January started cold in Calgary this year. For the first two weeks, temperatures were near -20 degrees Celcius. I went down to Bowmont Park once to feed the Black-capped chickadees, but I didn’t hear a peep from a single one. Luckily, temperatures were balmy last weekend (a touch above 0) and the chickadees were singing happily. About ten of them took turns picking sunflower seeds … Continue reading Chickadees
Two young ospreys fledged from the Bowmont Park nest this year. The starkness of the bare branch against the open sky in this photo compelled me to convert it to black and white. But I wanted to keep the orange eye. Young ospreys have orange eyes whereas adults have light lime-greenish yellow eyes. Also, the white scalloping on the ends of juvenal wing feathers is … Continue reading Young Osprey
Yellow! This Tuesday (July 12th) I saw my first american goldfinches in breeding plumage in Calgary. Walking west from the osprey nest in Bowmont Park, on the small dirt path that follows the bank of the Bow River, I saw a bright yellow bird sitting on a low tree branch. I usually see a few yellow warblers in this park, in perpetual motion from one … Continue reading Tuesday’s birds
In late April of this year, while walking along the top of the Bowmont Park bluffs, I noticed some holes in the glacial till cliffs, which looked like good homes for some kind of swallow. On Sunday June 5th, I had the pleasure of seeing and hearing hundreds of Bank Swallows flying and twittering in the air near the bluffs. I recorded a little video … Continue reading Bank Swallows at Bowmont Park
Northern Flickers usually peck at the ground for insects (mmm, nutritious ant larvae!) but occasionally they peck at trees. They do excavate nest holes in dead or diseased tree trunks. However, I don’t think this male was excavating a nest. The tree trunk was riddled with little holes and the Flicker pecked the trunk in a few different places. He didn’t enter the large hole … Continue reading Flicker kiss
In the past two weeks, since Spring started springing, I’ve been enjoying the harmonies of American Robins and male Red-winged Blackbirds on some of my morning walks. Yesterday, I got treated to some new tunes. Song sparrows! So many of them! It was a beautiful sunny morning along the Bow River at Bowmont Park. The leaf buds of the many, many balsam poplars have opened … Continue reading Singing Song Sparrows
