Busy Barn Swallow
Dame's rocket
I'm baaack ...
Red-necked Grebe
Great Horned Owl owlet, Ellis Bird Farm
Time to preen
Camouflaged Wood Frog
Treat of the day - Black Morel
Male and female Purple Martins / Progne subis
Wilson's Snipe hiding in the grass
Barn Swallow
Female Mountain Bluebird / Sialia currucoides
Cow Parsnip / Heracleum maximum
American Robin in the countryside
Such cute little hands and feet
Hollyhock buds
Way down the fence line
Mom and her new baby
Almost ready to fledge
Along a country back road
Eastern Kingbird
Needed a change of colour
Yesterday's treat - a Bobolink
I think he caught a beautiful Tiger Moth : )
Northern Shoveler pair
Why this bird is called a Grosbeak
Everyday beauty
Meadow Creek area, Benchlands
Spotted Coralroot / Corallorhiza maculata
There WAS a fence between us
Such good parents
Red-edged petals
Couldn't have chosen a better perch myself : )
Grasshopper Sparrow / Ammodramus savannarum - OR i…
Sleeping down at the pond
Such an elegant bird
Female Bobolink / Dolichonyx oryzivorus
Clay-colored Sparrow / Spizella pallida
A closer view - male Bobolink
Red-winged Blackbird female with bokeh
Ornamental Spurge / Euphorbia polychroma (Cushion…
Beautiful wings of a female Mountain Bluebird
Tattered and torn - and still beautiful
A distant Bobolink
Chilean Flamingo
Brown-headed Cowbird / Molothrus ater
My first Bald Eagle on a fence post
It's the Bobolink again
Just a little stretch
Forest refractions on a wet Dandelion : )
Wild Rose in the rain
Bobolink male / Dolichonyx oryzivorus
A forest find
A second's rest, together
Great Gray Owl in late-morning sun
False Dandelion / Hypochaeris radicata
Hike on Erik Butters' beautiful land
I like the post as much as the bird
Yellow Warbler male
Yellow lady's-slipper
One of my favourite views
Spotted Sandpiper
Flycatcher sp. - Willow or Alder Flycatcher
White-crowned Sparrow / Zonotrichia leucophrys
Gaillardia on red
Made my day : )
Purple Martin condominium
Farm seed elevator, Ellis Bird Farm, Alberta
Lots of 'bling'
Bee nesting box
A colourful little corner
Purple Martins / Progne subis
Entrance to the Ellis Bird Farm
The old barn at the Ellis Bird Farm
Herper friend with Wood Frog (and fly)
Little treasures on a log
Tree Swallow female
Flowers of spring
Le Conte's Sparrow
American Robin male
Great Gray Owl in a field of Dandelions
American Goldfinch male
Baby fluff
Striped Coralroot / Corallorhiza striata
Tiny House Wren / Troglodytes aedon
One of yesterday's two Great Gray Owls
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
A little fungi family
A house to match
Is this a Pink?
Haute cuisine - Frog's Legs for supper
Showing off for the females
Ring-necked Pheasant at the end of the day
On the fence
Finely iridescent
Sharp-tailed Grouse
Red Baneberry
Canada Goose
02 Tree Swallow trio
03 Blowing in the wind
Successful hunting
McDougall Memorial United Church
Dandelions - of course : )
Puffed up Tree Swallow
Front of an antique store
Wilson's Snipe, seen from afar
One of a pair
Much-needed colour
Fancy plumage
This Snipe 'doesn't have a leg to stand on'
The forest is alive with fungi, lichens and mosses
A little eye-catcher
The joy of spring
One of my favourite birds to photograph
Periwinkle / Vinca minor
Western Meadowlark
First day out in the big, wide world
Colour
Matching colours
A bird of many colours
Sparkling feathers
Busy parent
Nuttall's Sunflower / Helianthus nuttallii
Brown-headed Cowbirds
Ruddy Duck
See also...
