If you would like to join me for my Feathers on Friday meme, please put the link to your blog post in the comments and I’ll add the link to my post.
I apologize for missing FoF last week. To make up for that, here’s a photo of a female Purple Finch at my feeders from a few weeks ago,
Nikon D610, handheld, f5.6, 1/320, ISO 320, Nikkor 200-500mm, natural light
More Feathers on Friday Posts:
Alberta is in the Canadian sweet spot for hummingbird species, with three regularly occurring species. Rarer species often show up at feeders through the year, so it pays to keep your eyes open.
Ruby-throated, Calliope, and Rufous Hummingbirds are the common species in Alberta. Anna’s, Black-chinned, and Costa’s Hummingbirds have also been documented in the province with a few records of confirmed sightings.
Hummingbirds start arriving in Alberta around the beginning to middle of May (depending on where you live), so put your feeders up at the beginning of the month. One of the largest bird-feeding myths surrounding the feeding of hummingbirds is that leaving a feeder out too late in the season will delay their migration. This is just not true. The urge to migrate far outweighs a feeder full of sugar water. But leaving feeders up in the fall and getting them up early in spring may help early or late migrants passing through the area.
Take, for example, this wayward Costa’s Hummingbird that showed up in Sherwood Park last October and was seen at the same feeder for over a month and a half. Costa’s Hummingbirds rarely make it outside of Arizona and southern California, so it was very odd to have one show up in Alberta.
The Costa’s Hummingbird that showed up at a feeder in Sherwood Park last fall. Photograph by Janice Hurlburt, used with permission.
Many people get excited to have a hummingbird visit their feeders, so here are some tips for attracting and keeping hummingbirds in your yard, as well as the “recipe” for sugar water.
Below, I’ve listed the three most common hummingbird species found in Alberta:
Ruby-throated Hummingbirds have been documented in all regions of the province except the Canadian Shield, and have the largest breeding range of any North American hummingbird. Adult males are metallic green on the upperparts, iridescent ruby red on the throat, white on the underparts, and green along the sides. Adult females look similar to males but with a finely streaked throat, greyish belly, and buff along the sides of the belly. Immature males look similar to females but with red streaks down the throat.
Ruby-throated Hummingbirds are long-distance migrants, flying non-stop over the Gulf of Mexico to southern Mexico and Central America to spend the winter.
A male Ruby-throated Hummingbird at one of my feeders
Left, a male Ruby-throated Hummingbird feeding on petunias. Right, a female Ruby-throated Hummingbird at one of my feeders.
Calliope Hummingbirds are the smallest birds in North America, often misidentified as large bees. Calliope Hummingbirds frequent the foothills, mountains, and the Peace River area in Alberta. Calliopes can be identified by their overall small size, green upper parts and pink streaks on the male’s throat that form a V-shaped gorget. Females have dull white throat, a buff chest, and belly.
While Calliopes might be small, they are extremely territorial and can chase away birds as big as Red-tailed Hawks from their breeding territory. The hummingbird gets its name from Calliope, the muse of eloquence and epic poetry in ancient Greek mythology.
A male Calliope Hummingbird. Photograph by Daniel Arndt, used with permission.
A male Calliope Hummingbird. Photograph by Daniel Arndt, used with permission.
Rufous Hummingbirds are known for being very feisty and extremely territorial. Look for them in the Rocky Mountains, foothills, and the boreal forest. In bright lighting, male Rufous Hummingbirds are bright orange on the back and belly, with an iridescent red throat. Females are green with rufous flanks, rufous on the base of the rounded tail, and a few orange spots on the throat.
Rufous Hummingbirds have the longest migration of any hummingbird species, travelling more than 3,500 miles from their breeding grounds to their Mexico wintering grounds. They travel north up the Pacific Coast in spring and return by the Rocky Mountains in the late summer and fall.
A male Rufous Hummingbird. Photograph by Daniel Arndt, used with permission.
A male Rufous Hummingbird. Photograph by Daniel Arndt, used with permission.
I’d like to thank Janice Hurlburt and Daniel Arndt for letting me use their hummingbird photos. You can find more of Daniel’s great hummingbird photographs on his Flickr page.
I’ll leave you with a few facts about hummingbirds:
— Hummingbirds are native species of the New World and are not found outside of the Western Hemisphere. A majority of the species are found in South America.
— A group of hummingbirds has many collective nouns, including a bouquet, glittering, hover, tune, and shimmer of hummingbirds.
— A hummingbird’s bright throat colour (gorget) is not caused by feather pigmentation, but by iridescence in the arrangement of the feathers and the influence of light level and moisture.
— An average hummingbird’s heart rate is more than 1,200 beats per minute.
— A hummingbird’s maximum forward flight speed is 48 km, or 30 miles, per hour, though the birds can reach up to 96 km, or 60 miles, per hour in a dive.
A male Rufous Hummingbird. Photograph by Daniel Arndt, used with permission.
I made this poster for the signing and posted them around town.
I’ve been meaning to post about biologist and author Myrna Pearman‘s Vermilion book signing this past December for some time now, but December, January, and February have been so busy between holidays, school, and activities.
