Whooping it up in Saskatoon - October 3-14, 2013

[Randy]

I hope everyone is having a great Thanksgiving weekend. I'm currently waiting in the Saskatoon Airport to return to BC after about 10 days in Saskatoon. I managed to get a little bit of birding in while I was here. It's fairly quiet for songbirds here this time of year but the big international highlight in early October is the whooping cranes that come through. We are fortunate that their very narrow migration path centres on Saskatoon and only extends about 100 km on either side of the city, making it one of the best places in the world to view these endangered birds. Apparently there are currently about 250-280 birds currently in the wild.

Unfortunately I left my camera in my wife's car at the airport so I had to use my parents camera and didn't get too many good pics.

Last weekend I went for a drive with my parents and wife to view the thousands of sandhill cranes that descend on the fields around the city.




We managed to find one whooping crane in amongst one of the flocks, which was a nice treat. Unfortunately it was too far away to get a picture of.

I also decided to join the Saskatoon Nature Society on their annual whooping crane trip a couple days ago. We went to a location about 45 minutes out of the city where the whoopers tend to stop for a couple weeks around Thanksgiving. We managed to find 12 adults and 2 young. We got some great views through scopes but unfortunately my photography was limited by distance and the fact that I didn't have my own camera. I took a couple pics, including through a scope - at least you can tell what they are



2 adults and 1 young one here:


Through a scope:



Of course I couldn't resist taking some photos of local flavour:






I've seen whooping cranes before but I certainly can't see myself getting sick of seeing them. Pretty amazing birds.

More to come about some other sightings from my trip. Time to board my plane!

[oldfulica]

Brings back memories of Sept 21 2010 Randy. Is that the Muskiki area? Those fields look familiar. We saw 28 at that time and I believe 38 was the final total.

[Chris]

Very nice Randy. Like the second last shot.

Amazing how in 1941 there were only 21 in the wild and 2 in captivity. It's awesome they have rebounded, hopefully they will continue to do so.

[kestrel]

Awesome report! Fall is a great time to visit the Prairies.

[johnjoan]

Joan and I came across the largest group of Sandhills we have seen driving through the Sault Ste Marie area, but nothing like that. While in Saskatchewan we checked out Reed Lake (Morse) and Chaplan's Nature Center but it was also pretty quiet. You at least had a camera and didn't forget to put the battery in his like someone I know

John

[Randy]

Thanks for the comments guys!

Len, you're correct that this was Muskiki Lake. Correct me if I'm wrong, but from what I gather, groups of whoopers have appeared there for the past couple decades but birders have only recognized this site for about the past 5 years or so. Makes you wonder how many other similar locations there are out there in SK like this that are regular stopovers but not noticed.

[Gord]

John, I've been there re: cameras and batteries

Randy, excellent point about unknown sites that have high significance for wildlife. There's always lots to discover out there.

Great trip and well done seeing the Whoopers.