Big Year Update: February

The second month of the year looks a lot better than the first for both my Big Year 2020 and Photographic big Year challenges.  In the case of my Big Year, I added 10 species to finish the month at 71 bird species. The birds added were:

1. Caribbean Martin (Progne dominicensis)
2. Semipalmated Sandpiper (Calidris pusilla)
3. Red-billed Tropicbird (Phaethon aethereus)
4. Pacific Golden-Plover (Pluvialis fulva)
5. Northern Waterthrush (Parkesia noveboracensis)
6. Southern Lapwing (Vanellus chilensis)
7. Western Sandpiper (Calidris mauri)
8. Belted Kingfisher (Megaceryle alcyon)
9. Great Blue Heron (Ardea Herodias)
10. Lesser Black-backed Gull (Larus fuscus)

For the Photographic Big Year challenge, I added 7 images to close the month off with 9 images. The month of March is normally a quiet birding month so I am not expecting any big jumps in the Big Year 2020  tally.  What that does though, is afforded me time to concentrate on gaining quality images for the Photographic Big Year list.  Let's see how that goes.

February Images

Ruddy Turnstone

Green-throated Carib

Royal Tern

American Coot

Black-whiskered Vireo

Snowy Egret

Little Blue Heron

Big Year Update: January

After almost a month and a half, I have finally got started on my 2020 Photographic Big Year campaign.  I had a few hiccups with the lens but I have a backup cheapo, a Canon 75-300 mm.  I have just uploaded my first two birds, 1.Grey kingbird and 2. Merlin.  Checking in on my other 2020 Big Year Challenge, this is to record 110 bird species for 2020, now stands at sixty-five species. You can see the list here.  The year is moving at lightning pace, would you believe it is mid-February already and I am behind in both challenges? But not for long stay tuned for the birds to come.

 Images from Photographic Big Year Challenge

1. Grey kingbird

2. Merlin

2020

As my year count rolled over to 0 on "My eBird" page, it signaled the start of a new year, new goals, with new challenges.  This year, 2020, will be the first full year for this blog The Enthusiastic Birder, and as was done with its sister blog Birds of Barbados, when it started in 2012/13, we will be christening it by doing a big year, two infact - a triditional Big Year and a Photographic Big Year.  With both of these challenges I will be seeking to do something I have never done before - see 110, and photograph 100 local bird species in a calendar year. You can follow my progress here or on our twitter page. I wish you all a productive and birdfull 2020. 

Calgary, Alberta - Days 16 - August 16th (Last Day)

This was the rainiest, coldest day of them all,  about 9^oC with intermittent rain.  If it was not my last day in Canada, it would have been a day I stayed indoors, but I still have birds to see and places to explore.   So it was off to Mallard Point to see what the weather brought in, and unwisely without rain protection.  I got to the public area at 7:30 AM,  checked the area opposite the shrubs across from the car park before following the trail into the woods.  As I was walking a warbler flew to a dried tree branch and started foraging.  It was a

Townsend's Warbler  (Setophaga townsendi)!  I was so excited.  My excitement grew even more when I saw four chicken-like birds foraging on the ground, two adults and two chicks. I thought I hit the jackpot and scored Gray Partridge (Perdix perdix) but a closer examination said it to be Female Ring-necked Pheasants  (Phasianus colchicus).

On leaving the woods I continued to follow the trail adjacent to Diamond View SE.  I had my best looks at Baltimore Oriole (Icterus galbula) and Pine Siskin (Spinus pinus) along the path.  I also picked and ate my last Saskatoon Berries (Amelanchier alnifolia). Yummy!. By this time it was drizzling, but I continued along the path and took shelter under the Ivor Strong Bridge.  When the rain paused, I made my way back to Mallard Point. Along the way, the rain came pouring down. Needless to say, I was wet and cold when I arrived at the public area at Mallard, where I took shelter for more than an hour before heading home when the rain subsided.

Later that day I said goodbye to my friends, family, and to Calgary, a place I was reluctant to visit but has now taken a special place in my heart.  Until next time, see you Fish Creek, Burnsmead, and Mallard Point. At 12:20 AM, the morning of August 17^th, I boarded an Air Canada flight to Toronto, a 6-hour flight, then another 6 hours flying before I felt the warm 30^o C sunshine of Barbados on my face.

