A big splash of colour

On 25 September 2016, it was a day of birding east of the city, with a group of birding friends. We set out at 8:00 am and our main stopping places were Weed Lake, Marsland Basin and Wyndham-Carseland Provincial Park.

I will add our leader's (Howard Heffler) list of species below. Pretty much the usual sightings - lots of ducks, a number of Hawks including a juvenile Red-tailed Hawk and several juvenile White-throated Sparrows which were seen while walking around at Lynn and Sue's acreage at Marsland Basin. Also, a Merlin that was perched high up on a power pole. The water level at the wetland at Marsland Basin was very high, so there was no sign of the mudflats there - consequently, barely any shorebirds to be seen. We did have three small flocks of Greater White-fronted Geese fly in formation high overhead while we were looking out over the water, which was great. As usual, most birds we saw were much too far away for photos.

As usually happens, when birds are too far away for me to see, my camera lens turns to a few other subjects, including this photo of one of the many Sunflowers that were growing in Lynn's garden.

Many thanks for leading this trip, Howard, and thanks, too, to Jim for driving half of us. I always appreciate a trip like this, with people who are all expert birders - and then there's me, lol!

"Eight participants met at Carburn Park at 8:00 AM and spent a beautiful fall day birding three locations east of Calgary. We first stopped at the south end of Weed Lake. Water levels were high so there was almost no shorebird habitat. A highlight was the large numbers of American Pipits. Marsland Basin, thanks to Lynn and Sue, is a wonderful spot for both the wetland and the treed areas. Next we went Wyndham-Carseland Provincial Park. We were not able to pick out a Mew Gull that had been recently reported there among the 100’s of Ring-billed Gulls. Thanks to Nimali Seneviratne for keeping track of species and doing the eBird postings. The combined list for the day was:

Greater White-fronted Goose 108
Canada Goose 36
Gadwall 45
American Wigeon 22
Mallard 325
Northern Shoveler 400
Northern Pintail 80
Green-winged Teal 278
Bufflehead 18
Common Merganser 3
Ruddy Duck 5
Gray Partridge 20
Pied-billed Grebe 1
Eared Grebe 1
Double-crested Cormorant 3
American White Pelican 12
Great Blue Heron 4
White-faced Ibis 1
Bald Eagle 1
Northern Harrier 3
Sharp-shinned Hawk 2
Swainson's Hawk 1
Red-tailed Hawk 6
American Coot 51
Killdeer 4
Long-billed Dowitcher 9
Wilson's Snipe 2
Greater Yellowlegs 4
Franklin's Gull 3
Ring-billed Gull 1,000
Rock Pigeon 2
Eurasian Collared-Dove 1
Belted Kingfisher 2
Northern Flicker 1
Merlin 1
Blue Jay 2
Black-billed Magpie 6
Red-breasted Nuthatch 2
Marsh Wren 1
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 4
Swainson's Thrush 2
European Starling 34
American Pipit 95
Ovenbird 1
Orange-crowned Warbler 4
Yellow-rumped Warbler 5
Dark-eyed Junco 5
White-throated Sparrow 6
Western Meadowlark 5
Common Grackle 2
House Sparrow 12