Birding Notes

On the highway between Coaldale and Taber we saw a Great Blue Heron in an irrigation canal. This was our first sighting of such a bird in Canada in 2007, but we had previously seen many of these in February in Mexico.

North of Vauxhall we noticed two pronghorn antelope fairly close to the road. We slowed down, expecting them to run away before we could get a picture, but they stayed in place, and as a result I obtained the following photo:

There is more to bird watching than just birds.

As we moved to a gravel road near the park we noticed a number of birds in a small slough. These included Snow Geese (about a dozen - not a large group), 2 Black-necked Stilts, and a couple of American Avocets. The black-necked Stilts were the first we had ever seen in Canada, although they were common in Mexico.

Here is an action photo of a birdwatcher at Kinbrook Island Provincial Park:

We saw two birds like this, but have not been able to identify it (the view is of the bird's back - it has just rotated its head to look at us):
Larry suggests that this is a White-throated Sparrow. After a close look at this and at a number of photos on google images, plus a review of the description of its feeding and nesting habits, we agree. Thank you!

Here are a pair of Gadwalls, new lifers for us:

And here is another lifer, the Marbled Godwit:

 

Here is a table summarizing the day's observations.

Name	Photo	Time	Location	ID#	2007 #	Lifer
Great Blue Heron	.	1:20 PM	Hwy 3 near Taber	56	63	.
Black-necked Stilt	Yes	1:53 PM	gravel road near Kinbrook	124	64	.
American Avocet	Yes	1:53 PM	"	120	58	.
Snow Goose	.	1:53 PM	"	63	61	.
Western Meadowlark	Yes	1:55 PM	Kinbrook	5	56	.
Northern Shoveler	Yes	1:55 PM	"	115	50	.
Northern Harrier	.	2:00 PM	"	14	33	.
Franklin's Gull	.	2:10 PM	"	125	65	Yes
White-throated Sparrow	Yes	3:24 PM	"	126	66	Yes
Gadwall	Yes	3:40 PM	"	127	67	Yes
Swainson's Hawk	Yes	3:52 PM	"	97	42	.
Ring-necked Pheasant	Yes	4:05 PM	"	7	2	.
Rough-legged Hawk	.	4:10 PM	"	102	68	.
Northern Pintail	Yes	4:16 PM	gravel road near Kinbrook	113	39	.
Marbled Godwit	Yes	4:19 PM	"	128	69	Yes
Common Goldeneye	Yes	4:20 PM	"	68	70	.
Killdeer	Yes	4:21 PM	"	53	23	.
Gray Partridge	.	4:34 PM	"	129	71	Yes
Horned Lark	.	5:15 PM	"	130	72	Yes

SUMMARY of the session: We were surprised and disappointed with the amount of waterfowl at Kinbrook. But seeing the Black-necked Stilt was a genuine delight. After seeing so many of these in our February trip to Mexico, it was like seeing an old friend in an unexpected place. The Rough-legged Hawk was identified after we arrived home and looked at the field guides. The hawk we saw hovered above us and showed a fair degree of white. It was about 18" long. The hovering, plus the white underbelly, convinced us of our identification. We saw 2 birds fly up as we passed them in the car. I saw where they went down and walked over to the spot. I was within 10 feet of them and could not see them but then they flew up and I noticed a chestnut color on the throat. Thus we were able to add a Gray Partridge to our list of lifers. In fact, our lifer list grew by another 6. Our Canadian lifetime list is now at 130 and our 2007 Canadian list is at 72. We are beginning to take this seriously!