Brown-headed Cowbird juvenile

Today, 25 July 2016, I am going to be totally messed up as far as the time is concerned. Very late last night, I happened to see online that Flickr was being bought by Verizon. The very first thing that popped into my mind was the fact that I had not posted about 30 most recent photos and their descriptions to the ipernity website. Having absolutely no idea when the sale will be finalized and having no idea of what will happen to Flickr, I thought I had better simply stay up and get my photos saved on the other site - which turned out to be all night. By then, I reckoned I might as well upload today's 'daily three' to Flickr. Had breakfast and then fell asleep for maybe an hour or so, while watching the US political News on CNN. Now I'm not even sure what day I'm on, ha. And I desperately need sleep. I was so exhausted after two long days of driving on 18 and 20 July, that I stayed home for three days. Then, yesterday, 24 July, I went with a couple of friends to Bow Valley Provincial Park to see what birds were to be seen. Just made it back home (or rather, the gas station) from the meeting place across the city, without running completely out of gas!

Only three of us turned up at the meeting place yesterday for the birding trip to Bow Valley Provincial Park. A fourth person met us out at the park. Fortunately, the other three are very good birders : ) The weather forecast was for a sunny day with a temperature of 28C in the afternoon.

We followed the Flowing Waters trail after walking to the trailhead from the Willow Rock Campground. One of the first sightings we had was this juvenile Brown-headed Cowbird being fed its foster Dad, a much smaller bird, an American Redstart.

"The Brown-headed Cowbird is a stocky blackbird with a fascinating approach to raising its young. Females forgo building nests and instead put all their energy into producing eggs, sometimes more than three dozen a summer. These they lay in the nests of other birds, abandoning their young to foster parents, usually at the expense of at least some of the host’s own chicks. Once confined to the open grasslands of middle North America, cowbirds have surged in numbers and range as humans built towns and cleared woods." From AllAboutBIrds.

"They get their name from their close association with grazing livestock (and formerly bison), which flush up insects for the birds to eat." From AllAboutBirds.

www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Brown-headed_Cowbird/id

From the Flowing Waters trail, we drove further into the park, to Many Springs trail, where we walked the loop. The wildflowers were not as colourful or abundant as they were on my last visit there.

Lunch was eaten at our next stop - a relaxing spot down by the Bow River. Then, we called in at the final location, Middle Lake. It was hot and we had already done a lot of walking, so we just walked down to the edge of the lake.

I will add our leader's list of bird species - many thanks for another enjoyable walk at Bow Valley Provincial Park, Andrew! I was happy to see a Northern Waterthrush and to get a tiny glimpse of the American Redstart, both in the forest along the Flowing Waters trail. Got a blurry shot of each bird, that I may still post on Flickr, just for the record.

Andrew Hart
eBird Checklist Summary for: Jul 24, 2016

Number of Checklists: 3
Number of Taxa: 26

Checklists included in this summary:
(1): Bow Valley PP - Flowing Waters Trails
Date: Jul 24, 2016, 8:35 AM
(2): Bow Valley PP--Many Springs Trail
Date: Jul 24, 2016, 11:15 AM
(3): Whitefish
Date: Jul 24, 2016, 12:45 PM

1 Common Merganser -- (3)
1 Bald Eagle -- (2)
7 Spotted Sandpiper -- (2),(3)
1 Ring-billed Gull -- (3)
106 California Gull -- (2),(3)
2 Willow Flycatcher -- (2)
1 Alder/Willow Flycatcher (Traill's Flycatcher) -- (1)
2 American Crow -- (3)
5 Tree Swallow -- (2),(3)
4 Mountain Chickadee -- (1)
1 Boreal Chickadee -- (1)
4 Red-breasted Nuthatch -- (1)
2 Ruby-crowned Kinglet -- (1),(2)
1 Swainson's Thrush -- (2)
4 American Robin -- (1),(2)
4 Cedar Waxwing -- (1),(2),(3)
2 Northern Waterthrush -- (1)
1 Orange-crowned Warbler -- (1)
1 Common Yellowthroat -- (1)
2 American Redstart -- (1)
1 Yellow Warbler -- (1)
4 Yellow-rumped Warbler -- (1)
2 Dark-eyed Junco -- (2)
1 White-throated Sparrow -- (2)
1 Red-winged Blackbird -- (2)
1 Brown-headed Cowbird -- (1)

Plus Mallard, Goldeneye, Buffleheads, Ring-necked Duck.