Keywords
Authorizations, license
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221 visits
Collecting food for his babies
Four days ago, on 4 June 2016, I had the chance to visit somewhere that I had longed to go to for years - the Ellis Bird Farm. This was thanks to the annual Nature Calgary Bus Trip, which goes to a different location each year. When I read where this year's outing was going to be, I was so excited and registered immediately and, apparently, was the first person on the list : ) I believe there were 66 people on the trip, enjoying a great day. The sun was shining and the temperature got up to around 25C - too warm for me and for many others, especially when the whole day is spent outdoors.
It was a very early start, with my alarm clocks set for 4:30 am. Unfortunately, they had also been set for 4:30 am the previous day, when I went on a Bio-blitz to the Square Butte Ranch. Being a dreadful 'night owl', this meant that I ended up doing these two trips on about 5 hours sleep total over the two nights. Not good! It is such a treat to go somewhere by bus - everyone can relax and chat. Some of the $50 charge per person went towards a donation to the Ellis Bird Farm (and to the JJ Collett natural area), which was good to know.
The drive from Calgary to the Ellis Bird Farm takes about an hour and a half. When we arrived, we were greeted by a long line of bird nest boxes along the fence line. Within the farm area, there were even more nest boxes - everywhere! People send them from all over the province, even from overseas. I believe the Farm has the largest collection of outdoor boxes in the world - 300+!
One of the highlights was seeing the Purple Martin condominium-style nest boxes. These birds are very social birds, who apparently like people too, and nest in condominium-style nest boxes. They spend "most of the year in the Amazon rainforest in Brazil and come up to Alberta just long enough to raise a family."
We started off by watching a very touching old video about Charlie Ellis - what a delightful, very shy, modest man he was.
""Ellis Bird Farm is both a non-profit company and a working farm. It was established in 1982 to carry on the legacy of Lacombe-area conservationists, Charlie and Winnie Ellis, when their farm was purchased by Union Carbide Canada Ltd. At the time, Charlie and Winnie operated one of the largest bluebird trails in Canada and had established their farmstead as a haven for wildlife.
The Ellis family of Parkenham, Ontario, came west in 1886 to settle on a ranch near Calgary. Their son John, then a teenager, was married in 1894 to Agnes Clark who had come west from Ontario in 1888 to teach school. They lived near Calgary until 1906 when they moved with their family of four children to a quarter section homestead in the Joffre district. In 1907 they built a two-storey frame house and subsequently enlarged the farm by the purchase of an additional five quarters.
After John and Agnes passed away in the early 1950s, two of their children, Charlie and Winnie, took over the farm operations. And about this same time, Charlie began a project that was to dominate the rest of his life; he set out his first nesting box for the Mountain Bluebirds." From Ellis Bird Farm website.
www.ellisbirdfarm.ca/
After the video, we were divided into two large groups and then further divided again. Not easy to organize such a large number of people and it was rather confusing, Have to admit that I ended up, like varous friends, wandering around, taking photos. I always prefer to be free to do this, as there is a lot of information on the Internet, which can be read before and after such a visit.
"Ellis Bird Farm made science history on Tuesday May 31 when University of Manitoba Grad Student, Alisha Ritchie, and her EBF team (Cheyenne Knight, Claudia Lipski and Myrna Pearman) retrapped a very special yearling Purple Martin. This bird had been retrofitted with a light level geolocator last season, as a nestling, and is the first songbird EVER(!) to be tracked on its first migration. The bird had evaded several attempts to trap it, so it has been named Houdini."
Information about their Purple Martin Geolocator Program:
www.ellisbirdfarm.ca/purple-martin-geolocators.html
Following our visit to the Farm, we boarded the two buses and were driven about half an hour's drive away, to the JJ Collett natural area, where the amazing Dr. Charles (Charlie) Bird took us on a walk (longer and faster paced than we were expecting, ha) along one of the trails. This is an interesting place to visit - will have to add information about it when I eventually post an image or two taken there.
www.jjcollett.com/
Not sure what time we got back to the meeting place in Calgary - around 5:15 pm? I sat in my car and gulped down a mug of black coffee before driving for maybe 45 minutes to the far side of the city. My vehicle had been sitting in the sun all day and my coffee was as hot as if freshly made!
