Saturday 29th August 2015 was our first bird migration blitz at the North, West and East Shoal Lakes IBA. 14 people made their way from WInnipeg, Gimli and further afield to take part. Tim Poole shares some memories and photos from the mornings birding. 

A perfect morning for counting birds. Photo copyright Garry Budyk

Mist. Oh dear! Not the most auspicious start to the mornings birding activities. Surely things will improve soon?

Driving along West Shoal Lake, the mist hovering over the water, a Belted Kingfisher flies across the front and as the organizer, I am getting a wee bit concerned. Soon Garry Budyk and John Weier will be here to start counting and I haven’t got a didgeridoo (clue) how things are going to go. Apparently it took about an hour after our 7am start for Garry and John to get going. But things did improve (as evidenced below).

John Weier thinking of lunch? Photo copyright Garry Budyk

John and Garry would eventually be able to count good numbers or birds. in fact they managed to record 78 species and almost 1600 individuals. The section of West Shoal Lakes is a fantastic place for seeing ducks and shorebirds, even more-so in spring than fall.

Good duck habitat. Note the trees at the back of the photo. This is the boundary of the lake when water levels were a wee bit lower. Photo copyright Garry Budyk.

The IBA was split into 7 survey sections, 4 to be accessed by vehicle, 1 by boat and 2 on foot.

14 people scattered in cars, foot, even a boat across the area. Optics galore and (from the evidence of the photos here), some rather good photographic gear. For anyone unfamiliar with the area, the Shoal Lakes IBA is in the Interlake area near Inwood. Originally this was a great place for Piping Plover but high water levels make it currently unsuitable for these rare birds. instead there are waterfowl aplenty, blackbirds, shorebirds and even the occasional Least Bittern (see here). Donna Martin is caretaker for this IBA and was also responsible for gaining the two donations which are funding these fall blitzes. Beforehand the big job was to recruit volunteers and provide maps of the survey sections which you can see to the left.

Donna was teamed up with Ray Methot and covered the north and west sides of North Shoal Lake. There were a fair few shorebirds in the area and another Least Bittern darted away.

I dropped Matt Gasner in rubber boots to walk across the washed out parts of Provincial Road 415, where he would meet Christian Artuso halfway. The following photos and captions are all from Christian and along with the captions tell the story of their birding highlights and endeavors along the flooded highway.

Common Yellowthroat: There were many migratory warblers counted, presumably some migrants mixed with local-born Common Yellowthroats in the 54 I counted (before I joined up with Matt and there were many more after that).

Greater Yellowlegs: we are deeply grateful to team yellowlegs for assisting in assessing the depth of water over the flooded road! No incidents occurred, other than a few wet pairs of socks.

One of 18 Virginia rails seen or heard, including many juveniles

One of 51 Soras seen or heard, including many juveniles trotting about in the open (plus more after I joined up with Matt)

The marsh seemed to be teeming with Northern Waterthrushes (this is one of 38 I counted by myself plus more again after I joined up with Matt)

Matt Gasner counting egrets, waterfowl and shorebirds along the flooded PR 415

While Christian and Matt were wading across an old highway, I was exploring another nearby road which might disappear at any moment. Needless to say, the mist reappeared before the road disappeared! I did manage one major achievemnet; that of getting the wettest feet of the day while trying to wade across a flooded section of road. I still managed to find 419 American Coots and 400+ ducks in the surrounding wetlands. Unbelievably, even though I eventually waded to the lake shore, I failed to enter the IBA! Later I would meet up with Christian and Matt counting another section with Semipalmated Plovers (37), Semipalmated Sandpiper (3), Least Sandpiper (2) and a single calling Long-billed Dowitcher.

While all this was going on, we had Bonnie Chartier roaming East Shoal Lake with Cam Meuckon from Manitoba Conservation on a boat. Special thanks to Cam for offering his time and the boat for the morning. Birding highlight? Scoters, ’nuff’ said!

Map of Cam’s and Bonnie’s route. Note how they seemed to spend most of their ‘boat trip’ on land especially to the north and east! This goes to show how much greater the water levels are now compared to where they were in the past.

Joanne Smith, Bill Rideout and Peter Douglas surveyed the eastern side of North Shoal Lake. They had the distinction of seeing a rather special couple of waterbirds….

