Nature Journal Entry #5: Mid-September at Inglewood Bird Sanctuary
Where: Inglewood Bird Sanctuary
When: September 14th 2024 (Earl Morning to Mid-Morning)
Highlight: Seeing a red-tailed hawk resting in a tree canopy.
Located on the southern banks of the Bow River to the east of the Inglewood neighbourhood is the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary. It is a small urban park with its own nature interpretive centre, a beautiful heritage home (the Colonel James Walker house), and a lagoon. Since 1929, this land has been designated as a migratory bird sanctuary by the federal government with the City of Calgary managing the park since 1970. For Taylor and I, we absolutely adore the proximity of this natural area to the downtown core and we have gone here many times since moving back to the city. We often follow up birdwatching here with a brunch at Vegan Street and a bit of shopping, so it works really well with having a lively morning for us.
Taylor and I began our day by entering the sanctuary at the crack of dawn. There was a thin low mist above the grasses as we entered the park. A cacophony of birdsong could be heard from the canopy beyond, alongside the sounds of the nearby rail yard and flight path. There were sparrows and Dark-eyed Juncos hopping along the paved trail, but today's most abundant avian residents made themselves apparent quickly. Restless and gregarious, European Starlings and Northern Flickers darted from tree to tree. A constellation of starlings rested themselves together on the high branches of a tree. Hidden amongst the middle of the flock, I spotted a large hawk. It took a bit to figure out the species, but it's reddish-brown tail identified it as a Red-tailed Hawk. The hawk paid no mind to the chatty starlings on the adjacent branches. In the meadow beyond, a White-tailed Deer fed on the cut lawn, unafraid of us gawking humans. We crossed the lagoon's main bridge and took in the Wood Ducks enjoying the quiet morning on a submerged log. Taylor's great eye revealed a Belted Kingfisher in the trees above the steel blue lagoon waters.
As we walked along the Bow, we spotted a pair of Common Mergansers, as well as a massive flock of seagulls on a landform sat in the middle of the river. While we did not stay long to learn about these seagulls (there were too many), I was curious about the terminology for what this river landform was technically called. After looking on Wikipedia, I found out that there are three types of river bars: mid-channel (or Braid) bars, point bars, and mouth bars. In this case, the seagulls were on a mid-channel bar.
We took a quiet moment drinking coffee and snuggling under a wooden canopy at a picnic table (which is new with the recent upgrades to the north section of the park). We continued along the trail heading southward. Along the way, we paid more attention to the vegetation. Bearberry, Absinthe Wormwood, Silverberry, and Tansy were all present. We stopped to learn about a few notable plant species which were new to us, specifically Creeping Bellflower and Sand Lucerne (both of which are invasive).
As we were wrapping around the southern tip of the park, we chatted with a fellow birder from Penticton for a bit, and while we were chatting about the Red-tailed Hawk we had seen earlier, a Northern Harrier soared over our heads. Thank goodness for his experience, because we likely would not have been able to identify the bird otherwise. Thanks stranger! As far as my eBird is concerned, that was a lifer for me, but I'd certainly love a better look. Afterwards, we continued back to the park entrance, spotting a few Richardson Ground Squirrels near the Colonel James Walker house (they have their burrows on site). We also saw a couple American robins, and more European Starlings and Northern Flickers than someone could reasonably count. What a fantastic morning!
