Each Spring I take an extended birding trip to work on my state and province lists. In 2024 I decided my trip would be to the great plains of western North Dakota and southern Saskatchewan. Why those 2 jurisdictions? In ND, although I already had a pretty good list with 206 species, I had recently dropped below my goal of seeing at least half of the species on the official state list. With the official ND list recently increasing to 417, I needed at least 209 to exceed that threshold. In fact, ND was now my only state in the Lower 48 below that threshold, so there was an additional incentive to adding birds to my ND list. As for adjacent SK, my province list was just 48 based on just 1 hour of birding time in 2018. So I had huge potential for additional “ticks” in that province.
Given that SK is actually only adjacent to the western
portion of ND, I decided that Minot in northwestern ND would be a good starting
off point for the trip. (Even though I
had more state bird potential in the eastern part of the state.) I came up with an itinerary of 3 days in
western ND, 9 days across the southern tier of SK, then a final day for late
migrants in western ND. Based on the
potential timing of migrants and arrivals of breeding birds in the region I
decided to fly into Minot on May 23rd, and fly out on June 4th. With the general outline of the trip
completed, I reached out to my good friend David Donsker who goes with me on
many of these trips, and he agreed to join me.
Now came the hard work of the detailed planning of the
trip. For ND, my research was focused on
those specific target species that I still needed for my list, with data mostly
coming from the eBird database. I came
up with a list of more than 35 new ND species that I had a realistic chance of
finding, but my chances of seeing almost all of them were quite low. As a result, I expected to find just 7
additions to my ND list, though hoped for perhaps 9 or 10.
My research for SK was quite different. There I focused on the best hotspots to bird,
trying to find those spots with the greatest birding potential over the widest
range of habitats. But SK is a huge
province (nearly the size of Texas), so I had to limit my birding to the
southern portion of the province. Again,
the eBird database was my key resource.
Plus, as my trip neared, I reached out to Stan Shadick who runs a SK
birding tour company who gave me great advice to help fine-tune my
itinerary. That final route included
visits to Chaplin and Reed Lakes for shorebirds, Grasslands National Park for a
diverse set of grasslands species, 2 days at Cypress Hills Provincial Park for
woodland birds including several species more likely seen farther west, 2 days
at Duck Mountain Provincial Park for boreal species, and a day in the southeast
corner of the state for more southern species.
I wasn’t sure how many new species to expect, but conservatively hoped
for at least 100 additions to my SK list.
To quote John Denver – “My bags are packed; I’m ready to
go…”
This blog post summarizes the first half of the Canadian
portion of our trip; my next post summarizes the second half. See my previous blog post for a summary of the
ND part of the trip. The eBird Trip
Report for my ND stops can be found at -
ebird.org/tripreport/250883
May 26 – Minot, ND AM, Buffalo Pound Provincial Park SK
PM
The plan for the morning was to make stops for woodland
birds in Minot and then one last stop near the border. Then we would cross over into SK in the
afternoon to begin the SK part of the trip, especially focused on Buffalo Pound
Provincial Park.
The SK portion of the trip started off with a bang! Literally seconds after going through the Canadian
Customs facility we heard an Orchard Oriole singing – that’s one we thought
would be a challenge for us at the end of the trip in the southeast corner of
the province. And a few minutes later,
while sitting at a red light in downtown Estevan, we heard Chimney Swifts
calling overhead. That’s another
difficult bird for which we had planned a special effort later in the
trip. Otherwise, as we made our way to Buffalo
Pound we checked off a few common new province birds, along with a few notable
ones like Gray Partridge and our only Bonaparte’s Gull of the trip. Along the way we also had several Pronghorn
Antelopes running alongside the road.
Buffalo Pound is a large provincial park northeast of Moose Jaw featuring an extensive cattail marsh, a 20-mile long man-made lake, and some woodland oases surrounded by rolling farmland. Although it was likely that we might not get anything here that we wouldn’t get elsewhere on our trip, it was still a good birding spot, and provided a timely break in our driving as we headed west.
Our first stop was the enormous cattail marsh, including a
long floating boardwalk that stretched well into the marsh.