Myrna’s new book, Backyard Bird Feeding: An Alberta Guide, was published late last year. During November and the early part of December, Myrna traveled around Alberta to various Peavey Mart/Main Street Hardware Stores for book signings; Peavey Mart is one of the book’s sponsors.
Having corresponded with Myrna about photos for the book, I was looking forward to meeting her and so emailed her to ask if she might be coming to Vermilion for a signing.
The powers that be weren’t sure that there would be enough interest in our small town, so the originally scheduled signing had been cancelled. I told Myrna I would see if I could gauge interest, and in the end there was enough for a book signing not only at Main Street Hardware but also at our local library. As president of the Vermilion River Naturalist Society, I brought up the signings at our November meeting, and members decided to join the other businesses as a sponsor of the signing.
Fortunately, despite the snow the night before the signing, Myrna made the drive from Lacombe safely. I spent the day with Myrna starting with the first signing at 11 am at Main Street Hardware. There wasn’t an idle moment, with many people getting their books signed and talking to Myrna about the birds in their backyard.
With Vermilion Main Street Hardware manager Ebony (standing), and Myrna (seated, at right). MSH provided us with feeders and bags of birdseed for the display and also offered coffee and doughnuts.
We moved our table to the library after a quick lunch. During our time there, we had a bit more time to talk and learned that we are related through marriage — it is such a small world!
Two young naturalists got their book signed and told us their bird stories,
Our adventure continued on into the evening since Myrna had been invited to the Wainwright Wildlife Society’s annual Christmas supper. She gave a presentation about the important work the Ellis Bird Farm does, and a slideshow of her amazing bird and mammal photos.
With Laurence Hoover, the president of the Wainwright Wildlife Society
Knowing it was going to be a long day with a long ride back to Lacombe, my mother had invited Myrna to spend the night, so we had more time to talk in the evening and then in the morning over breakfast.
After knowing Myrna only through email correspondence, it was very nice to finally meet her in person.
One of the local papers interviewed Myrna about her book
I’d like to thank Main Street Hardware, the Vermilion Public Library, and everyone who came out for the book signing!
Winter got off to a pretty mild start all around North America, but seems to have arrived now, everywhere just in time for the new year.
Finding birds in the winter can sometimes be very challenging. Birds are mainly concentrated wherever food is plentiful and there is good shelter. Some species such as finches are most active early in the day, but you should be able to find some species at any time of day.
If there is any open water in the area, that’s a prime place to start looking for ducks, raptors, gulls, herons, shorebirds, and even kingfishers can be found around open patches of water or sewage treatment plants.
When driving around the countryside or near airports, watch the open fields for Rough-legged Hawks, Northern Hawk Owls, or even a Snowy Owl. These species will often perch in trees, on telephone poles and also hay and straw bales. Snow Buntings and Horned Larks gather in large flocks which fly close to the ground in fields. Northern Shrikes are often found perched on the uppermost point of a tree in small clumps of bushes.
Winter finches are usually heard before they are seen — Crossbills, Pine Siskins, and Pine Grosbeaks are very vocal in the winter which makes them easy to locate — often feeding on pinecones at the top of spruce trees.
The best way to locate certain species is to ask local birders about the best locations for wintering species in your area. eBird is also a fantastic resource for finding birds in your area. You can submit your own sightings to eBird — adding to the ever growing eBird database of checklists which helps other birders and scientists track bird distribution and abundance.
When I have time in the winter, even in the bitter temperatures from around -20 to -40 degrees Celsius, I trudge through the snow in search of owls, woodpeckers, and winter finches. Staying warm in the frigid temperatures can be a challenge, but being comfortable makes birding much more enjoyable. Sometimes the coldest days can produce the most spectacular birds, but nothing is more frustrating than watching a Snowy Owl and not being able to feel your toes!
Using a camera can be a challenge on very cold days, because changing the dials with mittens or even gloves can be difficult. I try to have my settings ready before I leave the house to minimize fiddling around in the cold. Also, batteries lose a lot of power when exposed to low temperatures, so I keep spare ones warm in an inner pocket, close to the body.
A Snowy Owl I saw last year,
Layers upon layers are the key to staying warm outside. I like to wear warm sweaters and leggings. And on the outside — my snow boots (Baffin), waterproof snow pants, a waterproof winter jacket, my Punk Rock Apparel Snowy Owl winter hat, and a scarf or gaiter. Keeping your extremities warm is essential for winter birding. I like wool socks, and I dry my boot liners overnight. This way there’s no excess moisture in the liners. I wear leather mittens with finger liners since they are incredibly warm and easy to use with binoculars. Hand warmers can be useful since you can stick them in your mittens, pockets, and boots. Constantly moving also helps to keep you warm.
Birding in Germany was a little different for me because the climate is so much more humid and damp than the prairies. The cold went straight through me, so I made sure to dress very warmly even through the winter temperature wasn’t much below zero.
