A Good Time to Watch for Early Spring Migrants.

     After heavy snow on March 4 and 5 , we have had some very mild spring weather. Our snow has settled and on southern exposures some of the snow has me melted.


     So it's time to watch for early spring migrants and to get excited about many birds returning to this area. On Tues I saw a distant flock of ducks. Now these could have been local ducks as we have ducks all winter on open parts if the Red Deer River. Several flocks of geese were reported but they could also be local as well. One robin was seen on Mon the 12th.


     We can soon expect crows, some hawks and blue birds. We are going to set up the peregrine falcon nest on the Telus tower next week. Richardson's ground squirrels will soon be out in abundance so there will be food .


     So one of the exciting times of the yer for birders will soon be here. Tell Natural Wise what you have seen lately. Just leave a comment.

Owl Web Cam Link

    I have placed a link to the web cam on an owl's nest at the Ellis Bird Farm.


    There has been an owl's nest in a large spruce tree at the Ellis Bird Farm for a few years Last year they put a web cam on the nest. the nesting pair of owls was very successful.


    This year they have a better camera and the camera placing is much better.


     Owls are not nesting yet. Owls have been seen at the nest. 


     If you are interested and have time check this nest out.

Adaptation for New Deep Snow

    For the last two days we have had heavy snowfall. This morning when I looked out there were tracks across my front yard. A deer had waded through the deep snow. The snow was deep enough that the deer had just plodded through the deep snow. This reminded me about the problems deer have with deep snow . When snow is deep they tend to gather together and stay in a very small area. They can sometimes be trapped in the small area and starve.

Deer tracks across my yard

    Then there's the mice. Can you imagine mice trying to run across this soft snow? Mice will travel under the snow or find areas under trees which don't have much snow. Coyotes and owls are quite adept at picking up mice from under the snow. 

    So for all the creatures that share winter with us some will cope and others will suffer. Fortunately, at this time of year we are close to spring when we lose the snow. 

Heavy Spring Snow at Red Deer

     For the past two days Red Deer and much of the province of Alberta has received a heavy dump of spring snow. In Red Deer we received about 30 cm of snow. My picture in the previous post with Bohemian Waxwings in a big poplar tree was taken yesterday afternoon in the middle of the snow fall. 

A spruce tree that is loaded up with snow.

    Snow was needed in this area because there's been a lack of snow all winter so a shortage of moisture could be a problem. Owls have been on the nest for some time now They sit tight and are completely buried in snow. We had a web cam on one nest last year.

Gigantic Flock of Bohemian Waxwings.

      At this time of year the waxwing flocks start to get very large. There are large flocks all winter but they tend to get very large about March.


      Today I saw the largest flock of bohemian waxwings that I have ever seen. I would say that there were from 800 to 1000 birds. 


     These birds were in the southeast of Red Deer in the Sunny Brook subdivision about 3:30 PM. 

This large poplar tree didn't hold very many birds but there were many others flying around looking for a perch.

     They were a gorgeous sight.

Sharp Shinned Hawk Visits Feeder

A sharp-shined hawk visited my feeders last week. I suspect it has been noting the chickadees, finches and nuthatches that come every day. I have to assume he figured that a feeder is a feeder and he can have a bit of bird for breakfast. It stayed long enough for a photo, but I didn't see it catch anything. The books say that this species like to hangout in low bushes and small trees waiting for a meal.

Christmas Bird Count

Written by Judy Boyd

    Doesn't all this recent snow, make you think of Christmas? And Christmas makes me think of the annual Christmas Bird Count (CBC). This year it will take place on Sunday, December 18.  It used to be that in order to count the birds you had to shoot them first and then count them. Needless to say, we don't do that anymore. 

    In 1900 a fellow named Frank Chapman started up the non-shooting variety of a Count. The importance of these Counts is to keep track to trends in the bird world.  When we look at the numbers over a number of years we can see that certain species are declining in number or that others are holding their own. 

     The thing about the CBC is that it is FUN! Anyone can do it. You don't have to be an expert birder. It’s actually a very simple process. Starting at 9 a.m. you start counting all the birds you see in a specific area. You can either count at a feeder, or do what we call “bush beating” or you could do a combination of both.  The only tricky thing about feeder counting is to not count the same bird twice. That’s a bit difficult but not impossible. What you do is look at your feeder and you see six Chickadees so you mark six Chickadees down on the tally sheet. The next time you look at the feeder, you see seven chickadees. Instead of adding the seven to the previous six, you would scratch the six out and just put seven because odds are that some, if not all of the chickadees you are now seeing are the same ones as you just saw.  Then, say, the next time you look at the feeder you see only four chickadees, you still wouldn’t add that to your count of seven, unless there was a particular chickadee that you know with absolute certainty that you hadn’t counted before. This could be a chickadee that has perhaps lost his tail feathers and you know that he wasn’t in the two bunches that you saw before. Easy, right?

    Bush beaters go to an area and walk around the area counting whatever birds are there. You don't have to walk. You could ski, drive, or whatever kind of locomotion you want to use. We've had snowmobilers, snowshoers, horseback riders in the past. The tricky part about bush beating is if you find a large flock of something, like Bohemian Waxwings.  When you’ve been doing this for awhile you can just look at the flock and make a rough estimate of, say, 350 birds. We don’t expect you to count every individual bird. What I will often do is count a certaingroup of birds and consider that an “eye-full” and then figure out how many eye-fulls there are in the flocks. That will then give me a total estimate for the flock.

    Our Central Alberta CBC is a bit different that a lot of the other counts in that we have 27 different circles that people can count in. A circle is 15 kilometres in diameter. People either do part or all of a circle. We try not to have counters in the same area. That's why it's important for me (I have the official title of Christmas Bird Count Compiler) to know if you are counting and where. That way I will know that if someone is already counting at Maskepatoon Park here in Red Deer and someone else calls me and says they want to do that same park, I will either put the two people in touch with each other so they can do the Count together or I'll get one or the other person to choose a different location.