With some coaxing we counted 7 Marsh Wrens, a Virginia Rail, 2 Soras, and 7 Yellowthroats. Feeding over the marsh were an estimated 75 Black Terns and 5 Forster’s Terns. As we headed back to the car we passed by a nice stand of brush and trees harboring Least and Alder Flycatchers, Spotted Towhee, and Tennessee Warblers. A couple stops along the lake yielded at least 55 Western Grebes, along with a couple paler ones which we tried unsuccessfully to turn into Clark’s Grebes, a flock of White Pelicans, and a smattering of dabbling and diving ducks. All in all, the site was quite birdy. And the Marsh Wrens and Virginia Rail turned out to be the only ones for the trip.
I ended the day with 84 species for my SK list, adding 36
new province birds.
May 27 – Chaplin and Reed Lakes, SK
Chaplin Lake in Chaplin and Reed Lake in Morse are
well-known as major stopover spots for migrant shorebirds heading to and from
their Arctic breeding grounds. Chaplin
Lake has 2 viewing points separated by an island that is excellent for
grassland birds.
We arrived early in the morning before the daytime winds had picked up so we decided to focus on the grassland species first. In several stops we found 7 Upland Sandpipers, 3 Marbled Godwits, 3 Chestnut-collared Longspurs, 3 Sprague’s Pipits, 7 Baird’s Sparrows, and a Sharp-tailed Grouse. Not bad for a hotspot known for its shorebirds! Here’s a shot of one of the Godwits acting like a grassland bird instead of a shorebird.
Now it was time to concentrate on the shorebirds. When we neared the southern of the 2 viewing points we could see that it was absolutely loaded with shorebirds. Most of the birds were in one area feeding on what must have been a hatchout of some type of insect. We estimated that there were at least 2,000 Red-necked Phalaropes in this one feeding frenzy.
Others chowing down included 75 Stilt Sandpipers and 100 Sanderlings. Two nearby Piping Plovers were a nice treat as well.
After spending quite a bit of time taking in the spectacle,
we turned back to the northern viewing point and added a few more including
“just” 200 more Phalaropes and 50 Semi Sands.
It’s amazing that we had great numbers and diversity of shorebirds at
our 2 stops, but these locations only provided access to a very small portion
of the lake.
Next we were on to Reed Lake, a 30-minute drive to the
west. Access was quite a bit better here,
predominantly provided by a north-south causeway road that roughly bisected
this enormous lake. Biggest numbers here
were 120 Stilt Sands, 250 Sanderlings, and 100 Semi Sands. Reed Lake is also well known for its migrant
Red Knots, though they are rare virtually everywhere else inland on the
continent. And with some work we picked out
several breeding-plumaged birds in the distance. Then we started to pick them out right next
to the road along the causeway, giving us a total of 14. Here’s a shot of one with just my iPhone – no
magnification included.
Also right along the road were 5 Ruddy Turnstones. Later on in the mudflats we spotted a small group of 4 Golden-Plovers, and a larger flock of 42 Black-bellied Plovers. All were in striking breeding plumage.
Willets were relatively common both at Chaplin and Reed
Lakes. And many were calling, giving us
the opportunity to listen to the differences between the calls of these
“Western” Willets and the “Eastern” Willets we’re more used to hearing. Calls of both birds sound like pill-will-willet,
but in the Western birds the second note is accented and the first note is
quite a bit softer. Eastern birds have
similar accents on all 3 of the first notes.
Something like “pill WILL WILL-et” for western birds and “PILL-WILL-WILL-et”
for Eastern birds. With such significant
differences in calls, bill shape, plumage, and breeding and wintering ranges,
I’ve got to wonder why they haven’t been split into 2 species.
A final stop at Reed Lake was at a viewing tower on the
northwest edge of the lake. Notable
birds here were 5 Piping Plovers, including 2 pairs in courtship. Otherwise, it was more of the same.
We finished the key shorebird portion of the trip with 18
shorebird species, dominated by an estimated 2,600 Red-necked Phalaropes. And that was just in the small portion of the
lakes to which we had access.
Our B&B that night was in Val Marie, just a 10-minute
drive from Grassland NP, our main stop for the nest day. The B&B was called the Convent Inn, a
renovated former convent which was nearly 100 years old. Rather rustic on the outside but nicely
renovated inside.
