Ice patterns

THIS IS SUPPOSED TO SHOW AS MY MAIN IMAGE TODAY, but instead, photo number 03 is being seen as my main photo (i.e. last photo posted). So, Flickr messes up again - drives me nuts! Thanks so much for letting me know, Bonnie! Comes on top of the absolute mess with Stats!

My photo doesn't do justice to the ice patterns that we saw from the bird blind at Frank Lake four days ago. As well as the way the ice had cracked into endless small pieces, there were bubbles in between the pieces. I'm not sure, but I'm guessing that the bubbles were caused by methane gas escaping from all the plant material at the bottom of the lake?

On 19 March 2016, I was on a birding day trip with a group of friends, going SE of Calgary, E of High River. Though the day started off rather cold, it gradually warmed up and was a beautiful day to be out in nature.

I will add our leader's report that he sent into eBird, adding that I did not see all of the sightings, as the birds were much too far away. As always, my camera lens was turned to various other things, too. Thanks so much, as always, Andrew, for a most enjoyable day! Thanks, too, Anne (B), for driving - I really appreciated the ride!

"We had 16 participants when we left Calgary on a sunny but frosty morning.

We arrived at the main gate around 10:00 am and set off, in a chilly -5 deg C to walk down to the outfall and then around to the blind. The recent cold nights had refrozen some of the lake, but it is still mostly open water.

Most obvious were the thousands of Pintails and hundreds of swans (mostly Tundra today). We did see the overwintering (presumably) Song Sparrow near the outfall. About 60-80 California Gulls, no other gulls that we could identify.

We left and went to High River for lunch, stopping by the Sutherland Shelterbelt to acknowledge the resident Great Horned Owl.

After lunch we circled the lake on the usual roads and ended up at the Basin 2 West Bay. Several more swans and finally, the Eurasian Wigeon, spotted by Tony Timmons. By lunchtime the temperature had reached about 10 deg C and continued to rise reaching ~14 deg C and making a perfect Alberta Spring (almost) afternoon.

Leaving Frank Lake we stopped in at Blackie to find mostly Starlings, and a few Eurasian Collared Doves.

The list for Frank Lake and Blackie was:

Checklists included in this summary:
(1): Frank Lake--NW lookout/blind
Date: Mar 19, 2016, 9:55 AM
(2): Sutherland's Shelterbelt (private property)
Date: Mar 19, 2016, 12:30 PM
(3): Frank Lake--Basin 2 (Southeast Corner)
Date: Mar 19, 2016, 2:15 PM
(4): Frank Lake--Basin 2 (West Bay)
Date: Mar 19, 2016, 3:05 PM
(5): Blackie (hamlet)
Date: Mar 19, 2016, 4:10 PM

650 Canada Goose -- (1),(3),(4)
4 Trumpeter Swan -- (1)
225 Tundra Swan -- (1),(4)
3 Gadwall -- (1)
2 Eurasian Wigeon -- (4)
60 American Wigeon -- (1),(4)
160 Mallard -- (1),(3),(4)
2 Northern Shoveler -- (4)
4550 Northern Pintail -- (1),(3),(4)
24 Canvasback -- (1),(4)
76 Redhead -- (1),(4)
5 Lesser Scaup -- (4)
150 Common Goldeneye -- (1),(4)
2 Gray Partridge -- (2)
1 Northern Harrier -- (4)
2 Bald Eagle -- (1),(3)
5 Killdeer -- (1),(2)
80 California Gull -- (1)
6 Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon) -- (3),(5)
4 Eurasian Collared-Dove -- (5)
2 Great Horned Owl -- (2)
1 Merlin -- (5)
5 Black-billed Magpie -- (1),(2)
1 Common Raven -- (3)
3 Horned Lark -- (1)
51 European Starling -- (2),(5)
2 American Tree Sparrow -- (1)
1 Song Sparrow -- (1)
8 House Finch -- (5)
20 House Sparrow -- (2),(5)

From Blackie we stopped by Third Lake on the way back to Calgary. A huge number of birds there, somewhere between 4000 and 8000, generally somewhat distant. Mostly Pintails, but we also saw American Wigeon, Mallard, a few Canada Geese, and California Gulls.

Clearly Pintails are on the move right now."

Andrew Hart