Adults can be told from the young by their plumage, which is duller and more worn compared to their fresh and colourful offspring..
Our August started with our annual trip to Calgary to visit family. We usually do this in July on the Canada Day long weekend, but with the extensive flooding in Alberta, we delayed our trip for a month. Many of the normal birding spots that I visit were still closed due to flood damage, but I managed to pick up a few good species nonetheless.
#173 White-faced Ibis - Date: August 3. Location: Frank Lake Duck Sanctuary, High River, Alberta.
This is a spot I visit every year when I travel to Calgary. It is a Ducks Unlimited protected area, and can normally be counted on for Yellow-headed Blackbirds, Forster's and Black Terns, Ruddy Ducks, and Eared Grebes among others.
With the flooding this year, Frank Lake seemed to be affected in reverse by being drier than usual. I had seen one White-faced Ibis there in 2012, but this year they were the predominant species with a population approaching 30. I was able to capture some really nice shots of them as presented below.
#174 Forster's Tern - Date: August 3. Location: Frank Lake Duck Sanctuary, High River, Alberta.
I see this species most years at Frank Lake. This year, I caught a nice action sequence. The third photo shows the species in winter plumage. It was taken at the Radio Road sewage treatment plant in Redwood City, California, south of San Francisco in September.
#175 Chipping Sparrow - Date: August 3. Location: Cochrane, Alberta.
My cousin Cathy lives on an acreage outside Cochrane, which is just a bit west of Calgary. I always look for birds there, and have seen a good collection over the years. This is the only bird of note I saw this year, it is a very common Sparrow back east, but is a good catch in BC or Alberta.
#176 Swainson's Hawk - Date: August 4. Location: Calgary, Alberta.
This is southern Alberta's version of our Red-tailed Hawk. The Swainson's hawk is visible on lamp posts, or soaring high above the city outskirts. My cousin John told me about seeing one on a wire near the Springbank Airport as he drove home from Cochrane the night before. I had about an hour to spare for birding and headed out that way. Sure enough a hawk was positioned on a telephone post as promised. It took me a couple of passes to be able to safely stop and get a decent photo.
#177 Western Kingbird - Date: August 4. Location: Calgary, Alberta.
Sometimes you just get lucky. I had hoped to see this bird in the Hope area, where it had been reported back in July, but struck out.
In order to get the photos of the Swainson's Hawk above, I had to pass it by and backtrack. When I found a convenient turn-around spot on a small road, I decided to get out and see if there were any birds about. At first I saw a Savannah Sparrow, and then noticed a larger bird sitting on a fence wire. It was part of a family of Western Kingbirds. I believe the first photo is a juvenile and the second one an adult.
#178 Caspian Tern - Date: August 7. Location: Blackie's Spit, Surrey.
Back home in BC, I headed out to Blackie's Spit. Every year, there are a couple of Marbled Godwits and a Long-billed Curlew that spend the fall and winter there. However, those birds would not be seen until later in the month. Instead I saw a pair of Caspian Terns. The photos I took that day were okay, but I got some much better ones in September at Iona Regional Park in Richmond, including this one.
#179 Spotted Sandpiper - Date: August 7. Location: Serpentine Fen, Surrey.
A mid-sized sandpiper, it is fairly common in Fall in the Lower Mainland. It may or may not have spots on the breast, they tend to disappear in winter. I caught this one with spots still intact.
#180 Franklin's Gull - Date: August 7. Location: Iona Regional Park, Richmond.
This is a very common gull in Southern Alberta, but rare out here on the coast. It had been reported for at least a week at Iona. The first day I had time to look, it was very low tide and there were hundreds of Ring-billed Gulls out on the flats. I took a photo of something that was a bit different looking, but left disappointed. I went back a couple of days later and spotted the bird just as I was leaving. It was still mixed in with other gulls and was in winter plumage. The shot below was the best I could do. It turned out I had seen it the first day, but the photos were worse than the one below. For comparison, the second photo is an adult that I saw in Calgary on the Bow River in June 2009.
#181 Baird's Sandpiper - Date: August 10. Location: 104 St. Boundary Bay, Delta.
By this time in August sandpiper migration was heating up. There were plenty of Least and Western Sandpipers returning from the north. Among them was this slightly larger species. Although I had probably seen them before, I had not recorded them on my life list, making this life list addition #371, my only lifer in August.
#182 Greater Yellowlegs - Date: August 18. Location: Reifel Bird Sanctuary, Delta.
I may have seen this species earlier in the year, but this sighting at Reifel was unmistakable and verified by a tour guide. They can be very hard to distinguish from Lesser Yellowlegs if not seen together.
#183 California Gull - Date: August 20. Location: 104 St. Boundary Bay, Delta.
I saw a juvenile bird in August, identified by an expert guide (see next bird below).
This adult was seen at the very end of the South Jetty at Iona in September. The yellow legs and black and red spots on the bill are good field marks.
#184 Ruddy Turnstone - Date: August 20. Location: 104 St. Boundary Bay, Delta.
On this evening at Boundary Bay, I caught up with a group of people who were on some kind of birding tour. To my surprise, the leader was Chris Charlesworth, the leader of our April tour in the Okanagan. I joined the group and tried to provide some local knowledge. Chris spotted a group of Black-bellied Plovers, put his scope on them and announced there was a Ruddy Turnstone with them. I had seen this bird back east, but never here. In the first photo, I have cropped to the bird, in the second, it is the the bird with the different wing pattern in the upper left centre.
#185 Marbled Godwit - Date: August 25. Location: Blackie's Spit, Surrey.
#186 Long-billed Curlew - Date: August 25. Location: Blackie's Spit, Surrey.
These birds have been seen at Blackie's Spit for quite a few years. They seem to spend fall and winter here, disappear for a while and then return. Since I saw them together, the one photo below shows them well. The Curlew is on the right, with the long curved bill.
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#187 Common Tern - Date: August 27. Location: Drayton Harbor, Blaine Wa. I was playing golf in Bellingham on this day and had to cross the border early to ensure I arrived on time. I decided to stop and check out the south side of Semiahmoo Bay and was rewarded with a flyover of three Common Terns. This cropped photo was the only decent one I got.  #188 Western Grebe - Date: August 27. Location: Drayton Harbor, Blaine Wa. The final August bird was this, our largest grebe. The photo below was taken from the White Rock Pier in October.  That closes out the August Post, more coming in September as the shorebird migration cranks up. |
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