Juvenile White-throated Sparrow / Zonotrichia albicollis

All three photos posted this morning, were taken yesterday, 25 September 2016. It was a day of birding east and south-east of the city, with a group of birding friends. We set out at 8:00 am and our main stopping places were Weed Lake, Marsland Basin and Wyndham-Carseland Provincial Park.

I will add our leader's (Howard Heffler) list of species below. Pretty much the usual sightings - lots of ducks, a number of Hawks including the juvenile Red-tailed Hawk seen in the previous photo and this juvenile White-throated Sparrow which was seen while we were walking around in Lynn and Sue's acreage at Marsland Basin. These Sparrows are common, but I rarely see one - you often hear one singing, but are unable to see it. Also, a Merlin that was perched high up on a power pole. The water level at the wetland at Marsland Basin was very high, so there was no sign of the mudflats there, so barely any shorebirds. We did have three small flocks of Greater White-fronted Geese fly high overhead while we were looking out over the water, which was great. As usual, most birds we saw were much too far away for photos.

As usually happens, when birds are too far away for me to see, my camera lens turns to a few other subjects, including the Sowthistle flower in one of the photos posted this morning, which had three different insects on it.

Many thanks for leading this trip, Howard, and thanks, too, to Jim for driving half of us. I always appreciate a trip like this, with people who are all expert birdspotters - and then there's me, lol!

"Eight participants met at Carburn Park at 8:00 AM and spent a beautiful fall day birding three locations east of Calgary. We first stopped at the south end of Weed Lake. Water levels were high so there was almost no shorebird habitat. A highlight was the large numbers of American Pipits. Marsland Basin, thanks to Lynn and Sue, is a wonderful spot for both the wetland and the treed areas. Next we went Wyndham-Carseland Provincial Park. We were not able to pick out a Mew Gull that had been recently reported there among the 100’s of Ring-billed Gulls. Thanks to Nimali Seneviratne for keeping track of species and doing the eBird postings. The combined list for the day was:

Greater White-fronted Goose 108
Canada Goose 36
Gadwall 45
American Wigeon 22
Mallard 325
Northern Shoveler 400
Northern Pintail 80
Green-winged Teal 278
Bufflehead 18
Common Merganser 3
Ruddy Duck 5
Gray Partridge 20
Pied-billed Grebe 1
Eared Grebe 1
Double-crested Cormorant 3
American White Pelican 12
Great Blue Heron 4
White-faced Ibis 1
Bald Eagle 1
Northern Harrier 3
Sharp-shinned Hawk 2
Swainson's Hawk 1
Red-tailed Hawk 6
American Coot 51
Killdeer 4
Long-billed Dowitcher 9
Wilson's Snipe 2
Greater Yellowlegs 4
Franklin's Gull 3
Ring-billed Gull 1,000
Rock Pigeon 2
Eurasian Collared-Dove 1
Belted Kingfisher 2
Northern Flicker 1
Merlin 1
Blue Jay 2
Black-billed Magpie 6
Red-breasted Nuthatch 2
Marsh Wren 1
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 4
Swainson's Thrush 2
European Starling 34
American Pipit 95
Ovenbird 1
Orange-crowned Warbler 4
Yellow-rumped Warbler 5
Dark-eyed Junco 5
White-throated Sparrow 6
Western Meadowlark 5
Common Grackle 2
House Sparrow 12

Will have to finish off my other descriptions and tags later, as I am running late this morning and have a birding walk to get to.

Later: I ended up not going on my birding walk this morning. By the time I got up early and had breakfast, I was feeling somewhat queasy and thought I had better not go on the walk. Felt a bit better later in the morning and decided to go to the Park after all (Bebo Grove, Fish Creek Park), getting there about noon. Met a delightful young man standing on the bridge over the creek and pointing out to me a perched bird of prey. It took a little while to decide just what it was - helped by excellent birder, Nimali, who happened to come along the path. We decided it was a Cooper's Hawk ('C' for curved edge of tail tip and 'C' for Cooper's). Looking at my photos this evening, I'm still not 100% sure if it was a Cooper's or a Sharp-shinned. In a few of the photos, the tail tip edge looked more straight than curved.

This hawk stayed around for ages and gave some nice opportunities for photos, including of it 'mantling' (spreading out its wings to form a cloak) when it captured a large dragonfly and returned to the same branch. When two of us were first standing on the bridge, this hawk flew down right over our heads two or three times - maybe because we were attracting insects around us? We noticed a second similar hawk, too, and we wondered if they were maybe juveniles, especially as the main one was very comfortable with us standing nearby. Made my day : ) I even spotted several mushrooms earlier in my walk, which was a surprise. Can't believe I was out in the park for about five hours! A very enjoyable walk - glad to have your company, Nimali, and that of the very knowledgeable young man (an absolute lover of Nature) we had just met.