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
Iris at Olds College Botanical Gardens and Wetland…
My first Bald Eagle on a fence post
Red River Hog / Potamochoerus porcus
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
Couldn't have chosen a better perch myself : )
Red-edged petals
Such good parents
There WAS a fence between us
Spotted Coralroot / Corallorhiza maculata
Meadow Creek area, Benchlands
Everyday beauty
Why this bird is called a Grosbeak
Northern Shoveler pair
I think he caught a beautiful Tiger Moth : )
Yesterday's treat - a Bobolink
Needed a change of colour
Eastern Kingbird
Along a country back road
Almost ready to fledge
Mom and her new baby
Way down the fence line
Hollyhock buds
Such cute little hands and feet
American Robin in the countryside
Cow Parsnip / Heracleum maximum
Female Mountain Bluebird / Sialia currucoides
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119 visits
Grasshopper Sparrow / Ammodramus savannarum - OR is it a Le Conte's Sparrow?
This bird was seen yesterday, 19 June 2016, at a local park during an afternoon birding walk - in fact, the very last birding walk of the season until around the end of August. We started our walk at Bankside and ended up at Mallard point four hours later, following the path along the Bow River. Driving the park road to Bankside, we stopped to check out the Burnsmead Ponds, where the beautiful Heron in my previous photo was standing. Another photographer was already there - nice to meet you, Susan, and I enjoyed our little chat.
The Sunday afternoon walks are more laid back and tend to be at a more leisurely pace, which suits me much better, so I go when I can. And we always go for coffee and a bite to eat afterwards, which I enjoy just as much (if not more!) than the walk itself. Hard to believe that we ended up seeing 50 bird species! The absolute highlight was when Jeff H. heard, then spotted, a Grasshopper Sparrow. A very clever sighting! I have never seen one and, until recently, had never even heard of such a Sparrow. It couldn't have been much more difficult to see, as it only popped up from the grass and bushes two or three times for a split second, before disappearing again. Eventually, it flew to the plant seen in my next photo, and I was finally able to see it. I think this might just have been the fastest reaction with my camera that has ever happened and somehow the lens luckily focused on the bird rather than just on the leaves in front. Just enough detail to confirm the ID. Thanks so much, Jeff, for finding this great bird for us!
Yesterday evening, I got an e-mail from Terry Korolyk, who has spent so many years finding, recording and reporting not only all his own bird sightings, but those of so many other people. So much work and such valuable data. He wrote the following to me:
"You guys got a good one. Haven't seen a Grasshopper Sparrow report around Calgary for quite some time now. We used to occasionally get one reported east of the City. Some places in the south part of the Province used to be good for them with probably the nearest site being north of Taber. Not many reports from down there in recent years, but, I don't think anybody's gone down there looking for them."
I did a quick check on ebird last night and found the following most recent sightings from Calgary and surroundings. Of course, there could have been a few unreported sightings in addition to these:
1987 - 1 reported by Nature Calgary at the Irricana Sloughs
1988 - 1 reported by Nature Calgary in Weaselhead
1988 - 6 reported by Nature Calgary at the Irricana Sloughs
1994 - 1 reported by Nature Calgary at Frank Lake
"A furtive bird of open grasslands, the Grasshopper Sparrow takes its name not only from its diet, but also from its insect-like song. It is found during the breeding season across much of the eastern United States and Great Plains, nesting and feeding mostly on the ground." From AllABoutBirds,
www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Grasshopper_Sparrow/id
"FFCPPSoc. Birding Burnsmead Ponds, Bankside to Mallard Point, FCPP, Calgary. 1:15 - 5:15 PM. Sunday, June 19/16. Our Group of Seven enjoyed a sunny, warm (20 to 24C), afternoon with only light westerly winds.
