A day of swans and ducks and geese

This photo and the next one were taken yesterday, 22 October 2016, when I went on a birding day trip with a group of friends, east of Calgary. I will add our leader's eBird list of species seen, as soon as I have it.

We had beautiful weather for these few hours and we saw plenty of birds. Unfortunately, all the birds were extremely far away, as usual, so all I got were very distant shots of a mass of birds, plus photos of a somewhat closer Ring-billed Gull and the much smaller Bonaparte's Gull. In the breeding season, the Bonaparte's Gull has a black head, but at this time of year,, it is white with a black dot on each cheek.

There were quite a few Geese of different species - Canada Geese, Snow Geese and Greater White-fronted Geese. All the usual ducks were to be seen at the various sloughs.

(This morning, I was up at an unearthly hour again, as I have a trip with various friends, this time going west of the city.)

The following is our leader, Andrew Hart's, excellent write-up for the trip, plus the eBird lists of species seen, compliled by birder, Rose Painter. Thanks so much to both of you for this very enjoyable day!

"Fourteen participants left Carburn Park and headed east of Calgary. When we started out, the temperature was just above freezing with ominous clouds, and an occasional biting wind. By lunchtime, this started to lift and we ended up with a beautiful, sunny afternoon with temperatures around 15 deg C.

Our first stops were around Chestermere Lake. Highlights were six Trumpeter Swans, a foretaste of more to be seen later, over 300 Bonaparte's Gulls, a single Lesser Yellowlegs along with the 40+ Greater Yellowlegs, and a pair of Wilson's Snipe. From there we went to McElroy Slough and then worked our way east along Inverlake Road. At the large
slough by Hwy 791, we saw several Snow Geese wheeling around in the distance. Obligingly, they saw us and flew towards us and straight overhead. This allowed us to get a fairly accurate count of 300, which included three "blue" geese. We started seeing Rough Legged Hawks along
here, the first seven of at least eight seen through the day. Other raptors here included Harriers and Red-Tailed Hawks (two, both dark morph). Leaving that area, we saw a late Great Blue Heron and 30 American Tree Sparrows.

We stopped for lunch at Strathmore and then went, in the vastly improved weather, to the south end of Eagle Lake. Approaching, we were lucky enough to see a Northern Shrike, which helpfully perched on a nearby snag, allowing good views for everyone. The first impression at the lake was the relatively large number of swans. The swans were mostly
Tundra, but some Trumpeter. Then we noticed about twenty Greater White-fronted Geese swimming around by the near shore. There were waterfowl spread all over the lake, probably thousands in total. As we were watching, we saw a flurry of activity on the far shore and the sky
slowly filled up. The reason (culprit) was a lone adult Bald Eagle gliding over the lake. Its presence scared up a cloud of geese, about 1000 each of Greater White-fronted Geese and Snow Geese.

Next, we went to the large slough south of Township Rd 230 and west of RR 245. I have heard this called Alkali Lake, but I have also heard this description used for other lakes in the area. From the north end of the lake, we could just about discern a thin line of mixed geese on the west
shore. As we drove around to the east side we saw more clouds of geese arriving. When we looked again from the east side, we saw about 3000 Greater White-fronted Geese and 8000 Snow Geese, leaving the lake. There were another 500 Snow Geese at the south end.

Our final stop was at Carseland overlooking the weir. The highlight here was a pair of Rusty Blackbirds running around in the base of the drained irrigation canal.

The complete Ebird checklists (thanks to Rose Painter) were as follows:

Number of Checklists: 6
Number of Taxa: 54

Checklists included in this summary:
(1): Chestermere Lake
Date: Oct 22, 2016, 8:42 AM
(2): McElroy Slough
Date: Oct 22, 2016, 9:53 AM
(3): West Inverlake Slough (Highway 791)
Date: Oct 22, 2016, 10:29 AM
(4): Eagle Lake
Date: Oct 22, 2016, 12:24 PM
(5): Namaka Farms Sloughs
Date: Oct 22, 2016, 1:35 PM
(6): Wyndham-Carseland Provincial Park--Carseland Weir
Date: Oct 22, 2016, 2:18 PM

4000 Greater White-fronted Goose -- (4),(5)
9800 Snow Goose -- (3),(4),(5)
1 Cackling Goose -- (1)
2860 Canada Goose -- (1),(2),(3),(4)
60 Trumpeter Swan -- (1),(4)
130 Tundra Swan -- (4)
4 Trumpeter/Tundra Swan -- (2)
124 Gadwall -- (2),(4),(5),(6)
188 American Wigeon -- (1),(2),(3),(4),(6)
359 Mallard -- (1),(2),(3),(4),(5),(6)
32 Northern Shoveler -- (1),(3),(4)
205 Northern Pintail -- (1),(2),(3),(4),(5)
8 Green-winged Teal -- (2),(4),(6)
1 Canvasback -- (4)
4 Redhead -- (1)
120 Ring-necked Duck -- (2)
70 Lesser Scaup -- (1),(4)
203 Bufflehead -- (1),(2),(4)
9 Common Goldeneye -- (1)
1 Barrow's Goldeneye -- (1)
1 Common Merganser -- (1)
4 Gray Partridge -- (1)
1 Ruffed Grouse -- (6)
1 Common Loon -- (1)
1 Pied-billed Grebe -- (4)
1 Red-necked Grebe -- (6)
9 Eared Grebe -- (1),(2)
1 Double-crested Cormorant -- (6)
3 American White Pelican -- (6)
1 Great Blue Heron -- (3)
6 Northern Harrier -- (3),(4),(5)
1 Sharp-shinned Hawk -- (4)
1 Bald Eagle -- (4)
3 Red-tailed Hawk -- (1),(3)
8 Rough-legged Hawk -- (3),(4)
451 American Coot -- (1),(2),(3),(4),(6)
13 American Avocet -- (4)
2 Killdeer -- (3),(4)
2 Long-billed Dowitcher -- (4)
2 Wilson's Snipe -- (1)
53 Greater Yellowlegs -- (1),(4),(6)
1 Lesser Yellowlegs -- (1)
302 Bonaparte's Gull -- (1),(6)
402 Ring-billed Gull -- (1),(3),(4),(5),(6)
4 Herring Gull -- (1),(6)
42 Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon) -- (1),(3),(6)
1 Northern Shrike -- (4)
16 Black-billed Magpie -- (1),(2),(3),(4),(5)
3 American Crow -- (1),(2)
9 Common Raven -- (3),(4),(5)
150 European Starling -- (1),(2),(3),(4),(5)
30 American Tree Sparrow -- (3)
2 Rusty Blackbird -- (6)
5 House Sparrow -- (1),(2)

Andrew Hart"