Northern Alberta Rare Bird Transcripts

This is a good time of the year to be checking any of the dumps for gulls. If you're going out to haul out your year-end trash, take a good look at the gulls, because there may well be some odd ones in there. Also, at the pond over at Inland Cement over on the west side, apparently the other day there were lots of Water Pippit, now called American Pippit. So just watch along the shore for these little birds walking along - handsome little bird.

Still lots of warblers coming through, Riuchard Wychuk out at the Beaverhills banding station says that, during the last week, they have had small but regular number of  warblers coming through. Some very good ones, too: Cape May Warbler, Black-throated Green Warbler, and Palm Warbler oming through along with Myrtle Warblers and Redstart. Worth having a gander at - if you're out at Beaverhills, walk into the banding station and you can watch some of this first hand.

Also, out at the banding station, they've got Short-eared Owls showing up, quite an uncommon bird here. Over the last twenty years they have dropped appreciably. A beautiful bird to see, like a big moth floating out over the open. They also said that in the Lister Marsh area, there are a fair variety of shorebirds: Pectoral Sandpiper, Black-bellied Plover, Semipalmated Plover - things like that. So, a drive out and walk around there would probably not be out of order. 

I've had no reports from Elk Island this week, so I don't know if there is anything out of the ordinary out there, but it is a nice area to go out there and walk around at this time of year, also, if you've got a scope or at least a set of binoculars, go and take a look at the lakes around there. There tends to be waterfowl massing up on the lakes so you can often get a good look at things in reasonable numbers.

Have a good week, good biridng, and bye for now.

Out at Beaverhills Lake, on September 6, sightings of a Parasitic Jaeger. This is a light-phased bird flying over the banding area there, so that should be watched for.  Those birds can cover a large area so I would imagine that if it is around the lake, it could be seen anywhere. Seen by Richard Wychuk.

Also, down at the campsite, if you look at a map of Alberta, down around Dinosaur Provincial Park, in the last couple of days, there were two sightings of White Throated Swift, a very good record for this province. east of the campsite along the draw there. keep their eyes peeled. Other than that, driving in southern Alberta, there are large numbers of Vesper Sparrows, good numbers of Swainson's Hawks, several Logger-head Shrikes, lots and lots of waterfowl on small ponds and scattered numbers of shorebirds. 

Still warblers passing through our area and also sparrows. White-crowned Sparrows and the like are starting to come through. 

Also, there are shorebirds moving through the area. There will be birds moving off and on over the next while and it's really nice to get out and test your skills at birding - some of the shore birds can be quite difficult, but even it you're a beginner you should be able to pick out the more common types and sort through them.

Bob Parsons called in south of Redwater and said there are big numbers of Red-Tails down in the fields. There could be good numbers of voles down in the harvested fields or fields about to be harvested. There are a good variety of dark-phased birds, light-phased birds. immature birds and again, between those and Swainson's Hawks at this time of year, you can get some really odd colour-phased birds and birds in different plumages so it's often very interesting to look through these groups of Red-Tails and just try to sort them out. 

OK, have a good week, and good birding. And get out there and see ssome more birds, because a month from now they'll be very thin on the ground and you won't get to see them until next year.

Also, there is a chance at this time of year of getting odd hummingbirds such as Rufous Hummingbirds that have bred and are moving around. We've had occasional reports of these birds showing up at feeders.

There still seems to be a fair amount of juvenile waterfowl out there. I don't know if this is late breeding or whatever. It will be interesting to see if a lot of these get old enough to actually get out this fall. I'm speaking of young juveniles - birds that don't seem to have hatched too long ago. Somewhat surprising...

And apparently, according to Gord Court, there are very good numbers of Peregrine Falcons around this year. So far as I can judge it with what he has said, there has been good nesting success with a lot of pairs showing up and new pairs forming.

Good birding, good luck... a good place to go this week might be Big Lake, and try for shorebirds!

White-winged Crossbills have made an appearanace at Hollow Lake, reported by Frank Corbet. And a partial albino Magpie has been seen near the Kinsmen Sports Centre. We always seem to have an albino Magpie near the High Level Bridge.

A young lady came in today with a picture for identification. It turned out to be a Mandarin Duck taken near Saskatoon. Apparently, this bird seems to have been appearing each year in September, for the p[ast two or three years consecutively, so it doesn't seem to be a captive bird. We hopefully will get more information on that.

An Inquiry - does anyone have any pictures of the Eastern Bluebird at Beaverhills Lake? Or any further information on the breeding of the male Eastern Bluebird with the female Mountain Bluebird?