Yes, that’s right Trumpeter Swans. No, er, Tundra Swans, er, Tumpeter or is it Trundra Swans? Ok, they were Trumpeter Swans. Note the size difference with the adjacent Canada Geese, the long straight beak and lack of yellow on the lores below the eye. Photo copyright Bill Rideout

Apparently these guys must have started really early judging by this photo of the moon.

August is not known as a good time to do nocturnal owl surveys but that didn’t stop our intrepid surveyors from trying. Photo copyright Bill Rideout

One nameless member of the group spotted a Big Black Bear (new acronym BBB). Stoooooooooooooooooooop’ he/she yelled, ‘I see a bear’. The other group members turn to look but only see a field of cows. Admit it, we’ve all managed to confuse a cow and a bear!

Big black bird aka Common Raven. Photo copyright Bill Rideout

Again there were hosts of birds and much confusion to be found; yellowlegs, terns, ravens and warblers among a host of others.

Bill claims that he would have ‘bet the farm’ on his identification of this Cooper’s Hawk. Er, it’s a Merlin. Photo copyright Bill Rideout

A Yellow Warbler with half a face. Photo copyright Bill Rideout.

Greater Yellowlegs and the close resembling Lesser Yellowlegs were the most abundant shorebird on the day. Photo copyright Bill Rideout.

Unfortunately this Forster’s Tern is displaying winter plumage. Is it trying to tell us something? Photo copyright Bill Rideout

Bonaparte’s Gull were the more numerous gull species on the day. The prairie breeding Franklin’s Gulls have long left leaving more northern breeding gulls in their stead. Photo copyright Bill Rideout.

Everyone loves a kingfisher! Photo copyright Bill Rideout

Another fantastic shot showing the eerie damp, misty start to the day. Photo copyright Jo Swartz

Jo Swartz, Liis Veelma and Betsy Thorsteinson were our East Shoal Lake road team. They managed to achieve another birding highlight by hearing the secretive Yellow Rail calling very early on. Other birding highlights were Pectoral Sandpiper and American Pipit, the only group to locate these species on the blitz. I should apologise for sending this group up some pretty ropey roads looking for access points to the southern end of the lakes. Sorry!

Just before 1pm, a trail of us began to turn up at Rosie’s Cafe in Inwood for a late breakfast/brunch/lunch to share experiences and locations for a couple of species (the Trumpeter Swans were certainly revisited).

Thanks to everyone mentioned above for giving up your weekend to help out. The next blitz is on Saturday October 3rd. If you are interested in coming along for the ride please let me know at iba@naturemanitoba.ca.

We were obviously very happy with our efforts in Southwestern Manitoba earlier this summer. After a bountiful number of blogs, Facebook and forum posts we have also managed to make the front cover of the latest newsletter from Nature Manitoba. So click here to read the last article from the summers adventure. I promise.

Of course, after Saturday we will turn our attention to bountiful articles and blogs describing our Shoal Lake Bird Blitz.

We recently submitted an article to the Melita New Era describing our Southwestern Mixed-Grass Prairie IBA blitz. You can view it by clicking on the link below.

Melita New Era IBA article

Tim Poole, Manitoba IBA Coordinator, gives us the rundown on happenings post Melita Banana Day.

Once the banana split had been consumed, the table put away, what else could we do but find some birds! There are 2 IBA’s in this part of southwestern Manitoba, one being the grassland IBA which includes the town of Melita and the other is the famous birding hotspot at Whitewater Lake.

At this junction it is worth noting that the Southwestern Mixed-grass Prairie IBA is also a great place for migrating wetland birds. It is after all part of the prairie potholes region of Manitoba with abundant small wetlands scattered across the area. Early August is also the height of the shorebird migration season where the summer breeding shorebirds (Marbled Godwit, Willet, Killdeer, American Avocet, Wilson’s Phalarope, Upland Sandpiper) have already moulted and began their migration. These are gradually being replaced by boreal and Hudson Bay shorebirds. Early August is a good time to catch both groups of shorebirds and over the course of the afternoon Christian and I certainly managed to do this.

American Golden Plover. Photo by Christian Artuso

As I mentioned previously, there are many great wetlands within this IBA and most species recorded within the IBA boundary are birds more associated with wetlands than grasslands. My personal highlight was seeing the American Golden Plovers, a lifer! It was great to finally see this species in the flesh having encountered many a Eurasian Golden Plover when out and about in the uplands of Scotland in my former life. If you take some time to check out the excellent Manitoba Breeding Bird Atlas website (here) you will see that this species breeds on the soft tundra of the Hudson Bay lowlands.

