Northwest Territories Portion of the Alberta/Northwest Territories/Nunavut Trip, July 1-11, 2026

My annual birding trip for 2026 featured extended stops in 3 Canadian provinces and territories:

- Alberta (AB) - 3 days concentrating in and around Calgary and Edmonton,
- Northwest Territories (NWT) - 3 days centered on Yellowknife, and
- Nunavut (NU) - 4 days in Cambridge Bay with a brief stop in Kugluktuk.

For AB my goal was to fill gaps in my province list which stood at 173 before the trip, hoping for perhaps 17 additions.  This was my first trip to NWT and NU, so my goals there were to maximize the number of species I could find in each territory, hopefully at least 60 in NWT and 40 in NU.  All in all, I hoped for 117 new "ticks".

I was joined by my local NC birding friend Bill Hooker for the entire trip, and his wife Anita for the first 2 days. 

By all accounts the trip was a great success!  Among the 198 species we had on the trip, 41 were new for my AB list. That brings my province total to 214.  We had 76 species in NWT, and 40 in NU including all our realistic Arctic targets.  That gave me 157 new ticks for the trip, well over my goal.  Four of these species were new for my Canada list, now at 393.  

The eBird Trip Report can be found here:  ebird.org/tripreport/546824

There’s now only one Canadian territory that I’ve yet to bird – Yukon Territory.  Whitehorse, the largest city in the Yukon, is located in the southwest part of the territory near British Columbia and close to the Alaska panhandle.  Birding in all three of those jurisdictions would make for a nice trip in 2027!

This post summarizes the NWT portion of the trip.  My previous blog post focused on the AB portion.  The next post details the NU portion of the trip.

Planning for Birding Yellowknife

I often start my planning for birding a new area by reading either paper or on-line field guides about the site.  However, I found no field guides that addressed Yellowknife specifically, or even NWT in general.  I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised given Yellowknife’s small size (population of about 20,000 per its Wikipedia site).  There were a couple bird guiding companies that offered trips that included Yellowknife, though details were limited.  Then I found an NWT birding page on Facebook.  I queried the group about preferred birding sites nearby and got several suggestions for the best hotspots.  As the trip neared, I hoped to see lots of posts about recent sightings but there were few from Yellowknife.  But of course there’s always eBird, where I principally picked out the hotspots with the greatest number of checklists or greatest number of species.  Plus, Google Maps in satellite mode was helpful to look for good habitat. 

All in all, I felt as prepared as I could be as the NWT portion of our trip approached.  One guiding company had seen 55 species in Yellowknife in 2 days the previous year.  We were going to give it 3 days, and despite not knowing the area well, I hoped for perhaps 60 species.

July 3 – First Day in Yellowknife, NWT

After an uneventful morning flight from Edmonton, AB, Bill and I landed at the small Yellowknife airport right on time.  While waiting for our rental car we spotted a Ring-billed Gull flying around the parking lot.  A less-than-exciting first bird for the territory, but we had to start somewhere.

We then headed to our hotel, the Chateau Nova.  This has been the hotel of choice for past birding tours at least partially because it was adjacent to Niven Lake, one of the best hotspots in Yellowknife.  Niven Lake was nestled in a suburban community, with a walkway around the perimeter featuring boreal spruce woods on one side, and cattail marsh and lake on the other.  With lots of nice, diverse habitats in a relatively small area, there was considerable birding potential.

The hotel restaurant was not yet open for lunch when we arrived, so we headed over to Niven Lake for a short walk near the lake’s headwaters.

We only stayed for 15 minutes until the mosquitoes found us (our bug spray was still in the suitcases), but we tallied a quick 13 species featuring - American Wigeon, Lesser Scaup and Horned Grebes on the water, numerous breeding plumage Bonaparte’s Gulls and Tree Swallows overhead, Swamp Sparrows in the marsh, and Eastern Kingbird and Tennessee Warblers in the woods. 

My province map for Tennessee Warbler is inserted below.  The light blue shaded provinces/territories are those where I’ve seen this species in its regular range.  The cross-hatched ones are those in its regular range where I’ve yet to see this species.  And per Sibley's maps they're not expected in NU.

That gave us 14 for our NWT list before heading to lunch.

Lunch at the hotel was tasty but painfully slow, especially given that we were anxious to get back to birding.  We eventually made it back to Niven Lake, and this time we made a complete loop around the lake, including this picturesque view.

We added six waterfowl species – Gadwall, Mallard, Green-winged Teal, Canvasback, Redhead, and Red-necked Grebe.  Numerous Lincoln’s Sparrows, Soras and a couple Eastern Phoebes sang from the wetlands.  A flyby Bald Eagle passed overhead.  New gulls featured Herring and California, and our first of many Short-billed Gulls, likely nesting in the marsh.