There was an error in the direction to the lady in Lac La Ronde, Marion. Randall Hoshea has corrected me on this. You go one mile west past the store, turn left at  the mailbox and a Canadian flag. Then, you will see somewhere along there house number 7. I'm not clear which side of the road it's on, perhaps we can get a correction? 

I called Tim Allen about the Curved-bill Thrasher - it seems to be doing OK in Calgary. I have an e-mail for the person who's in charge. I will provide an update later. Also in Calgary, a Grey Flycatcher that is easily seen - very accommodating, just like the Curve Billed Thrasher. To get information on the location of this bird, phone Brian Ritchie at 403-282-1364.

At Buffalo Lake, Jason Rodgers has come across a good deal of shorebirds in that area. Solitary Sandpiper, Semipalmated Sandpiper, Lesser Yellowlegs, Long-billed Dowitchers, Hudsonian Godwit, Black-crowned Night-Heron. Sounds like a great place.

There is a House Finch reported in Calmar, also a report of a Black-billed Cuckoo from Elk Island Park, that's on the north end of the lake.

There is an American Bittern near the camping area at Elk Island Park which  is easy to see. At Beaverhills Lake also, there is a Yellow Rail. At Thunder Lake, there are Yellow Rails there. Also in that area, there is a very rare sighting for that area, there is a Willow Flycatcher. 

Not much else I'm afraid, that's the highlights, so keep the messages coming!
 

Black-crowned Night Herons have been seen at Beaumaris Lake in Castledowns, off of Castledowns Road. It is also suspected that there may be a Cattle Egret on that lake but this is not confirmed. If anyone wants to go there, it's north of 153 Avenue and east of 113A Street. It may well be true that they are there - that's not far from the EdCom ponds.

Ray Crombie was at Cross Lake on the weeekend and he recaptured a Great Grey Owl. He banded it on February 28, 1993 as an adult so that bird is seven plus years old.

From Elk Island Park, Bob Caroll has reported Wood Ducks that suspected of nesting, Hooded Merganser and Black-billed Cuckoos.

There seems to have been no messages left on this line since Monday. If there is any problem, as soon as this message is ended, leave your message at the beep please. Thank you.

I have been corrected about the Great Crested Flycatcher seen at Pine Lake - there were two, a pair of them, not just one. A phone call from Kim Lyons today who saw a Western Kingbird at Mountain Park. You can give her a call if you want to discuss this. Still Red Crossbills at feeders. Reports are coming in - reported almost every day. Absolutely amazing.

Cattle Egret at Valemont BC. White-throated Swifts at Dinosaur Provincial Park reported by Parsons and Romaniuk. Trumpeter Swans at Amisk Creek reported by Dave Nadeau. Rough-winged Swallow at Elk Island Park. and a Connecticut Warbler at Elk Island Park. Thanks very much for the constructive phone calls. Just keep them coming in, and we'll see how this goes.

A few things around here to report. A Turkey Vulture at Smedden which is near St. Paul and Lou Carbon reported a pair of Avocets seen at the Peace/ Athabaska delta - very, very far north for these birds. 

A Western Kingbird was seen at Beaverhills Lake. A pair of White-faced Ibis have been seen at Blizzard Lake which is southeast of Calgary. Ron Horshea reported this. He also saw a Great Crested Flycatcher on the east side of Pine Lake, Range Road 245.

Most recently we got a report of a Great Egret east of Innisfree, Township Road 590, Range Road 244. This was reported by Jason Rogers. I hope you can hear me with this terrible cold - we'll be hearing from you. Keep the messages coming in. Thanks. Bye for now. 

The Snowy Egret at Beaverhills is still there. It's been seen there a couple of days ago. A Great Egret at Hannah reported by Dave Nadeau, and a Yellow-crowned Night Heron was seen at Nanton reported by Brian Ritchie - which is unusual to say the least.

Great Crested Flycatchers, Sedge Wrens and Virginia Rails are out at Elk Island National Park. There are a lot of Pileated Woodpeckers around Edmonton being reported right now. Also, at Rochon Sands out by Buffalo Lake, Caspian Terns were seen there. The actual location of where to see them was not given. Anyway, that's a brief report for this time - keep the phone calls coming. Thank you a lot.

A Poorwill at Ukalta has been reported by Brian Ritchie and Bob Carroll. If you want further information on that one, call 988-0082. Also, a White-throated Swift is at Dinosaur Provincial Park. This was seen on the weekend when Bob Parsons was down in the Brooks area. There is a Whimbrel at Gull Lake reported by Jason Rogers, also a Ruddy Turnstone down there.

