'A Slough of Birds' Saskatchewan Part 2

June 4 2013 Regina Beach, Craven, Saskatchewan.

A Slough of Birds

The second day of the 2013 road trip in Saskatchewan was one of driving around exploring new backroads in the hope of seeing a Sharp-tailed or Ruffed Grouse. Everyone I spoke to had seen 'Prairie Chicken' and suggested I take an early morning drive along just about any gravel road. Apparently they were everywhere. I drove and walked and searched but none were to be found, not even a tail feather, not a glimpse! I suppose it's a perfect excuse to plan another road trip sometime soon! 

However, I did see fifty-three species of birds including some goodies like Forster's and Black Tern Willet and Swainson's Hawk.  I'm sure any experienced birder could have achieved a much higher tally quite easily but I know that will come with time spent in the field.

What can one say out this little corner of Saskatchewan. It's amazing,very accessible and close enough from B.C. for a two week road trip and if you fly, less than an hour from Regina Airport. You could be birding that same evening. If you decide to drive don't forget to stop off at Chaplin Lakes to see the Piping Plover, Black-Crowned Night-Herons and flocks of American Avocets. While Saskatchewan has some of the best birding in North America, April or May are the prime times with the Fall being the best chance of seeing both Sandhill and Whooping Crane migrations. 

On a weather note both April and May can produce surprise snow storms so make sure you are well prepared and are able to hunker down for a few days while keeping warm and fed. You can still bird but the backroads can get difficult. That is how I came to see the Piping Plover last year. I had to shelter at Chaplin Lake and when the snow stopped I took a drive around the lake and within minutes found a single Piping Plover feeding in the shallows. 

A roadside portrait of a Wilson's Snipe (Gallinago delicata),  Regina Beach, Saskatchewan.

The Slough

• Slough, a stream distributary or anabranch, or in some cases, a regular stream.

More localized meanings of slough are:

• a muddy marsh in the British Isles.
• a swamp or shallow lake system with trees (Eastern and South Eastern United States).
• a secondary channel of a river delta, without trees (Pacific coast of North America).
• a pond, often alkaline, often a glacial "pothole" (prairies of North America (see Prairie Pothole Region).

A typical prairie slough in June. Note the cultivated fields behind.
Farmers are working with naturalists to leave a swath of wild grasses to ensure nesting birds are safe from tilling, ploughing and spraying. A slough like this in Craven will host numerous species of ducks, grebes, phalarope, and Yellow-headed and Red-winged blackbirds. Various sparrows including Vesper and Savannah while Meadowlarks, Bobolink, Horned Lark and sometimes Willet nest nearby.

Eared Grebe (Podiceps nigricollis)

Redhead (Aythya americana)

Wilson's Phalarope (Phalaropus tricolor) feeding on dragonfly larvae.

A pair of Willet nest close to a slough at Regina Beach hunt and for food in the adjoining fields and pastures.

Saskatchewan Road Trip Part 1

June 1 2013 Regina Beach, Craven, Valeport and Rowan's Ravine. Saskatchewan

The area around Regina is ideally situated for a great birding holiday. I returned from Churchill via Winnipeg and caught the overnight Greyhound bus to Regina, apart from renting an expensive one-way rental car it was the only way to get to my next birding area.
Regina and area (see map inset for location) is on the main Central flight path and provides great birding from March through to November. Ducks and geese arrive even when the ponds and sloughs are still frozen. One of the the highlights are the Whooping and Sandhill Crane flocks that pass through Rowan's Ravine area in April and May. The wide open fields offers food and protection as they make their way to Wood Buffalo Park to nest. During my early June visit the rearing process was already well under way.

American Pelican (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos) at Regina Beach. Regina Beach is where Regina should have been built and is at the southern tip of Last Mountain Lake. Clark's, Western, Pied, Horned, Red-necked and Eared Grebe can be found there.

Plan to spend a week here. Thirty minutes North-West of Regina there are hundreds of miles of birding. Rowans Ravine and campsite is at the Last Mountain Bird Observatory.

Brown Thrasher ( Toxostoma refum)
Finally a Brown thrasher that would trust me enough to get a few pictures. I was at Rowan's Ravine when I spotted a Brown Thrasher in the undergrowth, a bird I had never photographed. Later I found another pair in the hedgerows of the campground where they perched before dropping down to feed on insects and worms.

–

Bison used to roam this area prior to First Contact. From Yellowstone in the south to Edmonton and east to Winnipeg millions of Bison and  Pronghorn Antelope made an annual northward migration in search of fresh food sources. Sometimes called the 'Serengeti of North America'  the herds were followed by Grizzly, Black Bear and Mountain Lion.
 Then there were the birds, although numbers have decreased dramatically enough remnants population remain for us to study and enjoy. Fortunately nature has been resilient, some prairie species have decreased by 80% (Sprague's Pipit) while others populations like the Western Meadowlark and Horned Lark have adapted to the changing landscape. 

Baltimore Oriole (Icterus galbula) feeds on an abundance of insects at Rowan's Ravine. The campsite and surrounding paths and roads are a wonderful place to see many grassland birds. For those with a boat there is access to Last Mountain Lake with its Pelicans, Cormorants, Gulls and shorebirds.

Bobolink (Dolichonyx oryzivorus)
Driving between Rowan's Ravine and Regina Beach I always taken the road less travelled with the chance of seeing one of my favourite birds, the Bobolink.  Bobolink nest in fields and wet meadows and can often be seen sitting on barbed wire and fenceposts. The Bobolink has one of the longest migrations of all songbirds spending the winter east of the Andes in South America. Once common, their numbers have plummeted due to loss of habitat and hunting on migration. They once existed in the tens of millions.