On my last day of birding, I added just one more bird to my tally. See the full checklist Here

Trip Tally

New Species for the Days: 1

New Lifers for the Days: 1

Total Species for the Trip: 105

Total Lifers for the Trip: 74

Townsend's Warbler 

 <---Days 14,15 | Main |

Gray Partridge

Baltimore Oriole

Spotted Sandpiper

American White Pelican

Sharp-shinned Hawk

Cedar Waxwing

Calgary, Alberta - Days 14 & 15 - August 14-15th (Mallard Point)

My 14^th &  15^th day in Calgary added three more lifers, two on the 14^th and one on the 15^th.  I checked with ebird.org  and realized that on the 13th, Nature Calgary saw two birds I did not see, Townsend's Warbler (Setophaga townsendi) and Gray Partridge (Perdix perdix ). Over the next two days, I would search diligently for these birds but will not find them. Here are the highlights of those days.

Day 14

Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)

The morning started with my usual walk from the bus stop to the public area at Mallard Point, and over to the shrubbery just across from it.  Then I made my way through the woods,  getting very good looks at both sub-species of Yellow-rumped Warblers (Setophaga coronate), the more common Myrtle, with its white throat, and the scarcer Audobon, which shows a yellow throat. Yellow-rumps were the most numerous warbler for the day.  In the area just before the footbridge,  I also spent a few minutes trying to turn a Warbling Vireo (Vireo gilvus)  into a Philadelphia Vireo (Vireo philadelphicus), two species that can be difficult to separate.  My attention was drawn to the color of the throat.  The philly’s throat is yellowish, while the warbling is much paler.  A close examination of the images said the bird was a Warbling, but a Philadelphia Vireo would have been the highlight of my day, maybe even the trip. I did see my first lifer for the day in this same area. A Black-and-white Warbler (Mniotilta varia) foraging for food high up in the canopy.
My second lifer came at Burnsmead, while I was on my way home.  I was photographing a new addition to the pond, a Redhead (Aythya Americana) when a Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura) flew by.

Day 15

Olive-sided Flycatcher

Day 15 brought an unexpected lifer, an Olive-sided Flycatcher (Contopus cooperi).  When I first saw this bird I thought it was a Western Wood-Pewee (Contopus sordidulus), but then, I noticed the bright white chest with dark flanks, giving an "open jacket" appearance on this bird, which is one of the Olive-sided field markings.  This was one of the highlight birds of my trip.  I also saw a Sharp-shinned Hawk (Accipiter striatus) with its prey but didn't see the Gray Partridge (Perdix perdix ) or the Townsend's Warbler (Setophaga townsendi).

Trip Tally

New Species for the Days: 3

New Lifers for the Days: 3

Total Species for the Trip: 104

Total Lifers for the Trip: 73

Black-and-white Warbler; Mourning Dove; Olive-sided Flycatcher

<---Days 12,13 | Main | Day 16 --->

Sharp-shinned Hawk

Blue Jay

Yellow Warbler

Olive-sided Flycatcher

Common Raven

Western Wood-Pewee

European Starling

Redhead

Calgary, Alberta - Days 12 & 13 - August 12-13th (Mallard Point)

My last 4 days of birding in Calgary were spent mostly at Fish Creek – Mallard Point in search of migrating Warblers.  In those few days, I recorded 59 species,  6 were first for the trip and lifers. I also added a few more species from  Burnsmead.

The 12^th Day 12 –Overcast and raining 

I took the bus to the stop at WB Canyon Meadows Drive and made my first entry to Mallard Point around 7 am,  using the Canyon Meadows trail to the public area.  As I walked the trail, I was greeted with my usual morning serenading by Song Sparrows (Melospiza melodia),  but when I  was crossing over from the paved trail to the bike trail, an American Kestrel (Falco sparverius), my second for the trip but first at Fish Creek, flew into a tree just across the river.  When I reached the public area, I was drawn to some shrubbery that was teeming with activity. Warblers such as Yellow-rumped Warblers (Setophaga coronate), Tennessee Warblers (Leiothlypis peregrine), and a Northern Waterthrush (Parkesia noveboracensis), also House Wrens (Troglodytes aedon) and a few sparrows were busy looking for food.  Another Waterthrush I saw was in an area with stagnant water, and it was in that area I saw my first Mallard Point lifer, an Ovenbird (Seiurus aurocapilla). I saw 25 species of birds on my first day at Mallard Point.

From Mallard Point I crossed over the river, using the footbridge, to the wooded area at Douglasbank Park. My plan was to follow the trail on that side of the river to the bridge at Burnsmead, but my trek was curtailed by rain and I returned to Mallard Point for shelter, before heading home after the rain. I visited my favorite ponds at Burnsmead on my way home and was rewarded with a lifer. I was finally able to separate Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos)  from Gadwall (Mareca strepera) thanks to a small patch of white on the wing which gave me a Gadwall. 