The weekend of the field trips and bird counts has gone wonderfully well. The Wildbird General Store field trip at Cold Lake recorded 116 species. The Lac La Biche count with Bob Parsons present there had 150, probably get a few more he thinks.... Turkey Vultures were sighted there as well. Really a marvellous sighting. The Snowy Egret is still at the weir at Beaverhills and can be seen there on a regular basis. 

Also, someone called the shop and did not realize that you can leave a message on this tape. Just wait for the message to be over, wait for the beep and then report your message. Just as easy as that!

Thanks a lot, folks!

The Snowy Egret is still out at the weir at Beaverhill near the weir and was still there today. The bird can be seen near the wier, not on the wier, hunting in the reeds. Also, at least four Snow Geese are still at Mundare Beach. Very few shorebirds out at Beaverhill this year. Whether they have overflown us, or moved further east isn't clear. But very few shorebirds!

Lots of birds back up north now at Lac La Biche - 18 species yesterday morning  including a lot of Bay-breasted Warblers, a few Cape May Warblers, Alder Flycatcher is back and and also three Turkey Vultures which is a good bird for northern Alberta but usually in Cold Lake where they are more common. .

Chipman area reports they have Sedge Wren and seemingly good numbers of Yellow Rail this year.

There's a White Throated Swift at Dinosaur Provincial Park habitat Apparently, its a sighting record! It's hunting below the observation deck we have a decent description. Beware of mistaking it for a Violet-Green Swallow.If you go down to this area, look for this bird. 

Poorwill found at the Ukalta Natural area. No poiint using tapes, they don't respond to tapes. For finding the area you can call Bob Carrol at 998-0082. Thanks... and good birding!

Dennis Verbique phoned in - he had a Turkey Vulture. I believe (the message was a bit wonky on my machine) south-east of the city. These birds can show up all over and they have had a lot of records in the last few years in north-central Saskatchewan where they are breeding in old abandoned buildings. Basically, the upstairs of an old barn replicates I guess, a cave or a cliff face to them. They seem to be scattered around and certainly to be watched for up in the Cold Lake area where they are regular.

We were out at Beaverhill yesterday and there were very few shorebirds at Beaverhill - apparently Big Lake is a bit better. We had about 12 species, but very scattered. We also had four Snow Geese off Mundare Beach and a Blackpoll Warbler. Migrants were not moving yesterday and very low numbers of shorebirds. But, apparently down south around Brooks, it's a lot better. There was a big count around Brooks that got 145 species, including a lot of Burrowing Owls last weekend. So, good for them, they had a reasonable count! Also Caspian Tern. 

There was also a Caspian Tern at Devil's Lake around Edmonton. Apparently there are fairly good shorebirds including Sanderlings at Muriel Lake, and Sedge Wrens and, oddly enough, Lark Sparrows - apparently where the lake has receded. Bruce McNab had Lark Sparrows up there in the stubby grass where the lake has dropped back. There were Lark Sparrows in there which is well north of the regular range. 

Lots of Soras around, lots of Yellow Warblers.  Apparently good numbers of warblers up at Cold Lake. Western Tanager is back and lots of Rose-breasted Grosbeak reports. And, an oddity from Calgary - they had for one day, a Band-Tailed Pigeon. 

So, good birding, good luck, get out and hopefully, we'll have a good report next week.

Bruce McNab has been to Jasper and he was impressed by the number of Oldsquaw, all the Mergansers, Barrow's and Common Goldeneye, Surf and White-winged Scoters at the lakes prior to entering Jasper. So if anyone is going up there, it would be worth having a look. 

Whimbrel has been seen on Range Road 173 and Township Road 524 which is on the northeast side of Beaverhills Lake. Apparently 500 Ross's Geese are around and the Snow Geese are still at Mundaire Beach along with a "bunch of other dark geese", as it was described, probably White-fronted Geese. An Eastern Kingbird was seen at Rowan's Road and also a Swainson's Hawk.

There are some folks that phoned in and took slides of the egret while it was at 170 Street and we are looking forward to seeing that.

There is some controversy going on between several people. A sparrow was sighted at Riel Park in St. Alberta. They can't make up their minds whether it is a Golden-crowned Sparrow or a Fox Sparrow. So, perhaps if anybody is around there, have a look around and maybe they can sort this out. 