The small town of Val Marie, with a nice oasis of planted trees surrounded by native prairie, can be a good migrant trap. We took a little stroll through town, finding a feeding station with a feeder full of Pine Siskins, and an orange nailed to a fence visited by at least 4 Baltimore Orioles. Though despite our best efforts we couldn’t turn any of them into a Bullock’s. We also had a Broad-winged Hawk passing through, and a Swainson’s Thrush in town, but as was our experience in ND, we had limited migrants. We also kept our eyes and ears open for Red-headed Woodpeckers that were reported in Val Marie last year but with no luck. Though we had our first Eurasian Collared Doves of SK, not surprising given the setting of this small town in the prairie. And as a reminder of our surroundings, we had a Marbled Godwit and Wilson’s Snipe calling nearby as we walked around town.
I added 30 to my SK list that day, bringing my total to 114. Red Knot was #100.
May 28 – Grasslands National Park, SK
Our visit to the West Block of the Grasslands NP was perhaps
my most anticipated birding stop of the trip.
I just love those grassland birds!
The principal way to bird the park is to drive the Ecotour which runs
through the middle of the main section of the West Block, making frequent stops
along the way. There are also a number
of trails that emanate from the Ecotour, but if we were lucky, we could
probably find most of our targets right along the road.
One of those targets – the Thick-billed Longspur – was
actually best seen just outside the park. Based on 2023 eBird checklists, the Longspur
was principally being reported north of the park along the gravel road that
becomes the Ecotour once it crosses the park boundary. Surprisingly, the habitat there was farmland (wheat
stubble on one side and young wheat crop on the other) instead of native
prairie.
But despite what seemed to be questionable habitat, we quickly picked up Chestnut-collared Longspurs especially in the wheat stubble, and then got quick views of Thick-billed Longspurs on the grassier side. From a distance the face and chest pattern almost looked like a Chickadee. I was able to grab a couple phonescoped shots of this Thick-billed.
We made a couple more stops in this area, and before we even reached the park proper we had 2 Marbled Godwits, 9 Chestnut-collared, 3 Thick-billed, 1 Sprague’s Pipit, 3 Grasshopper Sparrows, and 3 Baird’s Sparrows. This one Baird’s sat in the open, albeit in the distance, just long enough to grab this marginal heavily cropped phonescoped photo.
Our first key stop on the Ecotour within the park was the Top Dogtown, a large prairie dog town. This spot is advertised the key spot for Burrowing Owls in the province, and it only took us a bit of scanning before finding this Owl (not the best picture though because of the harsh early morning sunshine).
As we watched the Owl we heard a Rock Wren singing in a ravine nearby. Later we also found a Long-billed Curlew feeding in the dog town. It flew off just after capturing a tasty morsel, perhaps to feed its young at a nearby nest.
One of our last key targets at Grasslands NP was Sharp-tailed Grouse. We were told that a Grouse lek was located near stop #5 on the Ecotour. As we pulled up to the parking lot we quickly picked up a group of grouse just a few feet away. We counted 36 birds doing their dance to attract females. It was quite the show! This one bird was most cooperative.
The lek was near a wetlands that had a number of dabbling ducks and a few Wilson’s Phalaropes. There was also a male/female pair of Scaup that we initially just wrote off Lessers which had been quite common on our trip so far. Then we took a closer look and realized that both birds had very rounded heads and the male’s back was only slightly darker than its sides – we had a pair of rare Greater Scaup. While we studied the Scaup an American Bittern called nearby. Not exactly birds we expected in the grasslands. But more typical of the grasslands habitat was this rattlesnake safely sunning itself a short distance away along the road.
Soon after we exited the park via the south end of the Ecotour a flock of 7 Lark Buntings flew over the road. Then we spotted another female that eventually posed for good looks. Good thing they have large white wing-patches making them easy to spot and ID even in flight. And speaking of easy birds to ID in flight, a bit further down the road an adult Red-headed Woodpecker flew right in front of us, heading for a line of trees planted in the middle of the prairie.
Our last stop for the park was the Two Trees Trail, where we
hoped to find a few wayward migrant passerines.
The parking lot was next to what appeared to be an old shelter belt of
mature trees and shrubs planted around a house that no longer existed. With a quick walk we found several Brown
Thrashers and a Catbird, and a somewhat unusual female Orchard Oriole. And as we left the trees David spotted this
Great Horned Owl high up in a cottonwood.
Our last stop of the day was at the Shaunavon Wetlands. Although we didn’t find any new birds there, there were good numbers of dabbling and diving ducks, along with some shorebirds. It was a nice break on our drive to our hotel in Maple Creek. And as we headed into the hotel we heard a nearby House Finch, the 11th new bird for the day, bringing my SK list to 125.
