Sunrise start to a birding day in Calgary

It's very rare that I post my "daily three" very late at night or shortly after midnight. However, this is one of those times, and I will probably have to finish off descriptions, tags, etc. late tomorrow evening. I have to set my two alarm clocks and kitchen timer for about 4:15 am (and it's already just after 1:00 am!). Just hope I don't sleep right through my alarms, as does happen sometimes. Have to be at the meeting place by 6:30 am, ready to spend a very long day travelling to and from the Drumheller area in the Alberta Badlands, east of Calgary. Takes roughly two hours to get there. Think I'd better get off my computer and head for bed!

It was a really long day out on 20 December 2015, taking part in the annual Calgary Christmas Bird Count. We did SO much walking, starting at 8:00 am, getting home around 4:00 p.m., and then I was out all evening at the potluck supper held for the many participants who covered various parts of the city.

Our first stop was at the place seen in this photo, looking out over downtown Calgary. The sunrise colours were beautiful and the whole day gave us good weather. The Calgary Tower, which used to be the tallest building downtown, is now dwarfed by others. At the moment, it has Christmas coloured lights around the top section. From this location, we then spent the day driving short distances and then walking round the various residential streets. There were so many White-winged Crossbills!

The total overall number of species seen for the whole city this year was really good, though we haven't yet had the finalized number. The group of 4 of us that covered part of the NE had 24 species, which was also good. Will add our small group's list below.

Species 24:

Canada Goose 200+
Mallard 100+
Raven 11
American Crow 4
Magpie 86
Rock Pigeon 38
Starling 2
Bald Eagle 1
Merlin 3
Downy Woodpecker 3
Northern Flicker 21
Blue Jay 2
American Robin 3
White-winged Crossbill 340
Red Crossbill 24
House Finch 134
Black-capped Chickadee 26
Red-breasted Nuthatch 18
White-breasted Nuthatch 1
Common Redpoll 21
Dark-eyed Junco 5
Golden-crowned Kinglet 2
House Sparrow 750
Eurasian Collared Dove 63

Tony T.