 

Walks through the wooded portions of the trail netted species like Hermit Thrush, Orange-crowned and Yellow Warblers, and 3 sparrows – Junco, White-throated, White-crowned.

When we finished the loop around Niven Lake we were at 34 species for the day so far  – not a bad total after just 2 hours of birding. 

Our last stop of the day was at Willow Flats, one of the best hotspots in the area at the northern end of an arm of Great Slave Lake.  Before we even started birding there, we noticed these houses floating on the lake, taking the term “house boat” to a new extreme.

One of the targets of this site are waterfowl, but our scans were unsuccessful due to swells and whitecaps in the windy conditions.  Though we were able to find numerous small groups of Tree Swallows passing by, all flying into the wind.  And twice we found lone Cliff Swallows flying by as well (NWT #35).  We also had several Sterna terns fly by, each one we could identify being an Arctic (NWT #36).  Later we found this one nicely perched nearby.

Next we focused our attention on the wet grasses and brush along the boardwalk at Willow Flats.  One of the first birds we saw was a Blackpoll Warbler that flew by at eye level (NWT #37)  And in the wetlands we had singing Savannah and LeConte’s Sparrows (NWT #38-39).  In my Savannah Sparrow map below I just need this species in NU and YT.

Our last birds of the day were several calling House Sparrows along the city streets – certainly not too exciting but still a new one for the list (NWT #40).  And we had our only “sighting” of a Ptarmigan for the trip.

July 4 – Day 2 in Yellowknife

The plan for the day was to principally bird hotspots east of Yellowknife along the Ingraham Trail (Route 4).  But first we decided to start the day back at Niven Lake.  Since the stop there the day before was in the afternoon, we wondered if there would be a better mix of species in the early morning. 

Although we did add 2 species – Cedar Waxwing and Chipping Sparrow (NWT #41 and #42) – we were pretty much seeing the same birds as yesterday, including the same waterfowl.  It’s interesting to note that Sibley’s range maps indicate that Cedar Waxwing is not expected in NWT, instead being replaced by Bohemian Waxwings.  However, Cedars are much more likely in this area per eBird.  In my province map for Cedar Waxwing below, NWT is shaded in dark blue indicating that I’ve seen this species as a rarity per Sibley’s maps.

As we started to re-think our plan, we realized that there was next to no wind.  So we decided to change our strategy and go back to Willow Flats for a short visit to see if we might have better views of waterfowl in the calmer conditions.

Just as we exited the car at the Willow Flats parking lot we heard a Black-capped Chickadee calling (NWT #43), surprisingly our only one for NWT.  And as we headed toward the lake, we heard 2 singing Northern Waterthrushes (NWT#44), and 2 calling Wilson’s Snipe (NWT #45).  That gave us 3 new birds before we had even made it to the lake.  I still need Snipe in NU, NWT, and Ontario.

As expected, with nearly calm winds, viewing conditions on the lake were much different than yesterday.  Soon after setting up the scope we picked out a Common Loon on the water in the distance (NWT #46).  And then we noticed a Red-breasted Merganser swimming right by us (NWT #47) - that was easy.  Our last addition to the list was a pair of very distant all-dark diving ducks which were definitely scoters – but which species?  Under these excellent conditions I was finally able to get pretty good views of the head and felt good calling them White-winged Scoters (NWT #48).  Slowly filling in the province map for this species.

Other notable birds were 5 flyby Arctic Terns; still couldn’t turn one into a Common though.

It was just barely 7 AM and we had already made 2 quick stops, adding 8 new birds, bringing us to a total of 48. 

We then returned to our original plan to bird east of the city, and headed to Vee Lake.  The lake itself was an eBird hotspot, though with few checklists.  However, on Google Maps the 3-mile-long road to Vee Lake appeared to go through nice boreal habitat.  So we focused our birding along that access road, and soon were greeted by this nice scenery. 

At one of our first wetland stops we heard an Alder Flycatcher singing nearby (NWT #49).  And on the other side of the road, we could hear a Least Flycatcher singing from the drier forest (NWT #50).  That made for 2 quick additions.  A bit farther down the road we stopped in some boreal forest and were serenaded initially by a Hermit Thrush, then the first of 3 Swainson’s Thrushes (NWT #51).  I’ve now seen Swainson’s Thrush in each province/territory where it is regular except Yukon Territory.  (Will that come in summer 2027?)

Our next stop in spruce/fir forest netted at least 2 calling Canada Jay’s in the distance (NWT #52).

We stopped at a number of lakes and other wetlands along the way, with one or more nesting pairs of water birds at most every stop.  Red-necked Grebes were the most common, followed by Lesser Scaup, Mallards, and Common Loons.  And in one of the last ponds we spotted a flock of 18 adult Ring-necked Ducks (NWT #53).  Plus, we can’t forget the Short-billed Gulls likely nesting in the wetlands.

