Red-bellied Woodpecker!!!

On March 19, Milt Spitzer, Phil Cram, and Mike Mulligan reported a Red-bellied Woodpecker in Etzikom Alberta, southwest of Medicine Hat. I believe that this is the third record for Alberta; the last one was in High River in the winter of 2011/2012. I tried for that bird on two separate occasions and missed it both times even though I think every other birder in Alberta got it... All that means is that I had to get this bird!

If I didn't have a huge test later on in the week I would have gone the next morning but since I did I called up Mack Fai and decided to make a full day trip of it, but had to wait until Saturday March 23. That morning I met up with Mack and Kristen Mancuso. Kristen is new to the province and had a few species that she hoped to pick up.

We met up around 11am because Mack needs his beauty sleep and headed on the road. About 10km north of Etzikom we picked up our first and only Northern Shrike of the day. When we got into Etzikom we drove right to the house with the feeder that the bird had been frequenting and immediately saw a woodpecker fly over our heads but none of us got a good enough view to say it was THE bird for sure. We decided to drive around the three roads in the town and eventually ended up walking even though it was bitterly cold. Kristen is from Ontario and said she was familiar with the Red-bellied's call and as we were discussing what the bird sounded like a very distinct call cut through the cold air! All three of us yelled THERE IT IS! Sure enough, there was the Red-bellied Woodpecker halfway up a tree about a block away. We all got good views and attempted to get pictures. The bird eventually flew back to the feeders and we followed in Mack's car. The owners of the house were waiving frantically in the window and pointing to the bird so we gave them the thumbs up. Mission Accomplished!

Red-bellied Woodpecker, Etzikom, Alberta. Photo by Mack Fai. 

We decided to drive south to Pakowki Lake on the 885, but that section was frozen over so we decided to head west and see if there was open water north of the hutterite colony. On our way there a Western Meadowlark flew across the road and landed on a fence post. This was a lifer for Kristen and put on a show by singing right on cue. When we arrived at the lake there was a good number of Canada Geese, Tundra Swans, Northern Pintail, and Mallards. There were also a couple Northern Shovelers, a few American Wigeon, Common Goldeneye, half a dozen Cackling Geese and a single Male Hooded Merganser. 
After searching through the flock we decided to continue down the 885, drive the south side of Pakowki and head back north through Manyberries. We saw at least 12 Rough-legged Hawks, and 4 Bald Eagles, but more importantly managed to find 1 Golden Eagle and 3 Ferruginous Hawks which were also lifers for Kristen. We saw at least 5 Coyotes and herds of both Mule Deer and Pronghorn. 

Ferruginous Hawk on Highway 501. Photo by Mack Fai. 

Just before we were back in Medicine Hat we realized that we had missed on of our main targets, Sharp-tailed Grouse, so we turned down a side road that Mack and I had seen some on a few weeks before. Within a kilometer we found 7 on the road but what was more exciting was the three Porcupines in the tree next to them! 

Porcupines! Taken with my Yashica FX-3

Mack and Kristen watching the not so cuddly critters. 

We spent a few minutes taking pictures and yeah, we all touched one just to prove we could... Then we headed home and I took a well deserved nap!

I'm hoping to do quite a bit of birding over Easter so stay tuned!

Milk River Ridge-March 17

So, maybe I'm not cut out for this blogging thing... I am going to try to keep up with this thing but I cant seem to find time!

Anyway, on Sunday March 17 I decided to drive down to Milk River Ridge Reservoir to see what new waterfowl had shown up. My first decent bird was a Golden Eagle just west of Raymond but the real show happened when I arrived at the Lake!

As I drove the north side of the lake it became apparent that my 200 Snow Geese had turned into thousands! Almost every field was completely covered in a white blanket, but that blanket was geese not snow! The number of Northern Pintails in the area was also staggering.

Snow Geese and Northern Pintail

Lots of Snows...

Sorry about the poor cell phone video quality! One of a few flocks of Snow Geese...

