Times when the world seems out of control and you can’t make sense of it, nature is a great remedy. Add birding to your outing, and the mind begins to fit into nature’s rhythm. During late fall and winter, only a fraction of the species are encountered compared to spring and summer, requiring a greater effort to hear and spot them. This is even more challenging when most birds aren't calling out as they do during main birding season. That said, they still make other sounds, including this tiny songbird, the Yellow-crowned Kinglet. This was especially true when several of them were foraging for insects through the leaves. With their yellow crowns showing, they blended in perfectly among the half-dried leaves still clinging to the branches. Light rain fell as I tried to get a few good pictures while the kinglets kept moving, searching for food. In those moments, the world felt small and manageable again.
Golden-crowned Kinglet
If you’re the type of person who likes biding from the comfort of your home, this is the year for you. No socializing on the trail while trying to listen to the sounds of those noisy birds. No meeting up in the evening with even more birders to talk about how the day went and what birds were spotted, followed by the big chicken dance at the pot-luck.
Due to COVID-19, this year you can do the Christmas Bird Count (CBC) from the comfort of your sofa. We will be sending out a birder on each of the trails, wearing a body camera connected to the WWW. Once you have downloaded “Birding from Home” from your favorite phone app store. Install the app and open it to connect with our server. Right away our server will download everything about you, including how much money you spend on chocolate.
Then you’ll see all the trails in the Bow Valley where birding will be taking place, choose your trail and you will meet your birder walking on the trail that day. They will have the latest in body camera technology Santa helpers can make during their off season. The video will seem so real; you will be able to feel the cool winter breeze on your checks. You will have full control over the birder on the trail at all times. Well, except for when nature calls. For you, you can be sitting on your favorite toilet at home, while enjoying the beautiful surroundings of the trial through your huge phone screen. Hearing every bird sound like you were right there. And it comes with the most demanded feature, we call it “I’m good”. This is how it works. Let’s say you see on the screen the bird attached to this email on a spruce branch and you I.D. the bird as a Black-billed Magpie. If the birder tries to correct you, you click the “I’m good” button. The experience birder will get a small painful shock and a message, that you’re good and don’t need help with the identification.
How much would you pay for this app? Don’t say anything yet, because that’s not all. Order now, and we will also send you a pair of disregarded steak knives from the finest Bow Valley restaurants. How much would you pay for this app now? Well, believe it or now, it’s free. Zero dollars. And it comes with a 90 day money-back guarantee. You can’t beat that.
Silliness aside, the Banff-Canmore Christmas Bird Count will be taking place on Saturday, December 19th. Pop over to “bowvalleynaturalists.org” if you like to play a role next week. In the valley the CBC has been taking place since 1975, but this year it will be different. Alberta Health Service COVID-19 guidelines will be followed. You will be on the trail with your own group/cohort, no matching birders of different experience, and we will be following physical distancing guidelines. Even from the birds who get too close. My trick with the birds is to look at them through the binoculars or the camera and most of the time they seem to fly away before I get a good look. At the end of our walk, we’ll send in our sightings and instead of meeting up during the usual pot-luck that evening. We’ll meet up on the web.
Hopefully, next year we’ll be back to our normal CBC, when the chicken dance will be back on the table. This year, wherever you do your CBC, stay safe as we find out how our feathered friends are doing this winter.
Golden-crowned Kinglet
During the fall as other seasons. I try to take pictures of wildlife surrounded by the background of the season that's taking place at that time. I was hoping to come across bears with the fall colours surrounding them, no luck again. But I did have some luck with the birds, it paid off carrying a lens to get close to the birds. I would hike through the larch trees and stopping when a birds were heard. Seeing which direction they were coming from and then wait for them to pass by me. There were always opportunities to get a picture, but not always a good picture. In this case I was hearing several kinglets and chickadees heading in my direction. I guessed where they would pass by as they went from tree to tree looking for food. This Golden-crowned Kinglet perched not too far from me, showing a bit of its golden crown, I focused on it and got the picture of it perched on a larch tree branch. Next year I'll have to persuade a kinglet to show me more of its golden crown, matching with the larch needles.
