Editor: Myrna Pearman, Sally Stuart, Dorothy Dickson February 2017

Judy Boyd’s 2016 Christmas Bird Count Report

The Christmas Bird Count was held on December 18, 2016. There were 99 observers (up from last year's 91) rec-ord a total of 46 species (up from last year’s 45) and 9643 individual birds (up from last year’s 7287.) The highest number of species recorded since 1986 happened in 2004 with 61 species and the highest number of individual birds recorded was in 2005 with 14540 birds counted. This year, there were also three count week (cw) birds (birds seen three days before or three days after the count but not on Count Day): Northern Harrier, Barred Owl and Short-eared Owl. Only 1 species recorded their all time high: Snow Buntings with 3,910 birds. This is only the sec-ond time an American Kestrel has been recorded (the first time was in 1989).

2015 2016 Canada Goose 0 1

Mallard 233 166

Common Goldeneye 192 121

Hooded Merganser 1CW 0

Bald Eagle 8 15

Golden Eagle 0 1

Northern Harrier 0 1cw

Northern Goshawk 0 1

Rough-legged Hawk 3 8

American Kestrel 0 1

Merlin 1 1

Gray Partridge 28 21

Ring-necked Pheasant 2 2

Ruffed Grouse 22 32

Rock Pigeon 284 960

Eurasian Collared-dove 23 20

Belted Kingfisher 0 1

Barred Owl 0 1cw

Short-eared Owl 0 1cw

Great Horned Owl 7 2

Snowy Owl 3 1

Northern Saw-whet Owl 1 0

Downy Woodpecker 166 127

Hairy Woodpecker 70 49

American Three-toed Woodpecker 1 0

Northern Flicker 24 25

Pileated Woodpecker 14 9

Gray Jay 6 8

Blue Jay 159 147

Black-billed Magpie 445 537

2015 2016 American Crow 33 19

Common Raven 269 404

Black-capped Chickadee 1012 821

Boreal Chickadee 38 41

Red-breasted Nuthatch 87 24

White-breasted Nuthatch 100 81

Brown Creeper 2 1

American Robin 27 3

Bohemian Waxwing 522 745

Cedar Waxwing 41 0

Northern Shrike 5 3

European Starling 51 49

American Tree Sparrow 12 0

Dark-eyed Junco 46 49

Snow Bunting 291 3910

Common Grackle 0 1

Pine Grosbeak 179 23

Red Crossbill 21 0

White-winged Crossbill 201 2

House Finch 361 248

Common Redpoll 1388 125

Hoary Redpoll 53 0

Pine Siskin 95 61

American Goldfinch 0 1

Evening Grosbeak 11 0

House Sparrow 750 784

Total individuals 7,287 9,643

A big thanks to all CBC participants! See back page for more Count information.

Tuffy’s story

By Beth MacCallum (Hinton, AB) and MWRC

The Anna’s Hummingbird now known as “Tuffy” was flown to Vancouver Island by private jet on November 25, driven to a nearby resort and successfully released. Here is her story:

Late October, 2016: An Anna’s Hummingbird shows up at Vicky Parkers house in the Hinton valley district. Vicky feeds hummingbirds in the summer but had put her feeders away for the season. The little bird was persistent so Vicky filled her feeders with the expectation that the bird would feed for a few days and be on its way. Anna’s Hummingbirds are not nor-mally seen in Hinton but are known to range widely in migration. Somehow this little bird got “lost” and found itself on the wrong side of the Rockies.

November 20, 2016: The hummingbird remained at Vicky’s feeder through most of No-vember and didn’t leave when expected. With the onset of colder weather, Vicky began to rotate the feeder regularly during the day replacing a cold feeder with a warm one.

November 22, 2016: Beth MacCallum and Linda Morgan as-sisted by Vicky Parker managed to catch the Anna’s Hum-mingbird with a mist net. It took three tries to catch this bird. It kept approaching the net, flying backward and hover-ing and would figure out that there was a barrier present. At one point it even investigated the pole holding the net and flew around it and got to the feeder behind the net (picture). Only when the net was repositioned across a famil-iar flyway and Vicky changed the feeder for a warm feeder did the hummingbird fly into the net after feeding. The bird was put into a small box which had been prepared with a soft cloth on the floor and a perch. Beth and Linda drove the bird to Niton Junc-tion where it was picked up by Lillian Duperron. Lillian runs an animal First Aid sta-

tion in Drayton Valley (4 years!) for the Medicine River Wild-life Centre. Arrangements were made for Tuffy, to stay in Drayton Valley until it could be moved and released in a suita-ble location in BC. Lillian refurbished a bathroom with flow-ering Fuschia plants and darkened the window to keep Tuffy calm.

November 25, 2016: Tuffy was put back in her box that had been modified for the next leg of her journey. Lillian cut part of the top off and replaced it with mesh. The box could then be covered with a dark cloth to calm the bird or have the cloth removed so it could feed. Lillian then placed some Fuschia plants that were still flowering into the box and fastened a small feeder inside. Tuffy was put into the box and driven to Red Deer, Alberta where MRWC supporter Dar-cy Will provided a ride in his private jet heading to Campbell River on Vancouver Is-land. Tuffy was properly buck-led up for the trip!. Once ar-rived, she was driven a short way and successfully released at Dolphins resort. When the box was opened, Tuffy looked up and proceeded to take a drink for about 10 seconds before she flew away.