Vee Lake at the end of the road was pretty quiet likely due to the presence of several boats.  But these wildflowers at the lake edge were a nice distraction.

Continuing our trek east, our next stop was at the Route 4 bridge over the Yellowknife River.  There were a couple recent eBird reports from this spot, which included a small flock of Greater Scaup and several nice landbirds we still needed.  Our initial focus was to look for the Scaup, and finally downstream of the bridge I picked out a pair of Scaup with rounded heads – we had the Greater Scaup (NWT #54).  My province map for Greater Scaup looks a lot like my map for White-winged Scoter map.

While scanning for the Scaup we were serenaded by Cliff Swallows nesting under the bridge, though couldn’t pick out any Barn Swallows that might have been mixed in.  And we had no luck with the Kingfisher previously reported from this spot.

We then headed back into the little park downstream of the bridge and added a Flicker and a flock of Boreal Chickadees, captured in this photo taken by Bill (NWT #55 and #56).

Other birds in the park included Chipping and White-throated Sparrows, Juncos, and Tennessee and Orange-crowned Warblers.  Along with good numbers of mosquitoes!

A short distance to the east we headed to Cell Tower Road which had had some nice reports recently.  However, we didn’t see a single bird there.  As we headed back to the car we heard a distant call that sounded like an Osprey.  Sure enough, in the distance we spotted a large Osprey nest on a power pole, with an Osprey perched nearby (NWT #57).

Continuing our route east we took the turnoff to Cassidy Point.  Although we had 5 waterfowl species in our brief stop here, the key attractions were the landbirds.  While scanning the lake we spotted a Barn Swallow flying low over the water (NWT #58).  I’ve seen this species throughout the provinces, including in Newfoundland as a rarity.

And then from the thin strip of vegetation along the lake edge we heard a singing Ruby-crowned Kinglet (NWT #59).   

Prosperous Lake was our next stop as we continued our trek east.  This was another brief but rewarding stop – and it had some nice scenery too.

As we starting to scan out over the lake we heard a shorebird calling from the water’s edge nearby – was it a Spotted Sandpiper?  We eventually got a quick view which confirmed the ID (NWT #60).  Then we spotted a Tern flying out over the lake.  Luckily it wasn’t too far out as it gave good views showing additional black in the wings.  We finally had a Common Tern (NWT #61).  I still need this species in British Columbia and Saskatchewan.

Our farthest east stop was at the Cameron Falls trail.  The spruce habitat looked great, though we saw few birds – likely since it was now mid-afternoon on a surprisingly warm day in the upper 70’s. 

We eventually made it to the falls which were most impressive!  Made the long walk worthwhile. 

 

As we doubled back to the car, we discussed starting the next morning along this trail hoping to run into a Spruce Grouse.  But we decided to bird closer hotspots where target birds were also more likely.

Our last stops of the day were at lakes within Yellowknife.  First we headed to Frame Lake, though a quick stop didn’t reveal anything new for the list.  Then we made our way to Range Lake where we found this very young juvenile Pacific Loon with its sleeping parent (NWT #62).

Another very successful day of birding!  I had originally hoped for 60 species in NWT, and we had already tallied 62.  Plus, we still had one more day of birding in the territory.

July 5 – Day 3 in Yellowknife

The plan for the day was to bird at a mixed bag of hotspots near town, including two hotspots that are almost always on a birder’s list of favorites – a landfill and a sewage treatment impoundment. 

Our first stop of the day was at the Yellowknife landfill, specifically looking for Sandhill Cranes.  That’s a new one for me – I’ve never seen Cranes at landfills, unless maybe they were in grassy patches or wetlands around the perimeter of the landfill.  I reached out to the NWT Facebook group to get some advice, and it seemed like the Cranes were routinely seen right amidst the landfill trash.  We arrived just after 6 AM and found the landfill gate was still closed.  So we drove along a perimeter road just outside the landfill and luckily we could see the open face of the landfill from there.  Just as we were parking a pair of Canada Geese flew by (NWT #63).  And just a minute later a Crane flew in and landed in the trash (NWT #64), just as the local birders suggested.  Go figure…

And of course, before we left we had to look through the gulls at the landfill.  But we were only able to pick out Herring and Ring-billed in the small flock.  As we drove away from the landfill 3 other Cranes flew overhead, hopefully headed towards some more natural habitat. 

Next, we were on to the small First Nations community of Dettah a short distance east of Yellowknife.  Located at the southern tip of a peninsula surrounded by an arm of Great Slave Lake, it looked to be a good spot for a seawatch.  Along the way we passed by some small lakes with Lesser Scaup, Ring-necked Ducks, and Wigeon, not to mention a breeding Lesser Yellowlegs calling from the top of a spruce (NWT #65).  My province map for this species is similar to many of the others – I’ve seen Lesser Yellowlegs in most of the provinces but still need it in the 2 territories where I’ve yet to bird.

