2018 Edmonton Christmas Bird Count ZONE 1 Results

A big thank you to the 11 Feeder watchers and 23 Bush beaters able to participate on Sunday. For those who missed out, you're still on the list for next year.  Results for the entire count will be sent out by organizers.

Everyone had to work hard to see birds! Very small numbers of winter finches such as Redpolls and Grosbeaks were present in Edmonton for the count. Birds go (or stay) where the food is and cone crops in the north are good. Additionally, Zone 1 birds are changing due to the large area of urban construction. Open country birds are gone and it will take a few years for new yard plantings to provide food and shelter for "forest" birds.

We're fortunate that our ravine areas are a wonderful resource for area wildlife! Large trees in the ravines are necessary for large birds like Pileated Woodpeckers and owls.

Photo by Manna

Notable sightings in our zone were:     

Goshawk by Chase

Northern Goshawk by Team Orange

Merlin by Team Purple (a team of 1, but very skilled)

3 Bohemian Waxwings  by Team Pink

 Team Green counted the most woodpeckers and White-winged Crossbills

A single Mallard duck in Blackmud Creek by Team Blue (We've never seen one there before!)

Mallard !?!     AC

Woodpecker Habitat by Manna

Feeder Watchers counted a Northern Flicker, Redpolls and a single Starling along with good numbers of the usual feeder birds. Seems it was cold enough overnight to bring them in to most of the feeders. A couple of our watchers saw no birds on the day. This may be an indication that there was a raptor (Merlin or Goshawk) nearby causing the small birds to avoid your yard.

There was a line-up for this feeder which has a tail-prop. Woodpeckers really like this style. AC

Here are our zone 1 totals of the birds counted in your neighbourhood:

  23     SPECIES

Mallard   1

Rock Pigeon   62

Northern Goshawk   1

Downy Woodpecker   55

Hairy Woodpecker    7

Pileated Woodpecker    6

Northern Flicker   1

Merlin   1

Blue Jay   76

Black-billed Magpie    83

Common Raven   17

Black-capped Chickadee   326

Boreal Chickadee    6

Red-breasted Nuthatch    46

White-breasted Nuthatch   20

European Starling    1

Bohemian Waxwing   3

House Finch   96

Common Redpoll   14

White-winged Crossbill    46

Pine Siskin   7

Dark-eyed Junco   18

House Sparrow   148

 

Aerial Acrobat by Manna

Who's Watching Whom?

The Lady Bird of a Pair by AC

Until next year, enjoy your birds!
Ann and John

Summer Highlights: July

Our Alberta summer was hot and stormy.

Alberta Twisters

 

The birds are quieter at this time of year, sheltering their young families.

We had to work harder to find them. 

 

Police Car Moth
 

Moths and butterflies, on the other hand, were abundant and provided

 a change of pace for us.

Highlight for the month of July was a weekend spent around
Dry Island Buffalo Jump Park.
 

We paused at the cliff's edge, watching the birds of prey soar over the canyon.

Hendrik

Then drove the steep, winding trail into the sweltering heat of the bottomland.

Prickly Pear Cactus photo by Gerry F.

 

We travelled along the riverbank, scanning the brush.

Hendrik, from South Africa, said he felt like he needed

to watch for Hippos!

Rather than follow Gerald here, we turned around and headed for higher ground.

The heat was intense and the trail was challenging.

 

Sheltering from the sun.

Turning back, we found one of the targets.
A bird on my 2012 Wish List.

Say's Phoebe

Worn out by the high temperatures, everyone called it a day.

After a good night's sleep in an air conditioned hotel room,
John and I met those who had camped out.

It was a perfect summer morning.

Tolman Bridge

The convoy chose to return home via very quiet back roads.

We had a huge surprise as we stopped to get a better look at
a pair of large white birds.
We identified them as endangered Whooping Cranes.

Happy Birders photo by Mira F.

 Stopping often to observe wildlife, we would quickly exit the vehicles,
 leaving the doors standing open, to bring binoculars to eyes.
After having a good look, everyone would hop back into
the coolness of the cars and continue along.

Horned Lark

This pattern caused me a few moments of panic as we'd travelled through rattlesnake territory.

Jumping back into the truck I closed the door, then froze,
as I heard hissing very clearly coming from beside me!

Not daring to move, I considered my options and couldn't come up with anything
that seemed like a good idea.

Then, as the scent of coconut wafted through the air, I looked down.
At that point it became clear that when fastening my seat belt I had inadvertently depressed and held the spray button on the sunscreen in my hip pocket...