May 29 – Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park – West Block
The text in the bird list for Cypress Hills Park describes it
as “an island of forest in a sea of grass”.
Located near the southwestern corner of the province, the park has a
West Block and a Center Block separated by grasslands. The woodlands are home “for many species
usually found in the foothills and forests far to the west and north”. A good example is the Dusky Flycatcher. The following range map from the Sibley app shows
one isolated area for breeding Dusky Flycatchers straddling the SK/AB border located
squarely within Cypress Hills Park.
If you want these typically “western” species for your SK province list, you have to go to Cypress Hills. The forests are also good for more widespread woodland birds. And since to date we hadn’t spent much time in forested habitat in SK (I didn’t even have a Chickadee yet!), there was significant opportunity for new province birds at the park.
But there was one factor beyond our control – the
weather. As we left the hotel near dawn a
cold rain was just beginning, and the sky just got darker as we headed toward
the park. Remarkably, just as we got to
the edge of the park the rain stopped and we were hopeful we had gotten ahead
of the weather.
The first area we came to consisted of a number of switchbacks as the road climbed up into the mountains. Here we got two of those Cypress Hills western specialties – Red-naped Sapsucker and MacGillivray’s Warbler, which actually were quite common in the park. Along with others like Red-breasted Nuthatch and Veery, and yes finally Black-capped Chickadee.
Once we got to the top we were in a grassy plain with just a
few shrubby trees. From here we made our
way to Fort Walsh, which based on the eBird hotspot data, was one of the best
birding spots in the Western Block. We
were the only car in sight as we arrived in the parking lot for the fort’s
visitor center, with the renovated fort down below in the distance.
By the time I made my way to the fort the rain had started and stopped twice, but I wasn’t as wet as this bedraggled Chestnut-collared Longspur that cooperatively foraged in the gravel walkway right in front of me. Although the Longspur was not unusual, the Lark Sparrow that joined it at one point was a rarity per eBird.
Fort Walsh is perhaps the best spot in SK to find Violet-green Swallows, so I was on alert when I spotted my first Swallow when I reached the fort – but it was a Tree. Later I found Barns and Cliffs before I finally found several Violet-greens, all apparently nesting within the fort.
With that target out of the way, I took a trail into the
woodlands behind the fort, adding several Redstarts, Red-breasted Nuthatches,
Western Pewees, and Least Flycatchers before reaching a small clearing in the
woods. And as expected, I had a Dusky
Flycatcher calling from the edge of the clearing in this perfect Dusky habitat. Interestingly it turned out to be the only
one for the trip despite being in good habitat for a couple days.
This area is also known to have a high density of Mountain Lions, so I decided not to tempt fate any further and turned around to walk back to the car. Along the way I had several singing White-crowned Sparrows and 2 pairs of beautiful Mountain Bluebirds.
Having gotten most all of the targets expected at the fort,
we now turned our focus to the western part of the block with some more good
habitat and where Western Flycatcher has nested in recent years. But as we tried to turn west our gravel road
turned to dirt and there was a sign warning that the road was impassable when
wet. We ran into another birder at this
point, Tom Hince, who also had wanted to try for the Western Fly. He was familiar with the area and said in no
uncertain terms that we shouldn’t try to drive on the muddy road given the
recent rains.
That was disappointing – not only to miss out on the
possibility of the Western Flycatcher, but also we had planned to spend the
rest of the day birding the excellent habitat in that area. (It’s notable that although Western Fly’s did
come back to the area, they were not reported this year until June 6th – so we
likely would have been too early for them if we had gone.) What should we do with our suddenly free
time? We could head back to Fort Walsh
and bird the trails there some more. A
second option could be to head to the Center Block and bird that site. But we had planned to bird that area all day
tomorrow. Or we could go to a new spot
not on our original itinerary. Tom
suggested going to Swift Current and bird the sewage lagoons and adjacent
landfill where he had had some good birds a couple days earlier. It was a bit of a drive, but we had the time
so decided to head to Swift Current.
