Ellie and Albert will have another baby added to their family tomorrow! The Medicine River Wildlife Centre has an abandoned owlet that will be fostered to the EBF nest tomorrow morning at 10 AM. The Medicine River Wildlife Centre as well as an owl expert and bander, Rick Morse, will be on hand to orchestrate the big event. Rick will band the foster owlet, then climb the tree, place the foster owlet in the nest, then band the other three owlets.
Success! All went well. Ellie and Albert were concerned, but they didn't attack. The entire process took only about 20 minutes. Ellie was back on the nest shortly after the procedure. The bander left 3 extra squirrels in the nest as a token of our appreciation. A big thanks to bander Rick Morse and Judy Boyd of Medicine River Wildlife Centre for handling all the logistics. We hope to have some video clips and images up soon. In the meantime, here is a pic of the 4 new siblings (taken by the bander at the nest). Please Support Medicine River Wildlife Centre! https://www.medicineriverwildlifecentre.ca/  A beautiful rainbow graced the eastern sky after a late-afternoon squall moved through the area on Earth Day, April 22.
 We are very grateful that Dow has confirmed funding support for a new gazebo to replace the old viewing deck near the upper pond. The gazebo will feature post-industrial plastic recycling (with product from the Prentiss site) as well as the use of local lumber. Wayne Froese of Top Peg Timber Framing has been on the stie recently, carefully choosing a few trees that Charlie Ellis planted in the mid 1950s. These trees will be milled to create this unique structure. Stay tuned!
We encourage you to get outside and look for signs of spring today, on Earth Day. Here are a few signs of spring at EBF: Canada Goose pair resting on the lawn, a Black-capped Chickadee checking out a nestbox, an American Robin enjoying the sunshine, and a Mountain Bluebird staking out his territory.
 Ellie is content on the nest with her owlets! The oldest two can be seen peeking their heads out, enjoying the sunshine.
 Although Albert recently caught one of our resident Snowshoe Hares to feed his family, we are pleased to report that we saw two hares feeding together on April 20 at the site. We hope that they will produce their own family sometime soon
 With the recent high temperatures, the snowpack is melting quickly and large volumes of water are moving through the EBF site. April 20.
 We are expecting the Purple Martins to arrive over the next few days, so yesterday (April 20) Claudia Lipski unwrapped the winterized boxes, inserted starling deterrents and raised the houses. We look forward to the martins' arrival back at the site!
MOUNTAIN BLUEBIRD ABUNDANCE ANIMATION MAPS Track Mountain Bluebird migration with these amazing eBird abundance animation maps! https://ebird.org/science/status-and-trends/moublu/abundance-map-weekly MOUNTAIN BLUEBIRD ABUNDANCE ANIMATION MAPS |
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Ellis Bird Farm
Box 5090 Lacombe, AB T4L 1W7 403-885-4477 Email: info@ellisbirdfarm.ca Site Manager Myrna Pearman Hours of Operation Monday, May 18 - Monday Sept 7 Tuesday through Sunday 11:00 am to 5:00 pm Holiday Mondays 11:00 am to 5:00 pm Please note that Ellis Bird Farm is closed on most Mondays |
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