Birds of Alberta with Chris Fisher

How lucky are we that that our most common warbler is also one of our most incandescent? Yellow Warblers are special. They are our most visible wood warbler, catching the eye and ear of anyone who hangs out in Alberta's river bottoms, urban parks or upland aspen stands. Yellow warblers offer a song that is the most reliable and reassuring voice of any of the Birds of Alberta.

Great Blue Herons are well known birds that defy convention. Sometimes solitary, sometimes social; piscivores with a taste of mice, muskrats and salamanders; a bird of summer that arrives and leaves with the snow, and a modern elegant bird with hints of the dinosaurian! They are never so common here that they escape our attention or admiration and as a result we feel quite a bit of pride in knowing that the Great Blue Heron is one of our very own Birds of Alberta. 

Decades ago, we had to search out Osprey in Alberta's northern lakes. Nowadays, they are a daily summer sight in Calgary and throughout the waterways of Alberta. Their presence and conservation have informed the way we see our hometowns - and how our lives are shaped by the Birds of Alberta.Link to Brian Keating speaking on the 30th anniversary of the Calgary Zoo Osprey nest platform from CBC Homestretch:https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-97-the-homestretch/clip/16057321-brian-keating-osprey-anniversary

The Song Sparrow is perfectly named, having a tune that tops the charts on Alberta summer soundtrack every May. And even though most Albertan know nothing of the singer, they know that the song means that spring is here again and so too is one of the most musical of our Birds of Alberta.

The Peregrine Falcon was a symbol of the conservation movement of the 1980s and since that time - and through its hard won recovery, it became a symbol of much else. No bird shows as much self-confidence in its all out mastery of air but the story of how Albertans rallied to its cause has made it one of the most legendary and inspiring Birds of Alberta.

Our wetlands host mesmerizing crowds of life that mingle and mix and that fight and flux. But among those bobbing birds, there is a standout without equal – an Emperor that rises high above the rest of its waterfowl court. It rules these waters crowned in ruby splendour and is even elegantly draped in a pristine white toga.The Canvasback is a Cesar and the rest of the birds are simple waterfowl.

There’s no better time to get the feels for our Wood Frog than in April - appropriately known by the Cree as ayîkipisime the month of the Frog Moon. Find a clear frog pond know that somewhere in the lands surrounding that pond that there will be the beating heart of a Wood Frog going about their simple business – even if that heart beat is nearby frozen down for more than half the year.

Red-tailed Hawks are our everywhere, every day raptor in our province and in our lives . They express the soul of Alberta while soaring, screaming and showing off their preference for a life lived on edge.