The seawatch at Dettah was quite successful.  The first birds we saw were a flock of 5 Surf Scoters (NWT #66) and later a single White-winged Scoter flying north.  We also had a flock of 9 Red-breasted Mergansers, and a single Common Goldeneye (NWT #67), fly in and land right in front of us. 

And while scanning the lake a Song Sparrow chipped from the brush nearby (NWT #68). I just need this species in Yukon Territory (maybe next year?)

On the drive back we spotted a Kestrel perched on a wire along the road (NWT #69).  And I’m glad we stopped to confirm the ID because that gave us a chance to scan a nearby lake picking out a small group of Buffleheads (NWT #70).  I still need this species throughout the Maritimes where it’s a wintering bird – I’ve never birded there in the winter.

We next headed west of town, first stopping at a wetlands along Merlin Rd. where Yellowthroat and Clay-colored Sparrow had been reported.  It was a nice wetlands, with singing LeConte’s, Lincon’s, and Swamp Sparrows, and Yellow Warblers, but we couldn’t tease out either target.

Then after a bit of doubling-back we eventually found our way to the hotspot named Yellowknife Sewage Outlet.  As sewage lagoons go, this one was quite attractive with nice natural habitat, including shallow open water, brushy edges, and mudflats.  

We had 4 species of dabbling ducks including 16 Pintails (NWT #71).  Then we got excellent looks at Short-billed Gulls as they foraged nearby at the water surface.

Then we started scanning the distant edges and noticed some shorebirds moving in and out of the vegetation.  We were able to find 6 species, including Solitary, Least and Pectoral Sandpipers (NWT #72-74).  All of which took off as a Merlin came passing by (NWT #75).  Looks like I missed Merlin during my Ontario trips.

That was quite the stop!

Our last stop of the day, and the last one for Yellowknife, was a cattail marsh along Kam Lake where Common Grackles had occasionally been reported.  Sibley’s range maps indicate that Grackle is a rarity anywhere in NWT, but they seemed to be almost reliable at this spot. 

Within seconds of getting out of the car a Grackle flew low over the cattails (NWT #76), which was followed by a flock of 8 more that landed in trees at the edge of the marsh.  That was easy for a rarity!  I’ve now seen Common Grackle in every province where it is regular, and now in NWT as a rarity.

As we headed back to the car we noticed this sign – appropriate for this high latitude location.

 As was this license plate for NWT residents. 

We finished our 3 days in NWT with 76 species, obviously well above my goal of 60.  And although 76 is a nice tally, it only puts us in 143rd place for NWT all time per eBird records.  Though 12th place for 2026 is pretty respectable.

Alberta Portion of the Alberta/Northwest Territories/Nunavut Trip, July 1-11, 2026

My annual birding trip for 2026 featured extended stops in 3 Canadian provinces and territories:

- Alberta (AB) - 3 days concentrating in and around Calgary and Edmonton,
- Northwest Territories (NWT) - 3 days centered on Yellowknife, and
- Nunavut (NU) - 4 days in Cambridge Bay with a brief stop in Kugluktuk.

My goal in AB was to fill gaps in my province list which stood at 173 before the trip, hoping for perhaps 17 additions.  This was my first trip to NWT and NU, so my goals there were to maximize the number of species I could find in each territory, hopefully at least 60 in NWT and 40 in NU.  All in all, I hoped for 117 new "ticks".

I was joined by my local NC birding friend Bill Hooker for the entire trip, and his wife Anita for the first 2 days.  And AB birding expert David Grinevitch joined us for the last day near Edmonton.

By all accounts the trip was a great success!  Among the 198 species we had on the trip, 41 were new for my AB list, thanks to a large degree to David's help. That brings my province total to 214.  We had 76 species in NWT, and 40 in NU including all our realistic Arctic targets.  That gave me 157 new ticks for the trip, well over my goal.  Four of these species were new for my Canada list, now at 393.  Plus, we got to experience a little slice of Inuit culture among the nice people of Cambridge Bay.

My top 5 favorite sightings of the trip were:
- 3 Yellow Rails calling midday from an Edmonton wetlands
- 3 Yellow-billed Loons in Cambridge Bay
- A remarkable 19 Long-tailed Jaegers across multiple stops in Cambridge Bay
- 120 Sabine's Gulls tallied in several Cambridge Bay locations
- Baby sandpipers and waterfowl throughout the tundra and Arctic ponds

The eBird Trip Report can be found here:  ebird.org/tripreport/546824

There’s now only 1 Canadian territory that I’ve yet to bird – Yukon Territory.  Whitehorse, the largest city in the Yukon, is located in the southwest part of the territory near British Columbia and close to the Alaska panhandle.  Would make for a nice trip in 2027!