Laughing, we made it home safely.

 

 



June Destinations

The month of June was very busy, lots of places to go and birds to see. Here are some highlights...

Cold Lake Provincial Park is a few hours of driving north from Edmonton. A great selection of warblers can be found in the park in early June. Some varieties are funneled through there on their migration (flying even further north), others remain to set up breeding territories. We spent a weekend there with Edmonton Nature Club members.

Chestnut-Sided Warbler

These tiny, colourful birds are highly sought after and provide a real challenge to view as they move quickly through the forest, often in the treetops. The only thing more difficult than viewing them, is photographing them.

Orange-crowned Warbler

Most of us are very pleased to snap a quick shot that’s hopefully in focus. Sometimes we get lucky with a cooperative bird that sits still for a few seconds. The real photographers spend hours set up in a location they like, waiting for the perfect shot.

I don’t have that kind of patience!

Blackburnian Warbler

We did have some wet weather, so it was good we had a plastic slicker from Niagara Falls to offer Stan.

photo by G. Romanchuk

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Closer to home we enjoyed this view as we walked the trails at Miquelon Lake.

 Yellow Warbler                                   

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 We found this beautiful bird claiming his territory beside a path in Chickakoo Rec Area.

  

American Redstart Warbler

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Elk Island Century Day is an annual event for the nature club. The group starts out early and we try to find a hundred species of birds in the national park just east of Edmonton. This year the count went very smoothly and we were able to reach our target. 

It did require a lot of effort and some bush-whacking!

  Gerald's "trail" and Gerald's photo of Gerry.          

We move along quickly when we're counting, so not a lot of time for snapshots but here are a couple of things we've seen in the park this month.

 Perhaps a "Melissa Blue"?

This big guy made us a bit uneasy, but after snorting his disgust, he turned and went the other way.

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One day was spent on a special excursion to see endangered Piping Plovers.

We met with biologist Dave who had agreed to give us a lakeside lesson on

these diminutive shorebirds that are struggling to survive.

We used our scopes to locate and count the birds.

We went out in small groups for a closer look while Dave (left) removed the predator exclosures from over the nest sites where the young had already fledged.

Piping Plover

We did our best not to disturb the birds. We counted 10 adults and 5 young but Dave was optimistic that we didn't find all the young as it was a very hot day and they were probably sheltering.

One pair was still incubating eggs so their exclosure remains

until Dave makes another monitoring trip. 

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We enjoyed a couple of Edmonton park walks. We led one to count the ducks in Hawrelak Park.

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And we visited Wagner Natural Area for the orchids.

Lady Slipper


                    

Round Leaf Orchid                                                    Shooting Star         
photos by John

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On our stay in Jasper we saw more bears than birds.

but that's a story for another day...

Alberta Spring: Sharp-tailed Grouse

The second day of our spring celebration started early but excitement rolled me out of bed at 3:15am without hesitation.

The hotel kindly provided breakfast early and everyone was ready to go at 4:30.

 

Our chaperone from the Wainwright Naturalist Society led us onto the Wainwright Army Base for orientation. OK, we won't pick up anything we find!

A very bumpy ride, followed by a very bumpy walk took us to the lek as dawn was breaking.

We crawled into the assorted four foot tall blinds that surround the display area and after a bit of shuffling, settled on the benches with great anticipation.

It wasn't long until a voice whispered "Here they come."

I had expected the birds to walk in slowly,
but they flew onto the ground in front of us in a flurry.

 

The eight males and one female all peered around nervously.

The ladies in this blind had a close-up view.

Then as the morning light strengthened, the grouse began to "dance".

The males moved forward, circling around the lek, rushing toward another male at times.

I heard the word "awesome" softly repeated several times...

Twice a circling hawk flushed the group, which immediately flew off to find cover.

Happily, the grouse soon returned.

The dancing birds would spin, rush forward and then suddenly all freeze.

A staring competition seemed to determine a victor and the loser assumed a submissive posture.

Here's a handsome specimen. As the light improved it picked up those bright orange "lores".

After about an hour and a half the covey retired.

We crawled from the box blinds for a good stretch.

photo by Gerald Romanchuk

In celebration, we gathered on the lek and did our grouse imitation.

Lots of smiles on those faces!

photo by Gerald Romanchuk

Below is a link to a few seconds of lek activity so you can get the sound and movement.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUqN9a3yGio&feature=email