Autumn Birding in Calgary – A Photo Album

As brief as Calgary’s autumn is, the gorgeous leaf colours that this season brings help make up for its brevity. However, as I work during the week, I can only get some shooting in on the weekends and I just have to hope that the colours are peaking on those days & that a frosty cold snap – which will make the leaves drop en masse almost overnight – doesn’t occur during the week. Well, I wasn’t so lucky on both fronts this year, but still managed to capture some images I was happy with.

One memorable crisp morning, I was able to get some Buffleheads basking in the fiery morning glow of sunrise:

On subsequent cloudy day at the same park, I found a pondside log that was apparently popular with the local scaups:

Another small bird came floating by all on its lonesome and it turned out to be a Pied-billed Grebe that seemed a little late in heading south:

Then, I sensed some movement out of the corner of my eye and found a Mink bounding towards me as I sat on the pond bank:

Showing no fear whatsoever, the little Mink came right up to my feet, paused and looked me in the eye:

Then continued off on its run along the bank!

As I returned to my vehicle I came across a flock of magpies:

And a beautiful Northern Flicker foraging at the base of a tree:

The following weekend, the temperatures had plummeted, but the lagoon at Inglewood Bird Sanctuary was still unfrozen and I was please to see a few handsome Wood Ducks still lingering:

My last ‘autumn’ outing (i.e. before the first snow hit Calgary) was to another local park where I hadn’t gone 30 metres from my car when I spied a beautiful pale Great Horned Owl blending in superbly with its environment:

Always a treat to see these wonderful owls and a fine way to round out the season!:

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