A gorgeous splash of colour
Hooded Merganser males
Rare Hooded Warbler / Setophaga citrina
Jamaican Poinsettia / Euphorbia punicea
Golden-breasted Starling / Lamprotornis regius
Ralph Klein Park
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month
Jazzed-up silos
Always a treat to see
Beauty at the centre
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
European Skipper on Fleabane
Tall Larkspur / Delphinium glaucum
White-breasted Nuthatch
A patch of polypore
Fall reflections
From the archives
Lichen in the fall
Beetle on Fringed Grass-of-Parnassus
Coat of many colours
Along the Bow River in fall
Two European Skippers
Pretty in pink
Black-crowned Night Heron juvenile / Nycticorax ny…
Umbulate Hawkweed
Fungi family
Thank you for the pose
Butterfly eggs
Komodo Dragon
Maskinonge Lake, Waterton Lakes National Park
Hudson 8
Prince's Pine / Chimaphila umbellata
The joy of peace and quiet
Pearly everlasting / Anaphalis margaritacea
Let the sun shine
Forgetmenot Pond
Dark-eyed Junco / Junco hyemalis
Flooded with sunset colour
For those who have suffered recent loss
Surrounded by beauty
Greater White-fronted Geese
Owl butterfly / Caligo sp.
Rose hip species
Overtaken by nature
Farmland of the Alberta foothills
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American Golden-plover juvenile


All three photos posted this morning were taken yesterday, 8 October 2015. Friend Sandy had asked if I wanted to go with her to join friends down at the Irrigation Canal in the city, for a birding walk. This was a long walk - three and a half hours - along both sides of the canal. It was a beautiful fall day with enough trees still dressed in gold to give some colourful reflections in some parts if the canal. The water level was very low, creating just a narrow strip of water with a wide mud bank on either side, that had attracted a number of Greater Yellowlegs and a single American Golden-plover. The latter was a new bird for me and, though I could only get a very distant, poor shot, I've posted it this morning. To me, a juvenile American Golden Plover looks so similar to a juvenile Black-bellied Plover (from photos I've seen), but the ID for the bird we saw was given as American Golden-plover. Much of the time, there were pale, dead grasses in the background and this bird was almost impossible to see. Birders seem to be flocking to this location in hopes of seeing this bird.
"A large shorebird of pastures, open ground, and mudflats, the American Golden-Plover makes one of the longest migratory journeys of any shorebird. It breeds on the high Arctic tundra of Alaska and Canada and winters in the grasslands of central and southern South America." From AllAboutBirds.
www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/American_Golden-Plover/id
The list of the 31 bird species seen (not all by me) from our leaders, Dan and David:
1. Canada Goose - 60+
2. Mallard - 150+
3. Northern Shoveler - 1
4. Green-winged Teal - 2
5. Hooded Merganser - 3 males
6. Common Merganser - 20+
7. Double-crested Cormorant - 4
8. Bald Eagle - 1, immature
9. Red-tailed Hawk - 1 (Harlan’s subspecies)
10. Rough-legged Hawk - 5 (4 dark phase, 1 light phase)
11. AMERICAN GOLDEN-PLOVER juvenile
12. Killdeer - 1
13. Greater Yellowlegs - 38+
14. Long-billed Dowitcher - 11
15. Ring-billed Gull - 400+
16. Herring Gull - 2
17. Rock Pigeon - 32+
18. Downy Woodpecker - 1
19. Hairy Woodpecker - 2
20. Northern Flicker - 2
21. Merlin - 2
22. Black-billed Magpie - 15+
23. American Crow - 6
24. Common Raven - 2
25. Black-capped Chickadee - 7
26. White-breasted Nuthatch - 1
27. American Robin - 8
28. European Starling - 18+
29. Yellow-rumped Warbler - 2
30. American Tree Sparrow - 1
31. House Finch - 1
"A large shorebird of pastures, open ground, and mudflats, the American Golden-Plover makes one of the longest migratory journeys of any shorebird. It breeds on the high Arctic tundra of Alaska and Canada and winters in the grasslands of central and southern South America." From AllAboutBirds.
www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/American_Golden-Plover/id
The list of the 31 bird species seen (not all by me) from our leaders, Dan and David:
1. Canada Goose - 60+
2. Mallard - 150+
3. Northern Shoveler - 1
4. Green-winged Teal - 2
5. Hooded Merganser - 3 males
6. Common Merganser - 20+
7. Double-crested Cormorant - 4
8. Bald Eagle - 1, immature
9. Red-tailed Hawk - 1 (Harlan’s subspecies)
10. Rough-legged Hawk - 5 (4 dark phase, 1 light phase)
11. AMERICAN GOLDEN-PLOVER juvenile
12. Killdeer - 1
13. Greater Yellowlegs - 38+
14. Long-billed Dowitcher - 11
15. Ring-billed Gull - 400+
16. Herring Gull - 2
17. Rock Pigeon - 32+
18. Downy Woodpecker - 1
19. Hairy Woodpecker - 2
20. Northern Flicker - 2
21. Merlin - 2
22. Black-billed Magpie - 15+
23. American Crow - 6
24. Common Raven - 2
25. Black-capped Chickadee - 7
26. White-breasted Nuthatch - 1
27. American Robin - 8
28. European Starling - 18+
29. Yellow-rumped Warbler - 2
30. American Tree Sparrow - 1
31. House Finch - 1
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