Just as we pulled up to the Swift Current landfill a pair of
Gray Partridges scurried under the gate right in front of us. That was a good start. Then we turned our attention to the active
face of the landfill where we estimated 1,000 California and 100 Ring-billed Gulls
were feeding or roosting. Surely there
would be something else mixed in, but despite many scans we couldn’t find a
rarity. Then we focused on the sewage lagoons
and found an estimated 300 Franklin’s Gulls, and a smattering of waterfowl, but
nothing unusual.
At that point a birder drove slowly past us and stopped a short distance down the road by some wetlands. “Bird the birders” as I always say, so we headed toward her to see what she had found. On our way a flock of 6 White-faced Ibis flew by, and when we pulled up to her we spotted a pair of Black-necked Stilts – both are pretty rare in the province.
The wetland had a nice collection of shorebirds, including 4 Black-bellied Plovers and the only Lesser Yellowlegs we had for the trip. All in all, a pretty nice stop making lemonade out of a bunch of lemons.
That gave me 17 new birds for the day, bringing my SK list
to 142.
May 30 – Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park – Center
Block, SK
Our plan for the 30th was to spend most of the day birding
the Center Block of Cypress Hills, then start making our way east toward
tomorrow’s destination. It was 40
degrees and raining when we left the hotel.
By the time we made it to Cypress Hills at 6 AM it was 33 degrees and
the rain had turned to snow. It was
coming down hard enough that visibility was limited at times. Rather than hiking in the cold and snow we
decided to bird from the car, and over the next 3 1/2 hours we slowly drove
along most every mile of road in the park.
Despite the weather challenges we picked up several new birds like
Western Tanager (another of the park’s western specialties), Ruby-crowned Kinglets,
and a migrant Gray-cheeked Thrush.
By 9:30 the snow had finally decreased to just some
flurries, so we decided to do a bit of hiking on the park trails. Even though it was still in the low 30s. The first trail we took was the Woodlands Trail
which ran through stands of mature conifers.
Unfortunately, this habitat wasn’t very birdy, so we headed to the
Windfall Trail that had more open habitat.
Soon after starting this latter trail David spotted a Three-toed Woodpecker. Eventually we got great looks at this male bird as it flaked small chunks of bark off nearby trees. A few minutes later while playing some tape for Golden-crowned Kinglets a Saw-whet Owl started to call. I couldn’t turn off the Kinglet call fast enough! That was quite the surprise! Other more expected species included numerous Least Flycatchers, Red-naped Sapsuckers, Wester Pewee, and Red-breasted Nuthatch.
We came back to our car which was parked along Loch Leven
and noticed quite a bit of activity over the lake. First we picked out 2 Forster’s Terns. Then we spotted a Great Blue Heron, and
shortly thereafter an Osprey. All
seemingly out of place for this small, isolated lake. Then a kettle of 8 Turkey Vultures passed
overhead. And as we walked back to the
car we heard several Red Crossbills flying by.
And all of this in just a couple of minutes of birding.
The last part of the Center Block we birded was at the south
end near Lake Lomond and the Highland Trail.
Several pairs of Ring-necked Ducks were our first for the trip. Near the beginning of the Highland Trail we
found 4 Juncos feeding in the open.
After some back and forth we decided they were of the Pink-sided race. We only made it a short way on the trail when
the sky darkened and it started to hail on us.
We had rain, sleet, snow, and now hail on this unsettled weather day.
By mid-afternoon we had pretty much birded most of the
Center Block, so we started our trek east.
Our last stop of the day was at Francis Lake just north of the town of
Herbert. The original plan was to visit
this spot for 3 specialties - Ibis, Stilts, and Cinnamon Teal. But of course, we already had the Ibis and
Stilts the day before so our last key target here was Cinnamon Teal. When we arrived at this expansive wetlands
the winds were absolutely howling. The
best habitat was to the west, which was looking right into the wind. As I put it in my eBird checklist – “Excessively
strong winds – viewing next to impossible”.
But we still needed to try to find the Teal, so we thought we’d just drive
along the road and bird from the car with only one window down at a time. Remarkably at our first stop there was a
drake Cinnamon Teal quite close to the road.
However, unfortunately it flew shortly after we spotted it, but it was
still there long enough for a good ID. We
had some distant Ibis as well, but given the conditions we didn’t linger to try
for better views.
I added 11 more to my province list that day, bringing my
total to 153. #150 was Turkey Vulture.
See my next blog post for a summary of the second half of
the Canada portion of the trip covering May 31st through June 3rd.
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