Quote:
Originally Posted by CliffFletcher
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I am pretty familiar with birds in the Calgary and SW area. I have a quarter section at Priddis where my son now lives. It is what you would consider "virgin" land in that it has not been broken, except for a small horse pasture. It is mixed aspen and evergreen trees, 100+ year old spruce, with a small creek running through it, that empties into Fish Creek.
While I lived there (many years since my husband and I built on the property in the 1980s), I did a project for the Devonian Foundation based out of the Edmonton University. I had to identify what native flowers and plants were still found on my property as well as identify birds on my property. I did this every year for 20+ years.
Since the land has never been broken, birds and native flowers and plants are in great abundance. Actually wildlife as well. That is what I miss the most about moving into Calgary. Not that I don't enjoy Killarney as it is well established with a lot of green spaces and it is very quiet...but the amount of flora and fauna simply does not compare. I so enjoyed feeding the birds and deer...got to know which fawns went with each doe and the like.
Actually, for identifying birds in the Priddis area, I found the little Golden Book on Birds to be about as good as any.
At my place in Killarney, I have the black capped chickadee, the red shafted flicker, the downy woodpecker, occasionally nut hatches, occasionally a blue jay, sparrows, robins which I love, and a pair of red finches, which are presently nesting in the canopy on my back deck. I will leave them as they are such nice singers. My grandson built me some bird boxes and I have had chickadees nest in them. There are either merlins or kestrels as well but they have not been close enough for me to identify which one. Other than that, I have magpies, which I consider a predator, not a nice bird at all. I have absolutely no use whatsoever for magpies. The damage they do to song birds is just awful.
My robins in my water feature. I have planted Solomon's Seal around the water feature and it sort of drapes over, making my water feature look like a small brook. The birds, robins in particular, love it. They have a pecking order for who goes in first...they don't share!!! Then they line up on my fence and ruffle their feathers and dry off.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/sbye1f2sx0...31.42.mts?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ou4vfhspfq...ain-5.JPG?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/m7n0k670pq...02021.JPG?dl=0