Hurrah! and thanks to everyone who worked together to help this little bird find a suitable home. Thanks to Carol Kelley and Lillian Duperron from the Medicine River Wildlife Centre for making all the arrangements and caring for Tuffy. Thanks to supporter Darcy Will who pro-vided the ride to Vancouver Island and successfully released her. Thanks to Beth MacCallum and Linda Morgan who were almost outsmarted by a hum-mingbird but managed to catch Tuffy with lots of help from Vicky. Special thanks to Vicky Parker who’s efforts feeding the bird saved its life.

The next Great Backyard Bird Count will be held on

February 17-20, 2017

Check out www.BirdCount.org for more information

http://cornell.us2.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=b35ddb671faf4a16c0ce32406&id=1b8e0d3f0b&e=b0eda4b807

MORE CBC DETAILS

Our thanks to NOVA for underwriting the cost of

newsletter printing

Front cover designed by Doug Pederson

Alberta Community Bat

Program

The new Alberta Community Bat Program hopes to enlist homeowners in the battle to save Alberta’s bats. Alberta has responded to the potential threat of white-nose syndrome by forming the Alberta Bat Action Team, a con-servation working group with government, industry and aca-demic members in collaboration with the Wildlife Conserva-tion Society Canada, Alberta Environment and Parks, and a similar network of B.C.-based community bat programs. To prevent the disease’s spread and help disease-resistant bats reproduce, experts need to know more about where bats hibernate and what habitats they prefer.

The community bat program is asking the public to contrib-ute to research about them by sending photographs and de-scriptions of buildings where bats roost and teaspoons of guano (bat poop) to the organization by mail. This citizen science could help researchers compile a database of habitats, monitor populations and compare the suitability of different types of bat houses. For more information, check out al-bertabats.ca. or attend the March 2017 RDRN meeting, where Cory Olson will talk about Alberta bats and this pro-gram.

The Red Deer River Naturalists, the first natural history organization to be established in Alberta, was incorporated as a society in 1906. The objec-tives of the society are to foster an increased knowledge, understanding and appreciation of natural history, and to support conservation measures dealing with our environment, wildlife and natural resources. Annual membership is $15.00 for individuals and $20.00 for families. Regular meetings are held at 7:30 p.m. on the fourth Thursday of most months at the Kerry Wood Nature Centre, 6300-45 Ave., Red Deer, AB. Non-members are welcome. Members are encouraged to contribute to this newsletter. Deadline is the last Friday of the month.

Box 785 Red Deer, AB T4N 5H2 Phone/Fax: 403.347.8200

Flower Focus

March 15, 2017 10:00 AM ● KWNC TOPIC: Liliaceae

(February has been cancelled)

rdrn.nature@gmail.com www.rdrn.ca http://wearenaturalwise.blogspot.com

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Walked: 325.75 hr, 44.08 km Driven: 59 hr, 5 minutes; 1,595.4 km Snowmobiling: .75 hr, 4 km Feeder watching: 146 hours The temperature ranged from +4 to -10 C. The snow cover ranged from a depth of 0-20 cm. The wind went from 0-50 km/h and came from various directions. 99 Observers: Jerry Alderson, Colleen Anderson, Phil-lip Anderson, Pat & Gary Anderson, Bill Barritt, Karin Bjorge, Myron Bjorge, Ron Bjorge, Alberta Blake, John Blake, Judy Boyd, Larry Boyd, Jerry Caddy, John Cad-dy, Ed Cameron, Sandra Cameron, June Campbell, Bri-an Charles, Vern Connelly, Ron Dermott, Dawn De-tarando, Marg Dewald, Bertha Ford, Harry Ford, Ei-leen Ford, Jordan Ford, Stewart Ford, Sharon Fraszer, Estelle Froese, Tammy Froese, Bonnie Froese, Gordon Graham, Sharon Graham, Jane Grenier-Frank, Robert Grey, Michelle Guevremont, Nancy, Steven Hansen, Melanie Hansen, Connie Haustein, Pliny Hayes, Bill Heinsen, Liz Heinsen, Adam Hofer, Isaac Hofer, Jacob Hofer, Sarah Hofer, Linda Howitt-Taylor, Scott Hoy-land, Betty Huston, Esther Hutchison, Allison Ireland, Roy Jamieson, Gordon Johnson, Pat Johnson, Carol Kelly, Keith Kline, Linda Kullman, Andrea Lash, Brian Laver, Joyce Lemke, Jim Leslie, Claudia Lipski, Carol Lynass, Brian McArthur, John McEachern, Tim McJunkin, Charles Meggison, Jackie Miller, Bonnie Mullin, Dorothy Murray, Chantal Payne, Chester Payne, Marie Payne, Thomasina Payne, Myrna Pear-man, Doug Pedersen, Darren Petersen, Deborah Pe-tersen, Darlene Reimche, Violet Rhine, Jim Robertson, Gerald Schmidt, Sylvia Schmidt, Doris Schweitz, Eric Sinton, Helga Sinton, Rick Tallas, Gary Thorpe, Bev Thompson, Rod Tretham, Howard Wilde, Paula Wilde, Diane Wilton, Kevin Wingert, Dianne Yaceyka, Cathie Zacharias, Jamie (last name unknown).