This post summarizes the AB portion of the trip.  Other blog posts focus on the NWT and NU portions.

July 1 – Calgary and Eastern Prairies

Our first stops of the day were in the native prairie grasslands east of Calgary where our key targets included species like Baird’s and Grasshopper Sparrows, Ferruginous Hawk, and Upland Sandpiper.  After an early departure from our Airbnb in Calgary, we headed east on Highway 561, eventually coming to Range Road 173 where Baird’s and Grasshoppers had been reported in spring.  Within minutes we were being serenaded by Horned Larks, and Savannah, Vesper and Clay-colored Sparrows calling from seemingly every direction.  Then we started to hear Sprague’s Pipits as they sang invisibly high overhead.  And a couple attractive but distant Chestnut-collared Longspurs joined in.

Then after a couple more stops along Range Road 173 we finally heard our first Baird’s Sparrow, eventually finding one singing from a low shrub (New AB Province Bird #1). I’ve been told that back in the day when bison roamed the prairie, Baird’s Sparrows preferred the short grasses that were growing back a year or two after bison had grazed the area.  And sure enough, the Baird’s we heard were in this shorter grass prairie.

We made several more stops along the road but didn’t find the taller grass habitat of Grasshopper Sparrows.  So we turned around and headed on to our next target – Ferruginous Hawk.  eBird reports from the last couple years suggested that there was an active hawk nest in a lone cottonwood just to the east along 561.  It was easy enough to find the tree in question.

The nest was easy to locate as well, but it was empty.  Chances are the birds had already fledged. 

Consolation prizes went to a pair of Western Kingbirds nesting in the cottonwood, and a Harrier just across the road that got us excited briefly.  But luck was on our side as less than a mile to the east we spotted our first Ferruginous Hawk flying low over the prairie, undoubtedly one of the birds from this family (AB Bird #2).

We continued east a short distance to one of the locations where Upland Sandpiper had been reported this spring.  Although we didn’t have luck with the Upland, we spotted what was likely our best mammal of the trip – this Badger nicely photographed by Anita.

Soon we were back on 561 heading east when we flushed a Gray Partridge off the side of the road (AB Bird #3). We followed it down Range Road 161, and saw it land in some brush. 

It briefly responded to recordings, but then flushed when a truck went by, giving us extended but distant views of the bird in flight.  Sure was nice to find this elusive species.  Loggerhead Shrike was another nice bird at this location.

My province map for Gray Partridge is inserted below.  The light blue shaded provinces are those where I’ve seen this species in its regular range.  The cross-hatched provinces are those where I’ve yet to see Partridge in its normal range – I still need this challenging species in quite a number of provinces.

We drove farther east on 561, turning south on Range Road 155 near where an Upland Sandpiper had been reported a couple months earlier.  Local birders have lamented how difficult it was to find this species in the area recently, so we needed to check each area where they had been found this year.  And sure enough, as we neared the location of the recent sighting, we spotted an Upland perched on a fence post right along the roadside (AB Bird #4).  Soon it was joined by 3 others – perhaps a family group?  At a later nearby stop we found another pair of Uplands.  They weren’t as difficult to find as I thought they would be.  AB was my 6th province for this species.

Throughout the vast expanse of native prairie there were numerous small pothole ponds, each with a few pairs of nesting waterfowl.  Soon we had the first of many Black Terns feeding on the ponds and just flying by (AB Bird #5).  And at one pond we found this Willet parent with at least 2 camera-shy little chicks.

But back to the grasslands…  Our last grassland target was Grasshopper Sparrow.  There were numerous recent eBird sightings from the University of Alberta Mattheis Ranch which looked promising.  However, the location title included the phrase: “restricted access”.  Undeterred, we thought we’d give it a try.  However, when we reached the entrance there were numerous No Trespassing signs.  So we decided to try our luck just outside the entrance in some patches of taller grasses, but to no avail.  It was one of our few AB targets that we would end up missing.

It was time to start heading back toward Calgary, though of course we kept our eyes open for birds along the way.  At one point we noticed a few Swainson’s Hawks walking on the ground in a cattle pen.  We pulled over and counted an amazing 20 Swainson’s, all either on the ground or on fence posts.  And all were immature birds, including several dark phase birds.  It reminded me of the times you would find a flock of Vultures feeding in an agricultural field on a large carcass.  I shared this story with my good birding friend David Donsker, and he passed along this quote on Swainson’s Hawks from Cornell’s Birds of the World: “Post-fledging flocks: As juveniles become independent from their parents in late summer, they gather in moderately large flocks of first and second-year birds near areas with abundant food such as agricultural fields”.  Learn something new every day…

We were no sooner back on the road when we spotted a flooded field with a flock of White-faced Ibis.  It was a busy roadway, but we still pulled off to check it out.

