Bird Listing from December 1 to February 29 Posted by Bob Lefebvre For the last few years I have been helping to keep track of all species reported in the Calgary region in the winter months. It’s interesing to...
Bird Listing from December 1 to February 29
Posted by Bob Lefebvre
For the last few years I have been helping to keep track of all species reported in the Calgary region in the winter months. It’s interesing to see which species are here and to see if there are any long-term trends or changes.
White-throated Sparrow. They often overwinter here. Calgary, 2018. Photo by Bob Lefebvre
Caroline Lambert has been keeping the list of birds from the Bow Valley, and linking to lists from other parts of the province (as well as the entire province). You can see the lists here.
Here is Caroline’s description of this project, taken from the Albertabird discussion group.
The winter birding season starts this Friday, Dec 1. As in previous years, various lists of winter birds seen in certain areas in Alberta will be maintained from Dec 1 to end of February. We get an extra day this season since it’s a leap year! It is hoped that this makes winter birding a little more interesting. Alberta has some really good winter birds – there are just not many of them! And each year there are surprises. Links to all of the lists, with area maps, can be found at albertawinterbirds.org.
Calgary: this will be compiled again by Bob Lefebvre. The count area is the 80km radius count circle centred on Calgary, the same one used for the May species count. It is preferred that sightings during this count period and in the count area be reported to this email list, albertabird@groups.io (keeping in mind that certain sensitive species should not be openly reported), but we will also include species reported to eBird and elsewhere, if we can find them. [Note – You must be a member of the Albertabird group to post reports there. Go to the home page to subscribe.]
Bow Valley: this area includes both the Bow River and Kananaskis River watersheds, as far east as the Stoney Nakoda casino and Seebe Dam. Most sightings for this area are taken from the Bow Valley Birding Facebook group, but we will record sightings reported on this email list, Albertabird, eBird, Christmas Bird Counts, rumours on the street, etc. The Bow Valley has the lowest species count of any area, so we’ll accept any reputable report!
Provincial list: Andy Ross is again taking care of the Alberta-wide list. The list has been cleaned up, simplified for easier reading, and sorted to the most recent taxonomic order (following the Clement’s/eBird taxonomy). Andy will collect sightings from the usual sources (eBird, Albertabird, the other winter lists, the Alberta Birds Facebook group, etc.), but if you want to send a report to him directly, please use the email address albertabirding@gmail.com.
The Edmonton list as shown on the albertawinterbirds.org site is not the official one; I simply copy their list from the Edmonton Nature Club’s groups.io discussion group. The links are there mostly to have one jumping off spot to find all the winter list info should anyone be interested.
Good birding,
Caroline Lambert
Canmore
Keeping track of your own winter list is also a way to make winter birding more interesting.With the mild winter we have had so far, there may be some late migrants that we can add to the cumulative species totals. Good luck!
The post Winter Birding 2023-2024 first appeared on Birds Calgary.
The post Winter Birding 2023-2024 appeared first on Birds Calgary.