2014 Summer Vacation - June 30 - Calgary Birding

While Edith took Austin to Heritage Park for the afternoon, I had the opportunity to do some birding nearby.

June 29 - Glenmore Weaselhead Reserve - Calgary, Alberta

This park is located in Southwest Calgary in the Elbow River valley. It is adjacent to the Sarcee Indian Band's territory. From the park entrance, there is an escarpment with a paved path down to the river. It is a popular place for walkers and bicyclists.

As I was walking down the path a raptor flew overhead and I took a couple of quick shots. I assumed Swainson's Hawk, but after looking at the photos realized it was an Osprey.

Osprey

For birders, the main attraction is the bridge over the Elbow River. Each summer there is a large Cliff Swallow colony nesting under the bridge. You can see the conical mud nests below the bicyclist in this photo.

Although it's easy to locate the nests, and the swallows, it's quite a challenge to photograph them. The adult birds are in constant motion going to and from their nest. By putting my camera in sports mode and shooting five frames per second, I was able to get a few decent shots.

The birds fly low over the river scooping up bugs to feed their nestlings.

Cliff Swallow

Here are a couple of Swallows approaching their nests. There can be 3 - 6 eggs per nest and the practice of putting 1 or two eggs in other nests is common.

Cliff Swallows at Nest

Here's a good catch of a Swallow leaving the nest for the next food run.

Cliff Swallow leaving Nest

After crossing the bridge, there is a small stream the feeds into the river. Here there was a family of Common Mergansers, a mother and five ducklings. The father has completed his duty and is off moulting somewhere hundreds of miles away.

Common Merganser Female and  Ducklings

Common Merganser Ducklings

While walking along the river in a forested area, I tried to do some pishing to see if anything would pop up. sure enough a sparrow came into view. My first impression was Savannah, but when I looked at the photo in the camera viewer, I realized it was a White-throated Sparrow, a common bird east of the Rockies.

We get a few here on the coast, but the related White-Crowned and Golden-Crowned Sparrows are much more common.

White-throated Sparrow

I was preparing to leave and called Edith to check their status. She told me to take my time as they were just about to go on a boat ride. I decided to get off the main path going up the hill and found myself in more of a grassland environment.

I heard a repeated buzzy insect-like noise, but was smart enough to know that some grassland sparrows make these sounds. I scanned around and found this lovely Clay-colored Sparrow. I had seen these for the first time back in 2007, but had not seen one since. My photos this year were much better than the ones from seven years ago.

Clay-colored Sparrow

Clay-colored Sparrow

This ended my outing at the Weaselhead.

July 2 - Calgary, Alberta

What would a trip to Alberta be without Magpies? Here's one on the front porch of my cousin's house in South-west Calgary.

Black-billed Magpie - making noise, as usual

Black-billed Magpie - quiet for now...