We counted 40 Ibis and 75 Franklin’s Gulls.  Then on closer inspection we spotted a pair of Black-necked Stilts and an Avocet.  And then scope views revealed 4 Long-billed Dowitchers and a Greater Yellowlegs (AB Birds #6 and #7).  Not bad for a small flooded field.  Here’s one of Anita’s shots showing the Dowitchers and a couple Ibis among the Franklin’s flock.

We finally made our way back to Calgary, and headed to Inglewood Bird Sanctuary near the center of the city.  Our 2 targets here were Wood Ducks which were reported on most checklists, and Hooded Mergansers which were recently only reported occasionally.  We took a short walk to the oxbow lake in the park and began to scan the edges.  Soon we picked up this group of sleeping birds on a downed log (AB Bird #8).

Later we found a female Goldeneye and a female Common Merganser protecting a very young chick.  But we had no luck with Hooded Merganser.

Our next target was Trumpeter Swan, seen at a number of different locations northwest of Calgary.  I prioritized the sites based not only on how recent the observations had been, but also whether cygnets had been noticed.  I picked Oxyoke Nature Preserve as our first spot to try, with a family of 10 reported just 4 days earlier.  I hoped that we would just pull up to the lake and instantly see the large white birds, but no such luck.  We scanned the late from several angles without picking up the Swans.  Then Bill suggested we try the lake headwaters, though it was only partly in view.  So after climbing over a gate and a bit of a hike through a cattle pasture, we got this view of the marshy headwaters (to the right in this picture) complete with 2 very distant Trumpeter Swans (AB Bird #9).

I’ve now seen Trumpeter Swan across 5 provinces, including the dark-shaded Manitoba where I’ve seen it as a rarity (per Sibley’s range maps).

Hoping for better views, we headed onto my secondary Swan location along Grand Valley Road.  We pulled up and almost instantly found this family of 7 Swans.  (Alas, we never saw all 7 of them “a swimming”.)  We didn’t need to take the long hike at Oxyoke afterall.

Just after snapping the Swan pictures I noticed a lone small diving duck swimming nearby.  With a quick scope view I confirmed my initial suspicion – it was a female or immature Hooded Merganser (AB Bird #10).  That was unexpected.

The last stop of the day was at Winchell Lake and Slough where a pair of Sandhill Cranes had been reported recently.  Despite lots of scanning of the marshes and grasslands we were unsuccessful relocating them.  But the trip was still young.

July 2 – Elk Island National Park and Edmonton

Our birding focus on the 2nd was Elk Island National Park, where recent checklists had included as many as 15 of my targets.  Perhaps the best recent checklist was from David Grinevitch, and since his e-mail address was included in his eBird profile, I reached out to him to ask for strategies to bird the Park.  He sent back a very detailed set of suggestions for each of my targets.  And most notably he suggested birding along the main road through the Park rather than birding too many trails.  Armed with David’s advice, we headed out early from Calgary, encountering this amazing sunrise soon after our departure.

Our first stop once reaching the Park was the Visitor Center looking for Phoebe nests. 

We found a likely Phoebe nest on the guard building, but the birds had fledged so no Phoebes were in the area.  But while searching we heard the first of several Pileated Woodpeckers and the first of many Ovenbirds (AB Birds #11 and #12).  And we came upon our first Bison of the trip.

The record wet summer in the Edmonton area in 2026 meant that the wetland vegetation was lush, and the wetland birds were numerous.  We had singing Swamp Sparrows in nearly every wetland we passed (AB Bird #13).  Interestingly they seemed to have redder crowns and less buff and streaking on the flanks than the birds I’m used to in the east.  We were also able to find a singing Sedge Wren around the slightly drier edge of one of the wetlands (AB Bird #14).

We were successful in finding a number of targets in the woodlands as well.  Black-and-white Warbler was another one of our expected targets, though we only heard one singing bird (AB Bird #15).  Just have 1 more province (plus the Territories) to see this species.

Our next stop, as suggested by David, was an area of spruce/fir forest.  Here we had 2 singing Mourning Warblers, and a flyover flock of 4 White-winged Crossbills (AB Birds #16 and 17).  Other common warblers in the woodlands included Tennessee, Yellow, and Yellow-rumped.  Though abundant mosquitoes kept us from walking too far into the woodlands.

We were now near the northern end of the Park and took a turn into Astotin Lake.  We first headed to the campground (there are always good birds in campgrounds!) to walk around a bit and see what we might run into.  Soon we were hearing calling Eastern Phoebes, and tracked them down to a likely nesting site at one of the picnic pavilions (AB Bird #18).