In total we encountered 81 species within this IBA and counted a whopping 1960 individuals. This included 9 species of waterfowl (386 individuals), a disappointing 160 American Coots (see later as to why this figure is deemed disappointing), 45 Pied-billed Grebes, 19 species of shorebird (389 individuals), 272 Black Terns and 250 blackbirds.

Onward towards Whitewater Lake. One thing that struck us even just outside Melita were the number of White-faced Ibis encountered. This species is a relatively recent arrival in Manitoba (see the fantastic ‘The Birds of Manitoba‘ for history of this species in Manitoba prior to 2003). In fact prior to this date there had not been a confirmed breeding record in Manitoba.

There are a few things you should read ahead of visiting Whitewater Lake. The first is an excellent trip report from Christian Artuso from a trip taken to Jo Swartz a couple of weeks ago (see see here). There is also an excellent piece in the Manitoba Cooperator (here). To give a bit of background, back to Christians blogpost and here is a great extract describing the background to the booming population of White-faced Ibis:

The viewing mound with road collapsing. Photo copyright Christian Artuso

‘Whitewater Lake is a closed basin and has alternated from periods of being bone dry (a few decades ago) to being flooded well past its former shoreline as is the current situation. When I arrived in Manitoba in the early 2000s, the lake was slowly filling back up again and was very shallow at that time. I remember when the whole basin had a shallow layer of water, that the shorebird flocks numbered in the tens of thousands. I recall watching with friends as a Prairie Falcon put up a massive and dense cloud of shorebirds. Then by the mid 2000s, as the lake was getting deeper and the emergent vegetation growing tall in many areas, the lake seemed transformed from a shorebirding destination to a site for rare long-

Broken dyke wall at Whitewater Lake. Photo copyright by Christian Artuso

legged waders. In 2006, Ron Bazin and I confirmed breeding of White-faced Ibis in Manitoba for the first time and many rare herons began appearing more and more regularly. In addition to the White-faced Ibis, Great Egrets and Cattle Egrets established colonies and Snowy Egrets were eventually confirmed breeding by Ken De Smet in 2011. All this high water and the great fetch of the prairie winds eventually breached the dyke structures that were built to create cells in the southeastern corner of the lake, such that by 2014 they were “united” with the lake and the cattail beds largely drowned out. The road to the main viewing mound is collapsing and is not currently safe to drive. The shorebirds are no longer as concentrated as they used to be and water logged fields one or two miles from the lake are mow the best places to look for them. Although these areas are not currently within the IBA, some of the wetland-upland complexes around the lake represent important ephemeral habitats that host great diversity and concentrations, as well as high productivity.’

Eurasian Collared Doves in, er, Deloraine Manitoba. Photo copyright Christian Artuso

Before hitting Whitewater we stopped in the nearby town of Deloraine for gas and food and for what felt to me like the daftest bird of the day. Eurasian Collared Dove is something I have seen my entire life in Europe where I was born and raised. To see it in the middle of Manitoba sitting on the top of a street lamp was a pretty surreal experience. Even more surreal was hearing that they were originally introduced to North America via the Bahamas of all places.

Finally Whitewater Lake and not much introduction needed to the situation regarding high water levels after Christians great background piece. The highlight ironically of this part of the day was not even a wetland bird. Prairie Falcons breed in the badlands of Saskatchewan and Alberta and head over to Manitoba post breeding. 

The reminder of the afternoon was cut short by the need to get home at a decent time but it would be worth pointing out the numbers recorded in a rushed effort to see as much as possible. Unfortunately many of the birds we encountered are no longer in the IBA because the current high water levels extend way beyond the IBA boundary. This is unfortunately a by-product of setting up our IBA boundaries for wetland sites when water levels across the province are much lower than they are currently. However in total we were able to count 11726 birds representing 82 species. Of these we encountered the following:

• 5672 waterfowl representing 13 species incl. 1820 Mallards and 1179 Gadwall
• 540 grebes representing 5 species incl. 2 Clark’s Grebe near the viewing mound
• 61 herons and allies incl. 36 White-face Ibis
• 3026 American Coot
• 550 shorebirds representing 17 species including northern breeders
  Red-necked Phalarope and Hudsonian Godwit. This paled into insignificance against Christians previous week total of 3123 American Avocets, indicating that a) we covered a lot less ground and b) many of these birds have already migrated
• 468 gulls and terns
• 1050 blackbirds

Cabbage White Butterflies were an abundant food source for birds including Black Terns. Photo copyright Christian Artuso

It’s also worth noting that Birdlife International have changed the name to ‘Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas’ and an emergence of Cabbage White Butterflies was providing great entertainment for insectivorous birds, especially the acrobatic Black Terns. Although Cabbage Whites are an introduced species, it was still a great example of how birds rely so much on the whole ecosystem for resources.