Thank you, Nature Calgary and Leslie, for organizing this special day trip for us! Very successful and greatly enjoyed! Kate, thank you for your company on the drive there and back - made the time go faster and was so enjoyable.
It was a very early start, with my alarm clocks set for 4:30 am. Unfortunately, they had also been set for 4:30 am the previous day, when I went on a Bio-blitz to the Square Butte Ranch. Being a dreadful 'night owl', this meant that I ended up doing these two trips on about 5 hours sleep total over the two nights. Not good! It is such a treat to go somewhere by bus - everyone can relax and chat. Some of the $50 charge per person went towards a donation to the Ellis Bird Farm (and to the JJ Collett natural area), which was good to know.
The drive from Calgary to the Ellis Bird Farm takes about an hour and a half. When we arrived, we were greeted by a long line of bird nest boxes along the fence line. Within the farm area, there were even more nest boxes - everywhere! People send them from all over the province, even from overseas. I believe the Farm has the largest collection of outdoor boxes in the world - 300+!
One of the highlights was seeing the Purple Martin condominium-style nest boxes. These birds are very social birds, who apparently like people too, and nest in condominium-style nest boxes. They spend "most of the year in the Amazon rainforest in Brazil and come up to Alberta just long enough to raise a family."
We started off by watching a very touching old video about Charlie Ellis - what a delightful, very shy, modest man he was.
""Ellis Bird Farm is both a non-profit company and a working farm. It was established in 1982 to carry on the legacy of Lacombe-area conservationists, Charlie and Winnie Ellis, when their farm was purchased by Union Carbide Canada Ltd. At the time, Charlie and Winnie operated one of the largest bluebird trails in Canada and had established their farmstead as a haven for wildlife.
The Ellis family of Parkenham, Ontario, came west in 1886 to settle on a ranch near Calgary. Their son John, then a teenager, was married in 1894 to Agnes Clark who had come west from Ontario in 1888 to teach school. They lived near Calgary until 1906 when they moved with their family of four children to a quarter section homestead in the Joffre district. In 1907 they built a two-storey frame house and subsequently enlarged the farm by the purchase of an additional five quarters.
After John and Agnes passed away in the early 1950s, two of their children, Charlie and Winnie, took over the farm operations. And about this same time, Charlie began a project that was to dominate the rest of his life; he set out his first nesting box for the Mountain Bluebirds." From Ellis Bird Farm website.
www.ellisbirdfarm.ca/
After the video, we were divided into two large groups and then further divided again. Not easy to organize such a large number of people and it was rather confusing, Have to admit that I ended up, like varous friends, wandering around, taking photos. I always prefer to be free to do this, as there is a lot of information on the Internet, which can be read before and after such a visit.
"Ellis Bird Farm made science history on Tuesday May 31 when University of Manitoba Grad Student, Alisha Ritchie, and her EBF team (Cheyenne Knight, Claudia Lipski and Myrna Pearman) retrapped a very special yearling Purple Martin. This bird had been retrofitted with a light level geolocator last season, as a nestling, and is the first songbird EVER(!) to be tracked on its first migration. The bird had evaded several attempts to trap it, so it has been named Houdini."
Information about their Purple Martin Geolocator Program:
www.ellisbirdfarm.ca/purple-martin-geolocators.html
Following our visit to the Farm, we boarded the two buses and were driven about half an hour's drive away, to the JJ Collett natural area, where the amazing Dr. Charles (Charlie) Bird took us on a walk (longer and faster paced than we were expecting, ha) along one of the trails. This is an interesting place to visit - will have to add information about it when I eventually post an image or two taken there.
www.jjcollett.com/
Not sure what time we got back to the meeting place in Calgary - around 5:15 pm? I sat in my car and gulped down a mug of black coffee before driving for maybe 45 minutes to the far side of the city. My vehicle had been sitting in the sun all day and my coffee was as hot as if freshly made!
Thank you, Nature Calgary and Leslie, for organizing this special day trip for us! Very successful and greatly enjoyed! Kate, thank you for your company on the drive there and back - made the time go faster and was so enjoyable.
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