Also, there are still reports of Red Crossbills in huge numbers - up to almost 50 at feeders.  As Jack Clements keeps saying, in all his years of birding in this area, he's never had never had this many crossbills at feeders, extremely unusual!

That's about it. Thanks for all the calls - we got 10 calls over the weekend, so that's great!

One of our contributors was wanting to know why the Curve-billed Thrasher was in Calgary and not sent back to Arizona. Well, the reason is that it is totally blind in one eye, and it was felt that it was not cabable of surviving in the wild. So, they have sent it to Calgary, under quarantine, then it will be released into the desert habitat.

The White-faced Ibis is still at at Beaverhill Lake in the southeast corner by Lister Lake, seen by Jason Dutchbury and Bob Gehler. Surf Scoters have been seen, quite a few of them, and somebody has reported a Black Scoter, now that has notbeen confirmed, on Beaumont Road near Joseph Lake. There are lots of shorebirds coming in to Big Lake reported by Dave Nadeau and Mr. Hoshay. Eurasian Wigeon is there, and a Red-tailed Hawk was seen chasing a Sharp-shinned Hawk and made it lose its food. 

Lots of Sandhill Cranes at Athabaska, Black-bellied Plover, Wilson's Phalarope and American Avocet are in good numbers at Big Lake, so everything is coming back, and everybody is having a good time looking at the new species coming in this spring.

Also, Surf Scoters seem to be abounding all over the place: EdCom Ponds and Big Lake. At Francis Point, they've been seeing Spotted Sandpipers, Marsh Wrens, Black-crowned Night Heron, Soras have all been seen there.

There has been an unconfirmed report of a Black Scoter on the Beaumont Road, somewhere near Joseph Lake. It wasn't clear on exactly where that was. Just this afternoon, I received a call from a gentleman who was extremely excited who thought he had seen an Egret, either a Cattle or Snowy Egret, he wasn't sure which, at EdCom ponds. I called Peter Demonge right away and he went out to check it out, but it had gone. So, be on the lookout for that.

Also, we had a request from one of the people phoning in wanting to know why the Curve-billed Thrasher was not sent back to Arizona and it has ended up in Calgary. Well, the reason is that it is not capable, in the opinion of the veterinarian that looked at it, to survive in the wild - it has only one eye that it is functioning. It's in Calgary, under quarantine.  It probably has about a month to go, then it will be released into the desert habitat where it should be very familiar with everything.

Still lots of reports of Red Crossbills still coming to feeders, which is absolutely amazing. And you might be interested that the National Geographic Field Guide - 3rd edition is now out. It just came in today. Be on the lookout for that Egret, the Scoters, and the White-faced Ibis is out to Beaverhills Lake - see if you can look that one up!
 

Osprey have been seen at Black Nugget by Sheila Hardy. She was on a trip down south and came back and reported them. The Curve-billed Thrasher is now in Calgary under quarantine for 45 days. It seems to be doing all right. After its quarantine is up, people can go down and have a look at this unusual bird that has caused quite a stir here in Alberta.

Brown Creepers, Chipping Sparrows, Yellow-headed Blackbirds, and a  Peregrine Falcon have been seen around Bruce. A Blue-winged Teal/Cinnamon Teal cross was seen at Buffalo Lake, and Black-necked Stilts are also at Buffalo Lake. These were seen by Jason Rodgers. Red Crossbills are still being seen here coming to feeders for the first time.  We had a few customers in today remarking on the fact that they are coming in - very unusual!

Ray Crowney has 20 boxes of Saw-whet Owls. We were out last night and banded a female and this is the highest number that he has ever had, and he has yet close to 100 boxes to check, so he's going to have a tremendous amount of these little owls to band this year. 

Bob Parsons out at Beaverhills Lake reports Hooded Merganser, Dunlin, Semipalmated Sandpiper,  Marbled Godwit, Pectoral Sandpiper, and he remarked on the number of bluebirds. Lots and lots of Mountain Bluebirds out there! He also wants me to remind you folks that on May 16, there is a field trip to Bittern Lake. Also, on May 22/23, the May Day bird count is on at Lake Newell. Call him at 488-1344  for more information. Leave a message if he's not in.

There are reports of Red Crossbills still coming in. Jeanette Campbell reported them at her feeder on May 2, and this is the first time this year. Very unusual to have so many crossbills around!

Rob Hewes has reported a Peregrine Falcon 7 miles north of Bruce, and east of Ryley, harrassing some shore birds. 

White-crowned sparrows are back and the earliest report of the Tennessee Warbler was at 58th Avenue and Riverbend Road on April 25. That's really early!