Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: House Wren

On 4 June 2016, I had the chance to visit somewhere that I had longed to go to for years - the Ellis Bird Farm. This was thanks to the annual Nature Calgary Bus Trip, which goes to a different location each year. When I read where this year's outing was going to be, I was so excited and registered immediately and, apparently, was the first person on the list : ) I believe there were 66 people on the trip, enjoying a great day. The sun was shining and the temperature got up to around 25C - too warm for me and for many others, especially when the whole day is spent outdoors. It was a very early start, with my alarm clocks set for 4:30 am. Unfortunately, they had also been set for 4:30 am the previous day, when I went on a Bio-blitz to the Square Butte Ranch. Being a dreadful 'night owl', this meant that I ended up doing these two trips on about 5 hours sleep total over the two nights. Not good! It is such a treat to go somewhere by bus - everyone can relax and chat. Some of the $50 charge per person went towards a donation to the Ellis Bird Farm (and to the JJ Collett natural area that we visited later in the day), which was good to know. The drive from Calgary to the Ellis Bird Farm takes about an hour and a half. When we arrived, we were greeted by a long line of bird nest boxes along the fence line. Within the farm area, there were even more nest boxes - everywhere! People donate and send them from all over the province. I believe the Farm has the largest collection of outdoor boxes in the world ... 300+! It was a real treat to see a lot of Purple Martins at the Farm - there were so many of these birds that you couldn't tell which were actual pairs. They are very social birds, who apparently like people too, and nest in condominium-style nest boxes. They spend "most of the year in the Amazon rainforest in Brazil and come up to Alberta just long enough to raise a family." What a long way to come to do that! These birds are uncommon in Alberta. We started off by watching a very touching old video about Charlie Ellis - what a delightful, very shy, modest man he was. ""Ellis Bird Farm is both a non-profit company and a working farm. It was established in 1982 to carry on the legacy of Lacombe-area conservationists, Charlie and Winnie Ellis, when their farm was purchased by Union Carbide Canada Ltd. At the time, Charlie and Winnie operated one of the largest bluebird trails in Canada and had established their farmstead as a haven for wildlife. The Ellis family of Parkenham, Ontario, came west in 1886 to settle on a ranch near Calgary. Their son John, then a teenager, was married in 1894 to Agnes Clark who had come west from Ontario in 1888 to teach school. They lived near Calgary until 1906 when they moved with their family of four children to a quarter section homestead in the Joffre district. In 1907 they built a two-storey frame house and subsequently enlarged the farm by the purchase of an additional five quarters. After John and Agnes passed away in the early 1950s, two of their children, Charlie and Winnie, took over the farm operations. And about this same time, Charlie began a project that was to dominate the rest of his life; he set out his first nesting box for the Mountain Bluebirds." From Ellis Bird Farm website. www.ellisbirdfarm.ca/ After the video, we were divided into two large groups and then further divided again. Not easy to organize such a large number of people and it was rather confusing, Have to admit that I ended up, like various friends, wandering around, taking photos. I always prefer to be free to do this, as there is a lot of information on the Internet, which can be read before and after such a visit. "​Ellis Bird Farm made science history on Tuesday May 31 when University of Manitoba Grad Student, Alisha Ritchie, and her EBF team (Cheyenne Knight, Claudia Lipski and Myrna Pearman) retrapped a very special yearling Purple Martin. This bird had been retrofitted with a light level geolocator last season, as a nestling, and is the first songbird EVER(!) to be tracked on its first migration. The bird had evaded several attempts to trap it, so it has been named Houdini." Information about their Purple Martin Geolocator Program: www.ellisbirdfarm.ca/purple-martin-geolocators.html Following our visit to the Farm, we boarded the two buses and were driven about half an hour's drive away, to the JJ Collett natural area, where the amazing Dr. Charles (Charlie) Bird took us on a walk (longer and faster paced than I was expecting, ha) along one of the trails (Trail #1). This is an interesting place to visit - will have to add information about it when I eventually post an image or two taken there. www.jjcollett.com/ Not sure what time we got back to the meeting place in Calgary - around 5:15 pm? I sat in my car and gulped down a mug of black coffee before driving for maybe 45 minutes to the far side of the city. My vehicle had been sitting in the sun all day and my coffee was almost as hot as if freshly made! Thank you, Nature Calgary and Leslie, for organizing this special day trip for us! Thank you, also, to Myrna Pearman at the Farm, who organized us all and helped make this a very successful and greatly enjoyed visit! Kate, thank you for your company on the drive there and back - made the time go faster and was so enjoyable.