1. Pied-billed Grebe - 1
2. Double-crested Cormorant - 4
3. Great Blue Heron - 2
4. Canada Goose 6 (2 adults,4 goslings)
5. Mallard - 28
6. Gadwall - 5
7. American Wigeon - 7
8. Northern Shoveler - 2
9. Blue-winged Teal - 6
10. Common Goldeneye - 3
11. Common Merganser - 6
12. Cooper's Hawk - 1
13. Red-tailed Hawk - 1
14. Swainson's Hawk - 1
15. Osprey - 1
16. Merlin - 1
17. Ring-necked Pheasant - 3
18. American Coot - 7 (2 adult, 5 young)
19. Spotted Sandpiper - 8
20. Franklin's Gull - 275
21. Ring-billed Gull - 2
22. California Gull - 1
23. Rock (Feral) Pigeon - 3
24. Northern Flicker - 5
25. Downy Woodpecker - 3
26. Western Wood Pewee - 1 heard
27. Least Flycatcher - 2
28. Eastern Kingbird - 2
29. Warbling Vireo - 1 heard
30. Black-billed Magpie - 3
31. American Crow - 4
32. Common Raven - 5
33. Tree Swallow - 30
34. Bank Swallow - 20
35. House Wren - 5
36. American Robin - 32
37. Cedar Waxwing - 6
38. European Starling - 3
39. Yellow Warbler - 6
40. Clay-coloured Sparrow - 5
41. Savannah Sparrow - 48
42. GRASSHOPPER SPARROW - 1 found by Jeff H. Photo'd by Anne E.
43. Song Sparrow - 3
44. Lincoln's Sparrow - 1
45. Baltimore Oriole - 1
46. Red-winged Blackbird - 53
47. Yellow-headed Blackbird - 5
48. Common Grackle - 5
49. Brown-headed Cowbird - 5
50. House Sparrow - 8
Muskrat - 1
White-tailed Deer - 1
Swallowtail Butterfly -1
Leaders: Bernie Diebolt, Janet Gill"
The Sunday afternoon walks are more laid back and tend to be at a more leisurely pace, which suits me much better, so I go when I can. And we always go for coffee and a bite to eat afterwards, which I enjoy just as much (if not more!) than the walk itself. Hard to believe that we ended up seeing 50 bird species! The absolute highlight was when Jeff H. heard, then spotted, a Grasshopper Sparrow. A very clever sighting! I have never seen one and, until recently, had never even heard of such a Sparrow. It couldn't have been much more difficult to see, as it only popped up from the grass and bushes two or three times for a split second, before disappearing again. Eventually, it flew to the plant seen in my next photo, and I was finally able to see it. I think this might just have been the fastest reaction with my camera that has ever happened and somehow the lens luckily focused on the bird rather than just on the leaves in front. Just enough detail to confirm the ID. Thanks so much, Jeff, for finding this great bird for us!
Yesterday evening, I got an e-mail from Terry Korolyk, who has spent so many years finding, recording and reporting not only all his own bird sightings, but those of so many other people. So much work and such valuable data. He wrote the following to me:
"You guys got a good one. Haven't seen a Grasshopper Sparrow report around Calgary for quite some time now. We used to occasionally get one reported east of the City. Some places in the south part of the Province used to be good for them with probably the nearest site being north of Taber. Not many reports from down there in recent years, but, I don't think anybody's gone down there looking for them."
I did a quick check on ebird last night and found the following most recent sightings from Calgary and surroundings. Of course, there could have been a few unreported sightings in addition to these:
1987 - 1 reported by Nature Calgary at the Irricana Sloughs
1988 - 1 reported by Nature Calgary in Weaselhead
1988 - 6 reported by Nature Calgary at the Irricana Sloughs
1994 - 1 reported by Nature Calgary at Frank Lake
"A furtive bird of open grasslands, the Grasshopper Sparrow takes its name not only from its diet, but also from its insect-like song. It is found during the breeding season across much of the eastern United States and Great Plains, nesting and feeding mostly on the ground." From AllABoutBirds,
www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Grasshopper_Sparrow/id
"FFCPPSoc. Birding Burnsmead Ponds, Bankside to Mallard Point, FCPP, Calgary. 1:15 - 5:15 PM. Sunday, June 19/16. Our Group of Seven enjoyed a sunny, warm (20 to 24C), afternoon with only light westerly winds.
1. Pied-billed Grebe - 1
2. Double-crested Cormorant - 4
3. Great Blue Heron - 2
4. Canada Goose 6 (2 adults,4 goslings)
5. Mallard - 28
6. Gadwall - 5
7. American Wigeon - 7
8. Northern Shoveler - 2
9. Blue-winged Teal - 6
10. Common Goldeneye - 3
11. Common Merganser - 6
12. Cooper's Hawk - 1
13. Red-tailed Hawk - 1
14. Swainson's Hawk - 1
15. Osprey - 1
16. Merlin - 1
17. Ring-necked Pheasant - 3
18. American Coot - 7 (2 adult, 5 young)
19. Spotted Sandpiper - 8
20. Franklin's Gull - 275
21. Ring-billed Gull - 2
22. California Gull - 1
23. Rock (Feral) Pigeon - 3
24. Northern Flicker - 5
25. Downy Woodpecker - 3
26. Western Wood Pewee - 1 heard
27. Least Flycatcher - 2
28. Eastern Kingbird - 2
29. Warbling Vireo - 1 heard
30. Black-billed Magpie - 3
31. American Crow - 4
32. Common Raven - 5
33. Tree Swallow - 30
34. Bank Swallow - 20
35. House Wren - 5
36. American Robin - 32
37. Cedar Waxwing - 6
38. European Starling - 3
39. Yellow Warbler - 6
40. Clay-coloured Sparrow - 5
41. Savannah Sparrow - 48
42. GRASSHOPPER SPARROW - 1 found by Jeff H. Photo'd by Anne E.
43. Song Sparrow - 3
44. Lincoln's Sparrow - 1
45. Baltimore Oriole - 1
46. Red-winged Blackbird - 53
47. Yellow-headed Blackbird - 5
48. Common Grackle - 5
49. Brown-headed Cowbird - 5
50. House Sparrow - 8
Muskrat - 1
White-tailed Deer - 1
Swallowtail Butterfly -1
Leaders: Bernie Diebolt, Janet Gill"
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