For weeks now, I’ve been saying we need to go back to Fish Creek Park on so I could get some better pictures of a northern pygmy owl. There are at least two of them in the park, and they are very special birds – they have an address.
Fish Creek Provincial Park is located within the city of Calgary limits, and stretches for 19 km (11 mi) along the Bow River. It’s bordered by the city on three sides, but the fourth side leads through undisturbed land into the mountains of Kananaskis Country.
Within the park, there are a variety of habitats from grassland on the eastern edge, to riverine deciduous forest to thick boreal woodlands on the west. The entire park contains 80 km of trails, and is very popular with bird watchers.
The park also contains several pedestrian bridges, and each are numbered. There have been many reports of the pygmy owl again this year, seen at bridge #6, or between bridges #5 and #6.
Sunday was a warm, bright beautiful day so we decided to visit the owl. That was the attitude we left with – not ‘looking for’ an owl, but going to see and photograph the owl that we knew was there. We surely should have known better.
The 80 km of trails in the park are a maze of twisting, turning pathways, many of which are paved. Our weather the last few weeks has been very mild, and the snow is melting at a rapid pace during the day.
The problem with forest paths, however, is that they are not in the sun – they melt, then they freeze. We basically had to goose-step our way through the park to stay upright. You can’t look for birds in those conditions unless you come to a stop first. Much of the walking was done with one foot on the snowy edge of the path for at least a bit of traction. There was a lot of zigzagging back and forth across the path as we searched out the least slippery areas. Even our dog was unimpressed.
Although we were sure we were on the right path for bridge 6, we ended up at bridge 3. Damn. Off we went again – slip, slide, stop. Sure we were really on the right path this time, we headed off again…and ended up at bridge 4.
We came out to a clearing (dry path) and for a short while were able to bird while walking, and discovered the air was full of chickadees. I could hear a pygmy owl call from deep in the spruce trees, but he never did show himself.
Back into the forest again (icy path) and one of our brief stop/looks revealed three American robins, posed against the snow. Apparently there are about half a dozen of these hardy birds that have overwintered in the park.
Another clearing presented three quoarking, cavorting ravens playing overhead. That was a long stop, as I could listen to them forever. This was the area where I’ve seen great grey owls in the past, but none deigned to show themselves today.
We stop-walked, mushed and zigzagged our way through the park for an hour and a half. No owl sighting, but I did hear a barred owl call in the thickest part of the forest. By this time I wasn’t real sure I wanted to see a bloody owl anyway, so we pussyfooted our way back to the car park as the sun was slowly sinking in the west. And the paths were freezing again.
No birding gods looking over my shoulder on this day, or perhaps they weren’t impressed with my muttered grumbles. I did, however, manage to get some terrific shots of the other bird I was looking for in the forest, but you’ll have to check back tomorrow to see what they were…