And as we were walking back to the car I heard a distant call that sounded like a Great Crested Flycatcher.  We doubled back a bit and could now clearly hear the calling bird. (AB Bird #19).  They had been observed a number of times in the Park in the first half of June, but were only rarely observed recently, so they weren’t on my radar screen.  I’ve now seen Great Crested in each province where it is regular except for Nova Scotia.

Our last stop was at the eastern edge of Lake Astotin.  We heard another Great Crested calling in the distance, but saw few birds on the lake.  However, the scenery was spectacular.   

I picked up 9 new province birds at Elk Island, even though we didn’t start until mid-morning.  A nice way to start the day for sure!

Next, we were on to the Edmonton home of Sean and Marnie Evans in search of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds.  Hummers had been regular at their feeders in 2025, so fully expecting them to return in 2026, I contacted the Evans early in 2026 to see if we might come by to see them.  The Evans invited us to visit when we were in town, so we were all set.  At least we thought we were.  The problem was the Evans only had 1 Hummingbird visit all of 2026 through June.  But just as I started to think about alternate arrangements the Evans started to see their Ruby-throats again.  So we were hopeful that we might get lucky. 

We got to the Evans’s back yard and sat on the back deck as suggested.  The Hummingbirds were especially coming to these purple flowers (Salvia?) in planters on the deck.

As we were settling in we heard a Broad-winged Hawk call (AB Bird #20).  That was most unexpected.  We had just spent 5 hours at Elk Island in excellent habitat and didn’t have one.  And then to have a Broad-wing within minutes in a somewhat marginal suburban habitat was most surprising.

Then just a couple minutes later a female-plumaged Ruby-throated Hummingbird flew in and fed from the purple flowers (AB Bird #21).  Sure is nice when a plan comes together.  I’ve now seen this species in each of its regular provinces except Newfoundland.  Plus I found one as a rarity in British Columbia.

The last target of the day was a family of Peregrine Falcons nesting in a nest box on the University of Alberta campus in downtown Edmonton.  With a bit of research and a lot of help from David Grinovitch, I was set to look for the nest box near the top of the east side of the Clinical Sciences Building, with best viewing from the top of the parking garage to the south.  We quickly found the correct garage, parked on the roof, and started to scan the buildings to the north.  It didn’t take long to find the nest box, though no Peregrines were in sight.

Then we spotted one of the babies peering over the side of the box.  And then both adults flew in – one to the box and one perched on the top of the building (AB Bird #22).

The nest is monitored with a camera with the feed aired live on-line 24/7.  I took this screen shot from the nest cam real-time as we were watching the birds through the scope from the garage.

What a great way to end the day!  And with 22 new province birds, I was already way over my initial goal of 17.  Plus we still had 1 more full day of birding in AB at the end of the trip.

July 3 - 5 - Yellowknife, Northwest Territories

See my next blog post for a summary of the Northwest Territories portion of the trip.

July 6 - 10 - Cambridge Bay, Nunavut

The Nunavut portion of the trip is summarized in a third post on my blog.

July 11  - Edmonton with David Grinevitch

Before our trip I not only reached out to David Grinevitch for general advice, but also asked if he might want to join us.  He graciously agreed to bird with us on the 11th, and developed a detailed itinerary in and around Edmonton that could net 15 or more of my targets.

Now we just needed the weather to cooperate.  As we closed in on our first stop at Buck Lake southwest of Edmonton, the skies opened up and it poured heavily for perhaps 30 minutes.  Finally, as the rain lessened, we quickly picked out many Purple Martins overhead at a little hamlet at the edge of the lake (AB Bird #23).  I’ve now seen Martins in each of the provinces where they are regularly seen.

And then a quick scan of the lake yielded 3 fly-by Bonaparte’s Gulls (AB Bird #24).  Off to a nice start despite the rain delay…

Then we were off to some woodland birding near the lake and picked up the first of 3 singing Black-billed Cuckoos (AB Bird #25), which are rare for the province.  There was a major invasion of tent caterpillars in the area, and the Cuckoos, notorious for eating “hairy” caterpillars, had invaded the area as well.  I’ve also seen this species as a rarity in Newfoundland.

And speaking of eastern rarities, our next target was an Eastern Wood-Pewee.  First discovered just the week before on the east side of the lake, it was just the 4th provincial record per eBird.  We pulled up to the stakeout spot and heard the singing Pewee just as we got out of the car (AB Bird #26).  I’ve also seen this species in each province in its regular range, which typically is no closer than the southeast corner of Saskatchewan.

We then spent the next several minutes driving slowly on the roads in the area looking for Great Gray Owls.  Bill’s picture is representative of the nice habitat we searched. 

Despite several recent reports in the area, we couldn’t find our target.  It would turn out to be one of our very few misses for the day. 