It was the annual May Species Count on 28 and 29 May 2016, so I had no time for anything else over the weekend. My group's Saturday Count was down in Fish Creek Provincial Park, at Votier's Flats and Shaw's Meadow. On Sunday, our usual small group (six of us in two cars) covered an area SW of the city - which happens to be one of my favourite and most visited areas. We had a great day, stopping at a few wetlands and calling in at Barb Castell's acreage where she usually has amazing birds to show us. Several special species were missing, but we were delighted to watch a teeny Ruby-throated Hummingbird. We were also happy to see seven Rose-breasted Grosbeaks during the day, and a male American Kestrel that caught a frog for supper. No owls to be found anywhere, but I did go back the following evening and saw two separate Great Gray Owls in our Count area. We stopped at Brown-Lowery Provincial Park and ate our picnic lunches and then did a short walk to look for Calypso Orchids. I took too long to try and get a sharp photo of a little group of fungi, that I missed the orchids, but that's OK, as I have seen them several times before. After the Count came to an end, I drove a few of the back roads again, taking a few more shots of the Wilson's Snipe - a favourite of mine. I also pulled over to get a few shots of this little House Wren, standing on top of its (?) wooden nest box. "A plain brown bird with an effervescent voice, the House Wren is a common backyard bird over nearly the entire Western Hemisphere. Listen for its rush-and-jumble song in summer and you’ll find this species zipping through shrubs and low tree branches, snatching at insects. House Wrens will gladly use nestboxes, or you may find their twig-filled nests in old cans, boots, or boxes lying around in your garage." From AllABoutBirds. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/House_Wren/id "The count goes May 28-29: Calgary birders have been out in force every May since 1979, contributing to a broad census of the constantly changing patterns of bird distributions in North America. Last year (2015) we found 212 species. The count circle is the same as previous years, extending from Olds to Nanton, and from Exshaw to Standard, and includes a variety of environments." From NatureCalgary. I will add the final list from our leader, Gus Y - 70 bird species seen, wow! "May species count, Terr. #22, Priddis Area: Plummers Rd, from Hwy 22 to #762, SW of Calgary, 0730-1530, Sun. 29May2016. 58 km. Mostly sunny, becoming overcast at noon, S wind, becoming gusty, 10 -20 kph. 13-18°C. Canada Goose-45 Gadwall-2 American Wigeon-6 Mallard-29. Blue-winged Teal-16 Cinnamon Teal-8 Northern Shoveler-3 Green-winged Teal-4 Redhead-6 Ring-necked Duck-12 Lesser Scaup-29 Bufflehead-5 Hooded Merganser-1 f. Ruddy Duck-11 Ring-necked Pheasant-3 Great Blue Heron-1 Swainson’s Hawk-2 Red-tailed Hawk-6 American Kestrel-2 Sora-6 American Coot-10 Killdeer-5 Spotted Sandpiper-8 Wilson’s Snipe-10 Wilson’s Phalarope-4 Black Tern-22 Mourning Dove-1 Ruby-throated Hummingbird-1 Red-naped Sapsucker-1 Black-backed Woodpecker-2 Northern Flicker-3 Western Wood-Pewee-5 Least Flycatcher-6 Easterm Phoebe-1 Easterm Kingbird-1 Gray Jay-2 Clark’s Nutcracker-1 Black-billed Magpie-6 American Crow-4 Common Raven-5 Tree Swallow-86 Cliff Swallow-6 Barn Swallow-2 Black-capped Chickadee-3 Mountain Chickadee-1 Boreal Chickadee-2 Red-breasted Nuthatch-2 House Wren-9 Mountain Bluebird-29 American Robin-13 Gray Catbird-2 European Starling-8 Tennessee Warbler-11 Yellow Warbler-6 Cape May Warbler-1 Chipping Sparrow-8 Clay-coloured Sparrow-13 Savannah Sparrow-4 Song Sparrow-1 Lincoln’s Sparrow-4 White-throated Sparrow-1 Rose-breasted Grosbeak-7 Black-headed Grosbeak-1, or hybrid. Red-winged Blackbird-178 Western Meadowlark-2 Yellow-headed Blackbird-2 Brewer’s Blackbird-7 Brown-headed Cowbird-6 Baltimore Oriole-4 American Goldfinch-5 Richardson’s Ground Squirrel-11 Muskrat-1 Mule Deer-1 White-tailed Deer-4 Boreal Chorus Frog-10+ Green Comma Butterfly-2 Western White-1 Tiger Swallowtail-2 Gus Yaki"

