A Pair of Mourning Doves Arrive to Feed: Regina SK

Male Mourning Dove, with blue-gray head and nape
and rosy iridescence on his neck.
Regina,  SK, backyard.  ©SB

Home after a two-week visit, I've been hoping for new backyard, Regina, SK, birds — and today I was delighted to see a pair of Mourning Doves pecking at seeds below the bird feeders.

These Mourning Doves appeared to be mates — banding studies suggest they mate for life, however long that may be — and they had slightly different markings.

The male (as indicated by notes in Stokes) had a more pinkish chest and blueish-gray feathers on its crown and nape. He also had bright patches of rosy iridescence on either side of his neck.

The female was a softer tan overall.

Male Mourning Dove, with more rosy/apricot chest shading, neck iridescence and blue head feathers. 
(love those red legs and feet!) ©SB

Pair of Mourning Doves below my Regina, SK, birdfeeder. (Female in front, male at back.) ©SB

This is the second time I've seen these large (compared to most others in spring) graceful birds in our yard.

The first was a Mourning Dove that stopped by in Fall 2013, perhaps on her migration south. She found a spot near the trellis, close to seeds, spent the morning resting, then flew away. (She, I'm guessing, because of her tan-coloured chest and lack of blueish head feathers — but I'm just as likely wrong.)

Visiting Mourning Dove  ©SB

What are these?  Mourning Doves 

Location: Backyard, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada.   

Photo dates: Top three images: May 17, 2015; lower image: September 29, 2013.  

~~~~~

Spring Arrival: A Junco Flies into my Yard

Bird of the day — a Dark-eyed Junco, the first one I've seen in our yard since last October.

They must be flying north again, for summer!

I love the gray tones of this male Junco - gray on gray, with pink beak.  © SB

This one was alone, a very cautious male with no visible mate or companions.

Female Dark-eyed Junco, taken in October, 2013. © SB

But, for the record, here's a female Dark-eyed Junco that came through our yard with a small group of Juncos in October, just before the snow came.


What are these? Dark-eyed Slate-coloured Juncos.   
Location: My backyard, Regina,Saskatchewan.  
Photo dates: March 22, 2014; October 19, 2013. 

~~~~~

White-Crowned Sparrow: May Backyard Sparrows, Regina (6)

Several White-crowned Sparrows have joined the in-migration flock of birds arriving in our Regina, Saskatchewan, backyard this month.

These native birds are larger than Lincoln's Sparrows and Clay-coloured Sparrows. They are also very dramatic with their clear, sharp colours. (I've noticed them in bushes, my attention attracted just by their bright, white stripes.)

White-Crowned Sparrow in the shade. © SB

White-Crowned Sparrow in the sunlight. © SB

What is this?  White-crowned Sparrow

Location: Backyard, Regina, Saskatchewan.

Photo date: May 11, 2013. 

~~~~~

Wascana Creek Polluted and at Risk?

Pelicans in weird June foam,
Wascana Creek, 2011 c SB

Regina, Saskatchewan: A creek running through the centre of the city sounds idyllic — until you realize that the creek in your city may be an effluent-dominated ecosystem, and in winter, treated sewage effluent may make up almost 100% of its stream flow. 

From peaceful to perturbing in one easy headline. And the headlines have been flowing all afternoon.

• From the CBC: Regina's Wascana Creek has damaging pollutants. 
• From the LeaderPost: Wascana Creek one of the 'most polluted creeks in the country.'
• From the studies that spawned these stories, in the journal, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry:  "Effluent-dominated streams. Part 1: Presence and effects of excess nitrogen and phosphorus in Wascana Creek, Saskatchewan, Canada;" and "Part 2: Presence and possible effects of pharmaceuticals and personal care products in Wascana Creek, Saskatchewan, Canada." 

To be fair — if that's the right word in this context — the major pollution starts at our local sewage treatment plant, west of Regina, and flows from there downstream, away from the city. So the part of the creek that's in the city itself is not sewage-laden.

But whether it's what many of us would call clean is an entirely different matter.

The pictures above and below show a group of pelicans, just west of the Albert Street weir earlier this year. It was the first day of summer and the City had just opened the weir under the Albert Street Bridge to release high flood water from Wascana Lake.The result? The water quickly churned into huge curds and billows of foam that engulfed the feeding pelicans.

A cluster of six pelicans swim through foam -- I've highlighted two.  

At that time, I wondered what created this foam, and whether this foam — and the water it thrashed from — was safe.

Today, I asked Peter Leavitt, a biologist at the University of Regina who studies water quality, those questions.

Here's what he had to say about the water, the foam and the studies:

The foam is not likely to be directly toxic to the birds.  It arises because there are very very high levels of phosphorus and dissolved organic matter in the water.  Think of this as a grass stain on clothes and the detergent.  When you mix the two together (in a washer, or in the lake as water passes under Albert St), you produce foam. 

Today's study is not directly related to the foam or the birds - the authors studied the water quality upstream of the City (which would be similar to the site where the birds are located), and downsteam of the wastewater plant outfall (processed sewage), which is North and West of the City. 

They found potentially toxic levels of nitrogen in many seasons (which might harm the birds) at that second location, as well as antibiotics and other personal health care products which are released into the creek from wastewater.  Birds would also be at risk from toxic cyanobacterial blooms which occur in downstream lakes (for example Pasqua) as a result of the City pollution.  

Thus, the water flowing through the city of Regina is cleaner than the water that flows downstream away from us, where the levels of various elements including nitrogen were extremely high. And one problem with high nitrogen, as Leavitt told the LeaderPost, is that with increasing levels,  "Not only do we get more algae, the algae we get are more toxic."

But nitrogen, ammonia, and phosphates aren't the only things Regina is washing downstream.

The studies also found that pharmaceuticals and personal care products were always present in the water, and this mixture included antibiotics, analgesics, antiinflammatories, a lipid regulator, metabolites of caffeine, cocaine and nicotine, and an insect repellent, as well as "ibuprofen, naproxen, gemfibrozil, triclosan, erythromycin, trimethoprim, and sulfamethoxazole at concentrations that may present a risk to aquatic organisms."

So the pelicans were likely safe when I saw them submerged in foam back in June — as long as they stayed east of the sewage treatment plant. Good news, I guess, although somehow, it's difficult to feel particularly happy about any of this...

~~~~~