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September 2026

Saturday, September 26, 2026

10:00 AM to 5:00 PM

“Door Prizes from many of our suppliers”

THOSE PESKY BLACKBIRDS

It is that time of year once again when our backyards become havens for gathering flocks of Blackbirds.  This is in preparation for the fall migration.  They are noisy, messy and to say the least, annoying.  The recourse is simple – STOP FEEDING!  This may seem a bit drastic, but it is the only way to make the hoards disappear and move on to some other location.  I know, you think well what about the other birds who have been feeding in my backyard – well if the Blackbirds are there, they aren’t getting much of a chance.  Believe me when I say, birds are never reliant on your backyard for food – they just think of it as a fast food restaurant.  They will continue to fly into your yard, realize there is no food and move on – but they will be back!

So who are these pesky birds that will join forces to migrate: (security in numbers)?

Common grackle

Common grackles are one of the most resourceful black birds you will find in Alberta. Their favorite foods are grains, such as corn and rice, and they are known to gather in enormous flocks in farm fields growing these crops. In addition, they also eat a wide variety of seeds, acorns, fruits, insects, spiders, frogs, fish, mice, other birds, and even garbage!

Males are black overall but have an iridescent blue head and bronze body when seen in the right light.

Females look similar, except they are slightly less glossy than males.

Brown-headed cowbird   

A stocky, chunky blackbird with a thick, conical bill.

Males have completely black bodies with a brown head (hence the name). In poor light, it can be hard to tell that the head is actually brown.

Females are a plain brown color. There is slight streaking on the belly and a black eye.

Cowbirds have a truly interesting way of reproducing. Instead of spending energy building nests and raising their young, they let other birds do it for them! Females deposit their eggs INSIDE the nests of other species, which means the “chosen” bird does all the hard work.  Interestingly, over 220 species have been identified as having hosted eggs, from small kinglets to large meadowlarks. The other birds typically don’t realize the deception and raise the baby cowbird to adulthood at the expense of their own hatchlings!

Lastly, here is a question for you to ponder: How does a Brown-headed Cowbird know it’s one? It’s interesting to think about since they aren’t raised by their own species. But after they leave the nest, they never spend time again with whatever type of bird their host mother was!

European Starling

A common blackbird in Alberta, they are about the size of an American robin. Their plumage is black and appears to be shiny.

Breeding adults are darker black and have a green-purple tint.

In winter, starlings lose their glossiness, their beaks become darker, and they develop white spots over their bodies.  But did you know these birds are an invasive species? Back in 1890, one hundred starlings were brought over from Europe and released in New York City’s Central Park. The man responsible (Eugene Schieffelin) had a mission to introduce all of the birds mentioned in Shakespeare’s plays in North America. 

The rest is history as starlings easily conquered the continent, along the way out-competing many of our beautiful native birds. Their ability to adapt to human development and eat almost anything is uncanny to virtually no other species. 

It’s the magical way they travel in flocks, called a murmuration.

Red-winged blackbird

It’s common for them to be found in large flocks that feature various other blackbird species, such as grackles, cowbirds, and starlings.  They traditionally will not eat at bird feeders, but we are seeing more of this, and they will eat seed on the ground.

If you are unable to make it in to the store on Tuesday for Senior’s Day discount, then you can call the store anytime on Tuesday to place and pay for your order, and then you can pick it up later in the week at your convenience.

PLEASE NOTE:

This is for customers who are currently signed up as a senior’s day customer and applies only to in-store purchases.
 

PLEASE TAKE NOTE OF THE FOLLOWING CHANGE IN DELIVERY SCHEDULE
 

Commencing June 1, 2026 deliveries will be EVERY SECOND week

Delivery dates will be as follows for the month of September 2026
 

Thursday September 10 and 24

See Calendar for dates

THE DELIVERY CHARGE WILL BE $10. MINIMUM $25 ORDER FOR DELIVERY.

Commencing June 1, 2026 deliveries will be EVERY SECOND week

For July delivery will be Thursday September 10 and 24

Young sunflowers exhibit heliotropism, meaning they move to track the sun across the sky. They face east in the morning and gradually turn west by evening, resetting overnight to repeat the process. That movement helps them grow stronger by capturing as much sunlight as possible.

Researchers have found that east-facing sunflowers warm up faster in the morning. This warmth attracts more pollinators like bees, which are most active earlier in the day. It’s a clever adaptation that improves their chances of being pollinated. The faster they heat up, the sooner they start drawing in visitors. Once mature, though, they stop turning and settle permanently facing east.

Sunflowers are used in a process called phytoremediation, where plants absorb harmful substances from soil. After nuclear disasters like Chernobyl and Fukushima, sunflowers were planted to draw out radioactive particles and heavy metals. This makes them more than ornamental. Their ability to clean up the environment highlights how powerful and practical plants can be when harnessed in the right way.

