Northern Alberta Birding Hotline

With much excitement the arrival of migrants from the south means we can now bird to our hearts content with changes ever time out.  It has been a long time coming but spring is here.  Crows have already moved up north of Barrhead in good numbers, Ring=billed Gulls are now increasing across the city, Canada Geese are starting to make their presence known even through the boreal forest regions already.
 Gerald Romanchuk was fortunate to see a Gyrfalcon (imm. ) at Gold Bar on Mar.31, while Del Huget sighted 2 Peregrine Falcons at the Clinical Science Bldg. on U of A campus April 01.  A trip to Misty Ridge on Mar. 29 resulted in dense fog limiting visibilty to approx. 100m initially then some improvement by mid-day.  The hightling was seeing 2 adult moose walk across the river upstream of the ski hill.  A return visit on Mar.31 with partly sunny skies & variable winds provided me with a real moral booster.  In a 6hr period a total of 17 adult Bald Eagles passed over the site.
  On Mar.30 (2) Great Blue Herons were observed at the Sundance Power Plant at Wabamun L.  Also the same day, several Mountain Bluebirds were reported from the Millet area by Karen Bilesky.  Ed Mah-Lim located a Short-eard Owl on the west side of Beaverhill L. in the 3rd week of March.  We are also getting a few widely scattered reports of Tree Sparrows starting to show up as well as several Red-tailed Hawk sightings.  A pair of Ravens are starting to nest once again on the Fire Escape ladder on the north side of the Gov't Terminal in north Edmonton.  How long before staff turfs them remains to be seen!  Finishing off with a Great Horned Owl on a nest just east of Lindbrook on Twp 512 & approx. Rge Rd 194.  The nest is on the north side & close to the road in what appears to be a elk farm based on the fence.  She is sitting very low in the nest & hard to see if one is not looking for it.