This photo was taken two days ago, on 31 May 2015, during the annual May Species Count. Eight of us covered a large area SW of Calgary, checking out the backroads, ponds, wetlands, sloughs. The highlight each May is calling in at a wonderful property where we are able to see some great species, including Evening Grosbeaks, Baltimore Orioles, and this year, a tiny Ruby-throated Hummingbird male. This little House Wren was also flitting about in the trees. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/House_Wren/id We had a great day, stopping en route at Brown-Lowery Provincial Park to eat our lunch. This year, we didn't go into the park to look for Calypso Orchids, partly because a week ago, we did call in and found several of the small, pink Orchids. The temperature was 12C - 23C, with blue sky. Total distance travelled was 93 km and our total number of bird species was 63. After the Count, we called in at a little tea place and enjoyed relaxing with welcome cups of coffee. Thanks so much, Monica, for treating us all to this and for driving your daughter and myself around all day - greatly appreciated! The list, compiled by our leader, Gus Yaki, is long, but I will add it here, for my own memory. I'll add that, as usual, there were a lot of the birds that I didn't see - I don't use binoculars and also so many of the birds seemed to be the seen from the opposite side of the car, lol. 1. Canada Goose-19 + 20 juv. 2. Gadwall-2 3. American Wigeon-3 4. Mallard-27 +11 juv. 5. Blue-winged Teal-7 6. Cinnamon Teal-2 7. Northern Shoveler-1 f. 8. Green-winged Teal-5 9. Lesser Scaup-15 10. Ring-necked Duck-9 11. Bufflehead-3 12. Ruddy Duck-6 13. Pied-billed Grebe-1 14. Accipiter sp. Sharp-shinned Hawk?-1 15. Red-tailed Hawk-13 16. American Coot-7 17. Sora-5 18. Killdeer-1 19. SPOTTED SANDPIPER-9 20. WILSON’S SNIPE-6 21. Wilson’s Phalarope-4 22. Mourning Dove-2 23. Black Tern-16 24. Ruby-throated Hummingbird-1 25. Red-naped Sapsucker-2 26. Hairy Woodpecker-1 27. Northern Flicker-3 28. WESTERN WOOD-PEWEE-9 29. Alder Flycatcher-2 30. LEAST FLYCATCHER-10 31. Eastern Kingbird-6 32. Warbling Vireo-1 33. Black-billed Magpie-9 34. American Crow-12 35. Common Raven-6 36. Tree Swallow-55 37. Northern Rough-winged Swallow-2 38. Barn Swallow-3 39. Black-capped Chickadee-4 40. White-breasted Nuthatch-1 41. House Wren-10 42. Marsh Wren-1 43. Ruby-crowned Kinglet-2 44. Mountain Bluebird-20 45. Swainson’s Thrush-1 46. American Robin-14 47. European Starling-5 48. Tennessee Warbler-5 49. YELLOW WARBLER-8 50. Cape May Warbler-1 51. Chipping Sparrow-7 52. CLAY-COLORED SPARROW-13 53. Savannah Sparrow-6 54. Lincoln’s Sparrow-2 55. Rose-breasted Grosbeak-5 56. Red-winged Blackbird-178 57. Brewer’s Blackbird-25 58. Brown-headed Cowbird-17 59. BALTIMORE ORIOLE-3 60. Pine Siskin-49 61. AMERICAN GOLDFINCH-4 62. Evening Grosbeak-2 63. House Sparrow-4 Boreal Chorus Frogs, singing-at 5 locations. Red Squirrel-2 Least Chipmunk-1 Richardson’s Ground Squirrel-6 Muskrat-2 White-tailed Deer-5

A very heavily cropped photo of a tiny House Wren that we saw on the May Species Count on 27 May 2012. I find these little guys so hard to photograph, they are constantly on the move and very fast, so I was happy to get any photo at all. Hard to believe that the annual Christmas Bird Counts will be starting in just a few weeks' time!

A little House Wren that was flitting around in the Sikome Lake area of Fish Creek Park yesterday afternoon. A rather dull day and, as usual, my camera struggled to perform in poor light. However, I think s/he is fit to post : ). House Wrens are uncommon to common in Alberta from May to early September.

Came across this little Wren (a House Wren, I think), on one of the nesting boxes at the Calgary Zoo. I always think it's a neat thing when I see something wild that has made the Zoo its home. I've never seen a Wren before, close enough to photograph, so I was happy. I think I am so lucky that it takes only one small (insignificant to most people) thing to make my day : )

Another photo of the little House Wren that I saw at the Calgary Zoo. I think I was more excited about seeing this free bird than those in cages!