Tag: birding

Project 366 – Post No. 004 – A Celebrity Couple

What is Project 366? Read more here!

If you spend any time down in the Whitemud Ravine, whether you are a birder, dog walker or fitness buff, you soon realize that someone is hiding high up in the trees along the trail. It’s an expecting pair of Great Horned Owls. They are discrete and quiet with the female hiding in a large tree cavity while sitting on eggs and the male, always close by, hiding among the branches high up in a nearby tree. You could easily walk by them not realizing they are there. The only reason one cannot miss them is because of all the photographers hanging out by their nesting site. These owls are truly a celebrity couple with paparazzis-style nature photographers and nature buffs breathlessly watching their every move and counting the days the female has been sitting on the eggs. Apparently today is day 23. Great Horned Owls incubate their eggs for about 30-37 days which would give a predicted hatch date somewhere between April 8 and April 15. With the Whitemud Ravine being the closest birding hotspot for us, we typically head down to the creek several times a week. It is always exciting, refreshing and suspenseful as you never know what you see or who you bump into, birds, animals or fellow nature buffs. On our walk yesterday I managed to snap the following picture of the male. He seemed tired and could not care less about the photographers below the tree. For a moment a feisty Black-capped Chickadee tried to get his attention, but he dismissed the diminutive critter like it would be nothing more than a buzzing mosquito. The chickadee deserves our respect though. It takes some big cojones for someone that small to pick a fight with someone that much larger with those formidable talons and beak.

May the curiosity be with you. This is from “The Birds are Calling” blog (www.thebirdsarecalling). Copyright Mario Pineda.

Project 366 – Post No. 003 – Geese on Ice

What is Project 366? Read more here!

The Canada Geese are back and with that, spring migration is slowly getting started. I spend the morning at Elk Island National Park and came across, what must be one of the most iconic Canadian sights, a bunch of Canada Geese making a racket on top of a beaver dam in a frozen lake. No sight of beavers though. I imagine, however, that the occupants of the dam must have been royally annoyed by being awoken so rudely by the geese. Not far away, I spotted a band of European Starlings chattering away in a tree. The starlings became species 42 on my Alberta Big Year list. It may be a slow start to spring but from now on it can only get better as the pace of the returning migrants quickens. There is much too look forward to as our familiar birding spots are about to get transformed. The bison were also out in full force, both the Plains and the Wood bison. I also saw some deer and a fleeting shadow at a forest edge in the distance eerily reminiscent of a moose, but maybe it was just an optical illusion combined with wishful thinking.

May the curiosity be with you. This is from “The Birds are Calling” blog (www.thebirdsarecalling). Copyright Mario Pineda.

Project 366 – Post No. 002 – Quite a Looker

What is Project 366? Read more here!

Bohemian Waxwings like to hang out in fruit tree. They are frugivores with an attitude. They can be found roaming around in large groups, descending on fruit trees and engaging in noisy fruit eating feasts before moving on. Over the last few weeks we have been seeing Bohemian Waxwings regularly in the Whitemud Ravine. They are handsome birds with facial markings resembling the makeup of a Chinese opera performer, wingtips with distinct bright yellow, white and red markings, dark orange under tail feathers and bright yellow tail tip. You can never have enough Bohemian Waxwings in your life.

May the curiosity be with you. This is from “The Birds are Calling” blog (www.thebirdsarecalling). Copyright Mario Pineda.

Project 366 – Post No. 001 – A Gaggle of Bohemian Waxwings

You could hear them all around. Chattering and singing. Like a rambunctious social gathering. Like a large group of old friends all talking at the same time around the dinner table. First we could only hear them, but once our eyes managed to see beyond the tangled branches we could see them, the Bohemian Waxwings. They were everywhere and once we started observing the gaggle we soon realized what all the commotion was about. It was dinner time and the trees were full of fruit. With all the chattering it made you wonder if, by any chance, some of those berries may have something stronger in them just virgin fruit juices. A gaggle of drunken waxwings? Fancy that.

May the curiosity be with you. This is from “The Birds are Calling” blog (www.thebirdsarecalling). Copyright Mario Pineda.