Birds of Alberta with Chris Fisher

CBC Radio's Alberta@Noon has long been supportive of the Alberta birding community by hosting a province-wide call-in show a couple of times a year. Since the publication of "Birds of Alberta" in 1998, I have been invited to participate in the call-in and answer and expand upon the reports that come in from the audience.Here is the direct link to the episode: https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-1-alberta-at-noon/clip/16221582-your-best-bird-encounters

The Northern House wren is a tiny and drab bird that looks like it should disappear into the background,but absolutely refuses to.

White-tailed Jackrabbits are one of the most commonly encountered types of wildlife in the province. This can't help but make them overlooked for their incredible adaptations and abilities that has enabled them to thrive in Alberta no matter the changes in landscape. In this episode we celebrate all there is to celebrate in our familiar prairie hare.

Killdeer are birds that are aggressively tolerant with a parenting instinct that is so strong it can override many of the stressors that they inevitably face when nesting in in open and highly disturbed areas. They have, in a strange way –the perfect temperament for success to thrive in modern Alberta. That may be one of the reasons, Killdeer are among the most encountered among all the Birds of Alberta.

Our Alberta landscape has changed dramatically in the last century. We’ve built croplands, reservoirs, landfills, industrial parks, and sprawling suburbs. And California Gulls have looked at all that and said, “Alright. Yeah I can work with this.”California Gulls are treasures among the common gulls of Alberta. They are showy, social and complex. And the way they live, fits perfectly within our Alberta culture.

Merlins are pretty well-known residents of our cities where they thrill us by zooming overhead and preying on swarms of sparrows, finches and waxwings. They are also well-known in rural areas hitting up the swarms of buntings and redpolls that make the southern journey to the prairies. While they occur around the northern areas of the planet, there may be no place better than right here in Alberta to experience the Merlin - our little feathered rockets.