Day 13, August 13^th

I started about 7 AM and made my first stop by the shrubbery just opposite the car park at Mallard Point. Like the day before it was teeming with activity. From there I followed the path through the woods and saw my first bird of interest but was unable to identify it. This bird was yellow and had a reddish wash over its face. It was later identified as a Western Tanager (Piranga ludoviciana), thanks to the help of a Nature Calgary birder. My second lifer of the day, Wilson's Warblers (Cardellina pusilla), was seen in an area not far from the footbridge. It became a daily sighting in this very area. I saw 26 species at Mallard Point that day, two of which were new to the trip.

For the two days, I recorded 52 species, of which 4 were lifers.

Trip Tally

New Species for the Days: 4

New Lifers for the Days: 4

Total Species for the Trip: 101

Total Lifers for the Trip: 70  

<---Days 11 | Main | Days 14,15 --->

Tennessee Warbler

Swainson's Hawk

Calgary, Alberta – Day 11 - August 11th – Banff

Banff 

August 11^th was a day I looked forward to, it was the day we went to Banff.  I had heard sooo much about the beauty of Banff, its rivers and lakes, snowcapped mountains, and wildlife, not just birds, but also bears, wolves, and deer.  My targeted birds were Mountain (Poecile gambeli) and  Boreal Chickadees (Poecile hudsonicus), White-throated Sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis) – a bird that continued to evade me in Calgary, White-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys) and the Kinglets,  Ruby-crowned (Regulus calendula) and Golden-crowned Kinglet (Regulus satrapa).  Since it was a one-day family trip I decided not to get a birding guide but I stayed with the family and birded along the way.

We took an On-It Regional Transit bus from Somerset. This bus then made a stop in downtown Calgary before heading for Banff.  It was a long but very scenic ride, and the bus was very comfortable.  I saw many birds along the way but was only able to identify some of the raptors, mainly Red-tailed (Buteo jamaicensis)  and Swainson's Hawk (Buteo swainsoni).  I also saw a few Ospreys (Pandion haliaetus) as we got into Canmore.  My uncle and aunt pointed out a few places of interest along the way like the Olympic Park, Three Sisters Mountains, and a theme park of which I cannot remember the name.   Sadly we saw no Bears or Wolves.

We got into Banff City around 11:30 am.  I was surprised not to see many birds around, just the poster birds of invasive species worldwide Rock Pigeons (Columba livia) and

House Sparrows

House Sparrows (Passer domesticus) the latter were everywhere throughout the Banff Town area.  We took a bus to Lake Minnewanka passing many points of beauty along the way but none of them could have prepared me for the supreme, almost heavenly beauty of Lake Minnewanka.  I had lunch, then went off birding.  I was a bit weary after eavesdropping on a park ranger explaining to a family that was going off to hike the trails, how to use bear repellent and mentioning the fact that encounters with bears were more likely at that time of the year because fruiting plants were prevalent which brought the bears out to feed.  From then on I made sure I was never alone in any area.

The most common birds I saw at Lake Minnewanka were Yellow-rumped Warblers (Setophaga coronate) and Alberta’s gull of choice Ring-billed Gull (Larus delawarensis).  I did see a few lifers Mountain Chickadee  (Poecile gambeli)  and Golden-crowned Kinglet (Regulus satrapa) but the star of the show was not a bird but a very photogenic chipmunk.  It was so cute it was unbelievable!  Another highlight was my first time seeing snow. It started to form on the mountains right before my eyes and in an instant, the temperature began to drop.  We spent an hour and thirty minutes at Minnewanka, which was longer than we had planned, thanks to the birder in the group who was nowhere to be found when the group was ready to go. 

Our next place of interest was a massive mid-evil-looking castle, now the hotel of Fairmont Banff Springs.  Not many birds were seen there, but it had an interesting history.  We visited the terrace that looked over Banff,  and also a few of the shops and an art gallery before heading back to get the bus back to Calgary.  In the city, I wandered off in search of the two targeted sparrows on my list but could not find them.  I added another first for the trip while on the bus to Calgary – an American Kestrel (Falco sparverius).

Banff was one of the prettiest places I have ever seen and a must-stop on my return to Canada but next time I will stay for a few days.  The Banff excursion added just 3 new birds to my checklist, a lot less than expected, 2 of these new birds were lifers. 

Trip Tally

New Species for the Days: 3
New Lifers for the Days: 2
Total Species for the Trip: 97
Total Lifers for the Trip: 66

Mountain Chickadee; Golden-crowned Kinglet; American Kestrel

<---Days 9,10 | Main | Days 12,13 --->

Lake Minnewanka 

Golden-crowned Kinglet