Birding by vehicle can make the weather a little more bearable. Dress as warmly as if you’re going for a walk, because any number of things could happen — a bird might be sitting in a spot where you have to go outside to get a good view, the heater in your vehicle quits working or have some other breakdown (my truck started leaking coolant and overheated far from home on the day of the Christmas Bird Count), or you get stuck in the snow and have to walk.
If you can’t brave the cold, sit by your window with a book and something warm to drink and watch the birds at your feeders. Feeding birds in the winter gives you a chance to watch birds without having to go outside and provides extra sustenance for birds dealing with the winter weather. Many rare birds often show up at feeding stations, so keep an eye out for unusual birds at your feeders. Even if nothing rare shows up, watching the Black-capped Chickadees, Downy Woodpeckers, and winter finches at close range is always enjoyable. For more bird feeding tips, I highly recommend Myrna Pearman’s new book, Backyard Bird Feeding: An Alberta Guide.
There are a number of citizen science programs that take place in the winter, including Project FeederWatch, Christmas Bird Counts, and the Great Backyard Bird Count. You can provide important information about the winter bird population in your area by counting birds at your feeders and reporting the results.
Whether you’re walking, driving, or window-watching this winter, have fun and stay warm!
A male Pine Grosbeak,
The 26th annual Vermilion Christmas Bird Count was held on December 19th. I’m the president for our local Naturalist Society this year, so I organized the count, made sure we had field counters for each of the quadrants, and also tried to publicize the count in the local papers to encourage more feeder counters and let the community know to expect birders walking around. We had a total of 29 field counters and nine feederwatchers.
My friend Sharon picked me up at 9 am and we drove around our part of the NW Quadrant, stopping at farmyards along the way, checking to see if there were any birds at feeders or in the mature spruce trees surrounding the yards. Black-capped Chickadees, Black-billed Magpies, and Common Ravens were our most seen species, but the Common Redpolls were the most abundant — we saw over 400 in just under two hours.
At 11:30 am we headed to my grandmother’s acreage to see what was at her feeders. We enjoyed mugs of hot chocolate and ate Christmas baking while looking out her kitchen windows. We added two Hairy Woodpeckers and Downy Woodpeckers to our list. Three Blue Jays fed from the peanut ring that my grandmother put out.
Downy Woodpecker,
One of the Blue Jays checking out the peanut feeder,
A male Hairy Woodpecker,
A White-breasted Nuthatch also made a brief appearance,
This year, I organized the second annual Vermilion CBC4Kids in the Vermilion Provincial Park. Sharon dropped me off at home and I drove to town for the CBC4Kids starting at 1 pm. We had seven kids, six parents, and one novice adult birder come out for birding in the park. I talked about the possible species we could see and explained more about the Christmas Bird Count, then we started walking the trails.
A reporter from the one of the local newspapers joined us to cover the CBC4Kids just before we started our walk. Thanks for coming out, Shannon, and for the great article, which I hope encourages other families and young birders to come out.
Two junior birders (photo courtesty of Shannon O’Connor, The Vermilion Voice)
We looked for the large flocks of finches that had been previously reported in the spruce trees, but all we saw for winter finches were two Common Redpolls. Black-capped Chickadees were the most abundant on the walk and one particular bird came very close to the group, so everyone got a good look.
Other than birds, we found snowshoe hare tracks, various bird nests, a willow where a porcupine had stripped the bark off the top branches, and a bunch of trembling aspens that beavers chopped down in the summer or fall and left behind.
Searching for woodpeckers to no avail,
After a climb up a fairly steep hill, we caught our breath and got a group photo,
We finished the walk having traveled over two kilometres and seen six species. Even though the kids were a little tired after the long walk, they all had a good time. I’m looking forward to next year’s CBC4Kids, and think I might lead a walk for beginning adult birders who can’t commit to a whole/half day of counting, but would like to learn more about the wintering birds in Vermilion.
Here’s our list of species from the CBC4Kids walk:
Blue Jay — 1
Black-billed Magpie — 2
Common Raven — 2
Black-capped Chickadee — 38
Bohemian Waxwing — 35
Common Redpoll — 2
There’s always a CBC potluck supper in town where everyone shares stories from the day, and our compiler tallies the count numbers. From the regular count and the CBC4Kids, counters saw a total of 4,340 individual birds of 41 species, a new record on both counts. Two of the species — a Cooper’s Hawk and a Northern Saw-Whet Owl — were new additions for the count and were both seen in the NE Quadrant.
Christmas Bird Counts around North America run up until January 5th — CBCs are excellent ways to meet other birders in your area as well as to add some new winter species to your list.
:: Find more CBC4Kids events here
:: Find CBC events across Canada here
:: Find CBC events across the U.S here
Over Christmas, I had a chance to get better photos of the Common Redpolls at our big feeder. All the photo are taken with my Nikon D610 with the 200-500mm lens. The 36” feeder is so big that it barely fits in the camera frame, even at 200mm.
The feeder is filled with a mix of nyjer and sunflower chips which the birds empty in about two days. There are at least 40 redpolls visiting my feeders daily and it’s very entertaining watching them vie for position on the perches.
Prairie Birder 