Clean a birdbath and keep the birds safe

Since the water in a birdbath is typically stagnant and not naturally filtered as it is in a stream or pond, it can accumulate potentially harmful bacteria and pathogens.  Regular cleaning and water changes help prevent stagnant water that can breed mosquitoes,  and reduce the spread of disease among birds.  Birdbaths may need more frequent refreshing during hot weather, periods of algae growth, or times of heavy bird activity.

Materials needed:  Rubber gloves, scrub brush, hose or bucket, water, distilled white vinegar.

Mix a solution of 9 parts water and 1 part distilled white vinegar. Dip a scrub brush into the cleaning solution and scrub the birdbath, focusing on areas with heavy algae buildup.  Rinse birdbath thoroughly after cleaning. Or consider adding a purification disc to your birdbath (also available at The Wild Bird Store).

The Wild Bird Store has birdbaths and accessories and can offer advice on any questions you have.  Please ask any member of our staff

The key is to create a gentle slope into the water.  That way, the bees can land, gently approach the water, and put its proboscis down into the water;

Start with a glass or ceramic pie plate—almost everyone has one in their home.  Add smooth stones—you will need enough to fill the pie plate three-quarters full.  Add water—fill the dish three-quarters of the way full with water so that the tops of the stones are still showing, and what you’ve just done is created a bee watering station.  It’s that simple.

FOUND AN INJURED BIRD/ANIMAL? BELOW IS A LIST OF LOCAL ORGANIZATIONS TO CONTACT IN YOUR AREA

A satellite-tracked female snowy owl in the eastern Canadian Arctic spent 186 days on sea ice, hunting ducks at open water cracks in the pack ice hundreds of miles from land in total winter darkness. The biologists who tagged her expected her to fly south for the winter. She flew north onto the frozen ocean. The finding flabbergasted them. Inuit seal hunters had known about it for centuries.

Jean-François Therrien, a doctoral student at Université Laval working with professor Gilles Gauthier, tagged 12 adult female snowy owls on Bylot Island in Nunavut as part of an International Polar Year research project studying key indicator species of northern ecosystems. When winter came, the tracking data showed something nobody in the academic world had documented with technology. Eight of the 12 owls spent more than 95 percent of their winter locations over sea ice or along the coast. Six adult females spent most of the winter far out on the Arctic sea ice. One stayed there for 186 consecutive days. She was not lost. She was not drifting. She was hunting.

The ocean freezes across the Canadian Arctic every winter but it does not freeze solid. Leads and polynyas, cracks and pools of open water, persist throughout the ice sheet. Sea ducks, particularly eiders, and seabirds concentrate at these openings because the open water is where the food is. The owls found the ducks by finding the water. Gauthier described the hypothesis directly: bird researchers at coastal field sites have observed snowy owls attacking eiders in winter. If the satellite positions of the owls matched the locations of open water leads recorded by other satellite systems, the connection would be confirmed.

The owls were not behaving like the animal most people picture when they hear the words snowy owl. Most people imagine a white bird sitting on a fence post in a farm field somewhere in Minnesota or upstate New York, hunting mice in the snow. That version of the snowy owl is real. It is the owl that shows up on Christmas Bird Counts and birding websites and nature documentaries filmed in places where camera crews can reach. The other version, the one the Inuit have always known, is an owl that flies north when winter starts, lands on sea ice in the Arctic dark, finds a crack in the frozen ocean, and sits beside it killing ducks at temperatures that drop below minus 50 degrees Fahrenheit.

The isotope data confirmed the diet shift. Stable isotope analysis of feathers showed that marine prey made up a substantial portion of the winter diet for owls that chose the sea ice. A snowy owl that breeds on lemmings in the summer and switches to sea ducks in the winter is not a rodent specialist. It is a predator that changes its entire hunting strategy, its prey base, and its habitat seasonally, moving from tundra grassland to frozen ocean the way a seasonal worker changes job sites.

Project SNOWstorm, a US-based tracking initiative that has followed more than 115 snowy owls with GPS transmitters since 2013, found the same behavior at a smaller scale on the Great Lakes. Snowy owls wintering in the northern United States moved out onto frozen Lake Michigan and Lake Erie for weeks at a time, hunting ducks at the cracks that opened and closed between wind-driven ice sheets. The researchers described the Great Lakes behavior as practice for the full Arctic version: owls learning or maintaining the ice-hunting skills that adult females use on the Arctic Ocean in the years when they stay north.

Monday, September 7, 2026 – The Wild Bird Store will be closed.

WE ARE LOCATED AND CAN BE FOUND AT:

5901 3rd Street S.E.,

Calgary, AB T2H 1K3   

email: info@wildbirdstore.ca 

(403) 640 2632

The Store is open Monday through Saturday 10:00am to 5:00pm

We are CLOSED Sundays, and ALL Statutory holidays for Faith, Family and Friends.      

We still offer curbside pickup every day we are open and delivery service on every Thursday.

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