Catching up on a few things here and one of them is some of the large numbers of birds being counted at the Saskatchewan River Delta IBA around The Pas. Local volunteer Joel Kayer has been counting birds in this IBA since 2015 and birding the area, whether as an Atlasser or merely for the fun of it, a lot longer. This year he submitted some terrific numbers which I thought would be worth sharing. Please note, the numbers listed are just the large numbers of birds, not all birds Joel encountered.
9th May 2017
3757 Canada Goose
23,285 Mallard
2570 Northern Pintail
827 Ring-billed Gull
Northern Pintails are abundant in the Carrot Valley during spring migration. Photo copyright Christian Artuso
22nd April 2017
915 Canada Goose
912 Tundra Swan
11,599 Mallard
752 Sandhill Crane
1609 Ring-billed Gull
953 Snow Bunting
Sandhill Crane in flight. Photo copyright Tim Poole
April 30th 2016 (Tundra Swan only survey)
9,216 Tundra Swan
Imagine seeing over 9,000 of these Tundra Swans in a single day on migration? Copyright Christian Artuso
The latter figure is certainly a significant concentration of this species not only in North America but globally. The area around The Pas is known for its incredible wetland habitats and large concentrations of migratory waterfowl. Thanks to Joel for highlighting this for all those of us living in southern Manitoba!
Manitoba Important Bird Areas Program 