SOUTHERN ALBERTA
JANUARY 2015
Volume 4 Issue 1
BIRDING NEWS
THE CARDINAL IS COMING…..
Confirmed by Myrna Pearman, the resident biologist at Ellis Bird Farm in
Lacombe, there are successful nesting pairs of Northern cardinals located
in northern Alberta since 2009 (the exact location is being kept a secret
for now). At the right are actual photos of the male and female at the
feeder in northern Alberta.
Believe it or not, I have just recently seen my first Northern cardinal and
it wasn’t in Canada—it was in Florida. I was very impressed.
It is also a fact that we did not have the Blue jay here in Calgary about 20
years ago or so, and that the Magpie population in British Columbia has
steadily increased in the same time period. (sorry B.C.!).
A CLOSER LOOK AT THE NORTHERN CARDINAL
The Northern cardinal is sexually dimorphic meaning the condition in which males and females
in a species are morphologically different, as with many birds.
Cardinal pairs are monogamous and have a feeding courtship ritual in which the female bird
mimics the behaviour of a nestling and the male bird offers her seeds or berries. The male will
also care for the female while she tends the nest.
Northern cardinals can be shy backyard visitors and are most likely to visit suburban yards that
offer low ground cover. Offering cracked corn, safflower seeds (squirrels hate safflower seeds,
Yahoo!) and black oil sunflower seeds in ground or platform feeders will help attract Cardinals.
They can also be tempted by bird baths. In time, Cardinals may be hand-fed by patient birders.
Only a few female North American songbirds sing, but the female Northern cardinal does, and
often while sitting on the nest. A mated pair shares song phrases, but the female may sing a
longer and slightly more complex song than the male.
Many people are perplexed each spring by the sight of a Cardinal attacking its reflection in a
window, car mirror, or shiny bumper. Both the males and females do this, and most often in
spring and early summer when they are obsessed with defending their territory against any intruders.
SOUTHERN ALBERTA BIRDING NEWS
PAGE 2
KEEPING UP WITH NEW TECHNOLOGY
Many people have noticed chronic pain shooting down their neck, through
arms to fingertips, whenever they use their mobile phone for a long time. To
treat this commonly spreading problem, a therapist, Dr. Dean L. Fishman,
has developed a mobile application.
Dr. Fishman calls this malady “text neck” which is similar to tennis elbow,
but instead of being brought on by sports activities, it is worsening by improper posture while using mobile devices.
The mobile phone app helps alert users of a posture problem while texting or
playing games on Android mobile phones. The mobile application works in
the background, presenting a green or red light on the top left corner of the
screen while users text. A green light means proper posture, red means the
opposite. Users can adjust the app to beep or vibrate for posture alerts as
well.
Check it out!
A group of
local birders, sponsored by Nature
Calgary, are organizing a birding
competition entitled eBird Calgary 2015. It will be held in Calgary and surrounding areas, and run from January 1 through December 31, 2015. The competition has two important goals. The
first is to promote the enjoyment and preservation of birds and
their habitats by encouraging birders of all ages, especially children under the age of sixteen, to discover the gifts Mother Nature
provides right here in our local area.
Species identified during the year within an 80 kilometre radius
of the midpoint of Calgary’s Centre Street Bridge will be counted.
In addition to prizes for the most species identified, several other
categories for prizes have been created. These include the Big
Day, Big Year Yard List and the Best Bird Find of the Year.
For more information or to sign up: www.naturecalgary.com
THE WILD BIRD STORE 8330 MACLEOD TRAIL S.E., CALGARY, ALBERTA. T2H2V2 CANADA
PAGE 3
SOUTHERN ALBERTA BIRDING NEWS
SMALL FIRST STEPS
It’s a hopeful feather in the Calgary Zoo’s cap.
Two Greater sage grouse chicks were successfully
hatched at the zoo’s Devonian Wildlife Conservation
Centre south of Calgary, the only survivors of a crop of
13 eggs harvested from Alberta’s prairies this spring.
But their survival brings hope that the critically endangered species may once again thrive in its natural habitat.
With between 100-150 in the wild and a mortality rate of
about 90% for eggs, any progress on ensuring the species’ survival is vital.
Zoo will continue work to save Sage grouse
The Federal government declared the Greater sage
grouse endangered in 1998 and last year, for the first
time, issued an emergency protection order under Canada’s Species at Risk Act.
Habitat loss and degradation, predation and the West
Nile virus have been the main culprits in the bird’s population decline.
The Calgary Sun, Wednesday, December 17, 2014
The hearty Emperor penguin should be classed as an endangered species
because the majority of colonies will have lost half their populations by
the end of the century, a new study warns.
The study was conducted by lead author Stephanie Jenouvrier, a biologist with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
She estimates that by 2100, at least two-thirds of Emperor penguin colonies will have dramatically declined by more than half if temperatures
rise at the rate predicted by the Intern-governmental Panel on Climate
Change.
The Calgary Sun—QMI Agency
THE WILD BIRD STORE 8330 MACLEOD TRAIL S.E., CALGARY, ALBERTA. T2H2V2 CANADA
Monday through Friday 10:00am to
6:00pm
Saturday 9:30am to 5:30pm
January Optics with Rob
Furlong from Leupold Optics
February Backyard Bird
Feeding
wildbirdwatcherblogspot.ca—Join us
for lots of tips and information and post a
comment.
Do you have a favourite wild bird photo? Enter our contest—all entries will be displayed in store and voted on by our customers. Entries can be emailed to [email protected] or dropped off at the
store. For more details, see poster at THE WILD BIRD STORE.
March Nest Boxes
April Hummingbirds
D3, 8330 Macleod Trail S.E.,
Calgary, Alberta. T2H2V2
Phone: (403)640-2632
FAX: (403) 640-2809
email: [email protected]
Northern cardinal orange variant?
Perhaps some lack in the diet combined with ingestion of a red pigment
like Rhodoxanthin contributes to the
orange colour as well as the crimson
colour of the red plumage.
EVERY TUESDAY IS
SENIOR’S DAY
Those
receive
10%OFF
This excludes optics & books. We
still offer our “recycle” discount
in addition to this amount. No
other discount can be combined.
PLEASE notify cashier prior to
beginning of sale if you qualify
for this discount. Thank you