There was a small patch of open water on the north side that had a few Mallards, American Wigeon, Northern Pintail, and Common Goldeneye. There were also about 10 Redhead, 4 Canvasbacks, and 1 Lesser Scaup rounding out the ducks. A flock of about 100 Tundra Swans was also present.

I spent quite a bit of time looking through the flocks of geese in the field trying to pull out a Ross's Goose, but I'm either the worst or most honest birder ever...The south side of the lake had more of the same species but a flock of about 50 Lapland Longspur was a nice surprise and a new year bird for me!

Lapland Longspurs!

And in flight!

On my way back I saw 2 more Golden Eagles and about 5 Rough-legged Hawks. Considering the amount of raptors I was seeing, I decided to drive the back roads back to Lethbridge in search of a Gyrfalcon. I was not overly hopeful and by the time I was 90% of the way back I had pretty much given up. Then out of the corner of my eye I saw a dark blob in a stubble field to my left, but passed it off as a cat or garbage bag, or something non-birdlike, but something told me to go back and make sure. I trained my bins on the blob and there it was...GYR!!! I couldnt believe my luck, I was only 2 minutes away from the city. I watched the bird eat a Richardson's Ground Squirrel for a while but because of the distance I was unable to get any good photos.

You are going to have to believe me that this is a Gyrfalcon

Overall it was a pretty good Sunday drive! Stay tuned for my search for a Red-bellied Woodpecker!

Lethbridge Birds!

Well I have finally decided I should try to keep a blog again so I'm just going to jump right into it. Migration has really started to pick up in Southern Alberta in the Last couple weeks. I had my first Snow Geese on February 28, two Western Meadowlarks singing South of Medicine Hat on March 2, and since then the migrant waterfowl have just kept coming. The group of Snow Geese at Milk River Ridge Reservoir have grown from 14 on Feb. 28 to well over 200 as of last weekend. Northern Pintails arrived soon after in large numbers and I saw my first wigeons of the year on March 9 which included a beautiful male Eurasian Wigeon at Ridge Reservoir. There have also been Redheads and a pair of Canvasbacks at Park Lake Provincial Park for well over a week.

Snow Geese at Milk River Ridge Reservoir

Today after a very frustrating Saturday at school I decided to drive past Henderson Lake to see if there was any open water on my way home. To my surprise, there was a decent amount of open water on the east side of the lake. I had driven by yesterday and it was still covered in ice. From the road I could see a good number of Canada Geese on the lake and a couple dozen gulls! I parked and quickly grabbed my bins and camera. I was a little to far to get great views of the gulls so I decided I should pick through the few ducks on the water before frustrating myself with gull ID. There were 2 male Redheads and 3 American Wigeon and my thought process while sorting through them was "canada, canada, wigeon, redhead, canada, wigeon, white-front, canada, canada wait what!?!" Out on the ice with 200 other geese was my first Alberta Greater White-fronted Goose!

Greater White-fronted Goose at Henderson Lake

Redheads among Ring-billed Gulls at Henderson

This species has kind of been a nemesis of mine, they rarely pass through the Lethbridge area, and when they are being seen in other parts of the province I am stuck at school. As far as I know this is the first one seen in the province this year. I spent some time taking a few half decent shots of the bird and finally got around to looking at the gulls. There were about 20 Ring-billed Gulls which were a new year bird for me with a hand full of Californias mixed in, but nothing overly exciting. 

An overly edited shot of the gulls and geese because yolo

After going home for a quick supper I went back out to see if anything else decided to show up on the lake, but when I arrived there was not a single bird around and someone was fishing in the spot where the birds were before. I cut my losses and drove over to Jail Lake where among the Mallards and Canada Geese were 2 more Redheads and my first Lesser Scaup of the year. I then headed down to Peenaquim Park where the only interesting birds were 3 newly arrived American Robins and 4 very noisy Killdeer. 

I might get a chance to go out tomorrow in between studying so stay tuned!