Yellow-rumped Warbler
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Merlin
Merlin on the hunt
Merlin eating a dragonfly
Chipping Sparrow / Spizella passerina
Colours and textures
American Tree Sparrow
European Starling / Sturnus vulgaris
A blast from the past
Merlin removing dragonfly's wings
Bees, bees, and more bees
Great Horned Owl - posting just for the record
A distant Northern Pygmy-owl
A watchful eye
Great Horned Owl male
Time for an afternoon nap
Pine Grosbeak in winter sunshine
Yesterday's treat
Gray Jay - Canada's new National bird
Gray Jay
Same tiny Northern Pygmy-owl
Way, way up
Northern Pygmy-owl
Ferocious hunter, but looking cute
Great Horned Owl
Sleepy Great Horned Owl
The size of a popcan
Yesterday's treat
Northern Hawk Owl from 2016
Two of a family of three
A backward glance
Northern Hawk Owl
Winner with its prey
Peacefully waiting
Such a beautiful owl
Perch with a good view
Northern Hawk Owl
Meadow Vole for a late lunch
Northern Pygmy-owl
False eyes and real eyes
Blue-gray Tanager / Thraupis episcopus, Tobago
Shiny Cowbird / Molothrus bonariensis, Tobago
Trinidad Motmot / Momotus bahamensis, Tobago
Green Heron, Tobago, Day 2
Rufous-tailed Jacamar, Tobago, Day 2
Green Heron, Tobago, Day 2
Rufous-tailed Jacamar, Tobago, Day 2
Purple Honeycreeper / Cyanerpes caeruleus, Asa Wri…
Masked Cardinal / Paroaria nigrogenis, Trinidad, D…
Green Honeycreeper male, Asa Wright Nature Centre,…
White-necked Jacobin, Asa Wright Nature Centre, Tr…
Blue-gray Tanager, Asa Wright Nature Centre, Trini…
Green Honeycreeper female, Asa Wright Nature Centr…
Crested Oropendola / Psarocolius decumanus, Asa Wr…
Guianan Trogon, Asa Wright Nature Centre
Collared Trogon / Trogon collaris, Asa Wright, Bel…
Copper-rumped Hummingbird / Amazilia tobac, Trinid…
Blue-gray Tanager /Thraupis episcopus, Asa Wright,…
American Robin / Turdus migratorius, Carburn Park
Green Honeycreeper, Asa Wright Nature Centre, Trin…
White-necked Jacobin female, Asa Wright Nature Cen…
Western Kingbird
Little mystery bird - juvenile Yellow-rumped Warbl…
Brown-headed Cowbird juvenile
Hawk in Fish Creek Park - juvenile Northern Goshaw…
Lazuli Bunting - just for the record
Willow Flycatcher
Flycatcher sp. - Willow or Alder Flycatcher
Yellow Warbler male
Clay-colored Sparrow / Spizella pallida
Great Horned Owl owlet, Ellis Bird Farm
Collecting food for his babies
White-crowned Sparrow / Zonotrichia leucophrys
American Goldfinch male
One of a pair
Busy parent
Close-up of bee colony
The art of preening for a young owl
Large Bee colony
Always a good mother
A Tree Swallow's iridescence
Golden-breasted Starling / Lamprotornis regius
One of a crowd
Mixed pair of Red-tailed Hawks
Northern Shrike / Lanius excubitor
Varied Thrush
Branch treasures
Blowing in the wind
A local Great Horned Owl
01 Varied Thrush / Ixoreus naevius
Pine Grosbeak enjoying the sun
Watchful eye
Beautiful bird, but grainy and blurry photo : (
Northern Pygmy-owl, one year ago
Focused, listening, watching
Clark's Nutcracker
Varied Thrush
Male beauty
Varied Thrush - a lifer
A quick glance
Pine Grosbeak / Pinicola enucleator
A photographer's nightmare
One year ago
Dainty little Common Redpoll
An unusually pale American Robin
Pretty good camouflage
Pine Grosbeak
Much better than a utility pole
Beware those icy fingers
Vole brains for her afternoon snack
Pine Grosbeak / Pinicola enucleator
Clark's Nutcracker
Clark's Nutcracker / Nucifraga columbiana
Pine Grosbeak
Triple treat
A tiny owl from the past
Pine Grosbeak in pretty light
Pine Grosbeak / Pinicola enucleator
Nature Calgary 2016 calendar
Ice is nice
Long-billed ice bird
Diamond-studded
Golden-breasted Starling
See also...
Keywords
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187 visits
House Wren at the Ellis Bird Farm
![House Wren at the Ellis Bird Farm House Wren at the Ellis Bird Farm](https://cdn.ipernity.com/200/25/36/42802536.f0cf5410.640.jpg?r2)
![](https://s.ipernity.com/T/L/z.gif)
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 that we visited later in the day), 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 donate and send them from all over the province. I believe the Farm has the largest collection of outdoor boxes in the world ... 300+!
It was a real treat to see a lot of Purple Martins at the Farm - there were so many of these birds that you couldn't tell which were actual pairs. They 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." What a long way to come to do that! These birds are uncommon in Alberta.
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 various 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 I was expecting, ha) along one of the trails (Trail #1). 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 almost as hot as if freshly made!
Thank you, Nature Calgary and Leslie, for organizing this special day trip for us! Thank you, also, to Myrna Pearman at the Farm, who organized us all and helped make this a very successful and greatly enjoyed visit! 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 that we visited later in the day), 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 donate and send them from all over the province. I believe the Farm has the largest collection of outdoor boxes in the world ... 300+!
It was a real treat to see a lot of Purple Martins at the Farm - there were so many of these birds that you couldn't tell which were actual pairs. They 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." What a long way to come to do that! These birds are uncommon in Alberta.
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 various 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 I was expecting, ha) along one of the trails (Trail #1). 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 almost as hot as if freshly made!
Thank you, Nature Calgary and Leslie, for organizing this special day trip for us! Thank you, also, to Myrna Pearman at the Farm, who organized us all and helped make this a very successful and greatly enjoyed visit! 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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