it has been destroyed. Some artificial wetlands have been created. Houses are built up to the old road and the other side of the road is country. I thought this would be a good place for one of our birding outings. When I was riding birds kept flying up out of the grass.  Most nights I would see a merlin. There were geese and riding through goose poop wasn't a lot of fun.

    So did we have a good time yesterday morning ? You bet we did. The area is junky as it's being developed . Along with the trees and grass there's a good supply of weeds.

     We were happy to find 15 species of birds. It was dull and hard to see. Many of the species were sparrows and they are hard to see in the best of light.

     I've been complaining all summer about my glasses being filmy. I say it's better without my glasses. The Micro manager says I have to wash my glasses. Yesterday it was hard to get a good look at the birds. I wasn't seeing much color. Things were dull. Somebody said get new binoculars with better light.

    I've thought things over. It sounds like my cataracts have changed this summer. I will have to get in and get things checked.

     My apologies for no photos. I don't like carrying both the camera and binoculars.

LAST SPRING BIRD WATCH SESSION

      Many of you know that I lead a weekly bird watching session. I take people for two hours on Saturday mornings. We meet at various locations throughout the season and see how many bird species we can find.

    I have from 8-16 people attend and a total of 25 people who have participated. This spring we went out 9 times and 7 were at in town locations. We saw 70 species in that amount of time.

    We know our birds as several people are super knowledgeable on birds and they don't mind sharing information. They are good teachers. However , we are a fun group and lots of good visiting takes place. There are standard jokes like seeing the " penguin." 

    We don't bird in the summer so our last session was June 20. We went to a place known as Spring Brook Natural Area. It's 160 acres of natural habitat. There are wetlands, grass areas, riparian, brush and old growth forest so a wide variety of habitat.

    I didn't take photos on Saturday but I have photos from last year.

PLEASANT FALL SCENES

       On Sept . 29 the bird watching group went to a 270 acre natural area called Nova Nature Trails. Yes, the Nova, that is a world petrochemical company.


       The natural area has a wide variety of habitat so we can see a variety of bird species. There at wetlands, grasslands, brush and a few trees


      So I took the opportunity to get  few fall photos and give you a general idea of what the area is like.

 

 

 

 

 

         This is one small part of the plant.


         So six km of trails kept us busy for the morning.

TIME FOR FALL PHOTOS

     I used my  ipad for 6 or 7 posts. I did not find out how to post photos on posts I did with the ipad. When I tried photos the ipad seized up.


    So now I can post some fall photos. However, tonight is not fall . It's winter. We've had snow for three days and have about 10 cm ( 4 in).  I have shovelled the driveway and sidewalks three times.


   

 

    So posting fall photos takes me back to better times.


    Last Saturday Oct. 28 was a beautiful day. Jackets and coats came off as it was about 17 C (65 F). In my last post I shared one photo that I liked so I found out that there was very good light that day for the colors that were involved. So here are more photos from Heritage Ranch.

 

 

 

 

 

 
      This is my Saturday afternoon birding group. They know how to have fun!