Next David took us to the eastern side of Buck Lake for more views of the water.  Soon after we parked we head several distant calling Sandhill Cranes – an unexpected find (AB Bird #27 – and #200 for my province list).  And much closer, we finally heard a singing Blue-headed Vireo (AB Bird #28).  Plus on the lake we found this somewhat unusual raft of 14 adult Common Loons as captured by Bill.

We then headed to Range Road 73 near Moon Lake west of Edmonton where a stakeout Indigo Bunting had been residing for the past couple weeks.  And just like our Eastern Pewee experience, almost instantly after exiting the car we heard the male Indigo singing nearby (AP Bird #29).  I got this terrible backlit photo of the bird. 

A short distance down the road our focus changed to a recently reported Connecticut Warbler.  On our second stop we heard one singing right next to the road (AB Bird #30).  Despite playing some recordings, we couldn’t get a visual as it remained low in this thick tangle.

Our next target was a family of Merlins likely nesting in a spruce tree in a suburban Mobile City Estate west of Edmonton.  As soon as we pulled up we heard the Merlins squawking, and soon had a visual of this juvenile up in a spruce (AB Bird #31).

I guess it’s appropriate that since the bird was screaming almost constantly that its mouth was open in the picture.

Our next somewhat speculative stop was along Range Road 252 north of Edmonton where a few shorebirds had been recently reported.  I needed a lot of shorebird species for my province list, and had originally planned that shorebirds would be key targets for me on July 11.  But record June rainfalls near Edmonton had resulted in flooded fields everywhere.  There was just too much shorebird habitat and many of the traditional sites (like the Beaverhill Bird Observatory) were flooded.  As a result, these early migrants weren’t concentrated anywhere. 

That is until we found the Range Road 252 site, which initially just looked like another of those flooded farm fields. 

Soon after we arrived we had a couple flocks of 10-20 shorebirds fly back and forth as if looking for a spot to land.  Most didn’t land, but instead flew off to the west and disappeared.  But these were replaced by more and more flocks, some allowing for IDs especially if multiple species were in the flocks so we could tell size and plumage differences.  We eventually found a large foraging flock just a bit to the southwest, containing over 500 birds, including 350 Long-billed Dowitchers.  During our 2 1/2 hours at the site, we estimated we had another 400 birds in flyby flocks.  Overall, we had 13 species of shorebirds, including 7 new for my province list – Pectoral, Baird’s, Least, Stilt, and Semipalmated Sandpipers, Semipalmated Plover, and Red-necked Phalarope (AB birds #32 – #38).  Semi Plover was my 2000th Canada Total Tick (sum of my province and territory lists). 

We also had 11 waterfowl species, not to mention a Merlin that made a run at one of the fly-by flocks.

One of the other targets at this site was an American Bittern that was a stakeout in a nearby grassy wetland.  It took a while, but I finally was able to hear it give an abbreviated call soon after the passing of a massive thunderstorm (AB Bird #39).  (Did I mention record rainfalls?)

Next we were off to the Fort Saskatchewan Gravel Pits northeast of Edmonton in search of Pied-billed Grebes.  After just a bit of searching we found one adult with 4 babies (AB Bird #40).

I’ve now seen this species in each province; just need it in 2 territories.

Our last stop of the day was at the Range Road 230 wetland east of Leduc in search of Yellow Rails.  That’s a species that I’ve only seen 3 times and heard once before, but never in Canada.  And it would be a lifer for Bill.  So we were excited to give it a try.  It had apparently been a good year for Yellow Rails since the heavy rains had flooded many grassy fields, creating lots of great habitat. 

We came up empty at our first 2 stops, but we struck paydirt on our third stop.  Almost as soon as we got out of the car, we heard the clicking call of a Yellow Rail (AB Bird #41 and #393 for my Canada list).  We would end up hearing 3 birds, though we could not get them to come out and reveal themselves.  What an amazing way to end the trip!

We can’t thank David Grinevitch enough for all his help!  He not only knows the area extremely well, he’s also an excellent birder.

In summary, with 41 new birds, my AB list is now at 214.  I hoped for 17 additions and got 41 – needless to say greatly exceeding my expectations.

And now a bit of context:

For decades I’ve been working on my US state lists so that my totals exceed half the total of the species ever reported in that state.  That was the American Birding Association’s old threshold to be able to report your totals.  In 2022, I exceeded that threshold in Montana, which was the last of the Lower 48 states (and Washington DC) to reach the threshold.  Now I’m working on my Canadian province and territory lists to exceed their applicable thresholds.  To date I’ve exceeded the thresholds for Saskatchewan and Manitoba.  For AB, the total number of species on the official province list (per the Alberta Bird Record Committee) is 437; half of that total is 218.5.  That means my total is just 5 shy of that threshold –one more short trip to the province should do it.