Finally a massive thanks to Christian for the company and guiding on a long day on Saturday.

Christian Artuso, Whitewater Lake. Photo by Tim Poole

Another day, another trip to the southwest corner of Manitoba for some Banana-themed fun. Tim gives the lowdown on the morning

Saturday saw Christian and I take another trip to the Manitoba banana belt, a rather a-peeling place to be. Apart from the world’s largest banana statue right in the heart of Melita, there are not really many bananas to be seen but the climate is relatively warmer in summer than the rest of Manitoba, hence the name ‘banana belt’.

View of the Sunny and Breezy from our table. Photo by Tim Poole

Now Melita has a very joyful looking Banana in the centre of the town called Sunny. Sunny is joined by his friend Breezy the Blue Jay. And what does it say on Breezy’s t-shirt? IBA! Because this is an Important Bird Area and the town itself cherry-ishes this not just with the statue but also with banners on Main Street proclaiming it as the ‘Grassland Bird Capital’ of Manitoba. This is of a course a peach of an area when it comes to birds and, well we could not manage a trip to the southwest without seeing a few birds on the way.

Melita Legion Hall chimney where Chimney Swifts have been recorded breeding for the very first time. Photo by Christian Artuso

The most important record for the day came from Christian who managed to confirm the first ever successful breeding of a pear of Chimney Swifts in Melita (an entry/exit cycle was observed in the Legion Memorial Hall  chimney and young were heard calling). A second plum bird sighting from the Banana Days was of a Swainson’s Hawk swooping at a Golden Eagle, some sighting at this time of year! The journey down also did not disappoint, with a sub-lime combination of birds from the Pectoral and Baird’s Sandpipers, Grasshopper Sparrow, berry large flocks of blackbirds and good number of Mourning Doves.

Anyhow, I digress and it should be made clear that birdwatching was not our priority on this occasion. We had a grape morning speaking with a number of people, both young and old from from Melita out to Boissevain (and probably further than that). People came for the family fun (bouncers, games, crafts) and probably in a fair few cases, the free banana split! The guys over at the Manitoba Burrowing Owl Recovery Program were great company on the adjacent table especially Koko the Burrowing Owl, a star attraction if ever there were one (http://www.mborp.ca/).

Tim Poole at the IBA stand before people arrived. Photo by Christian Artuso

Our aim was to promote the Grassland Bird Initiative and the IBA Program in this area. As we blogged earlier this summer (see here; here; here), this area is important for its areas of native mixed-grass prairie and associated bird species. We believe that landowners and local communities are vital to conserving both this habitat and the special birds. Our presence on a Saturday morning is a reflection of this view and we hope in the future to increase our efforts in this regard. Apple-y, it would seem that many people agree with this view by the stream of visitors to our table.

On a separate note, Marshall Birch our summer Green Team Program Assistant has now left the program after his funding ended. We would like to thank Marshall for his enthusiasm, great blog writing and terrific work ethic over the past few months and wish him also all the best with his future plans.

Next we made a trip to Whitewater Lake but that is a story for another blog.

If you are peruse these pages back far enough you will see some fantastic photos in a post about Least Bitterns at the North, West and East Shoal Lakes IBA from Donna Martin (see Least Bittern). Donna is our Caretaker for the IBA and spends many hours each year monitoring, putting up signs, building nestboxes and watching out for the site.

Donna and I are planning a couple of fall migration bird blitzes in August and October across the Shoal Lakes. Essentially groups of birders will be counting birds early morning in sections of the IBA. We might even have a boat available for some nautical counting in areas which are less accessible from the land. Below is a summary of the plan:

• Early Migration Count: August 29th (reserve day is the 30th). Sunrise is around 6:39 so expect to begin 30 minutes before this time
• Late Migration Count: October 3rd (4th reserve). Sunrise is at 7:42 so again expect to begin 30 minutes beforehand
• Number of teams: 5-6 cars. Each car to have 1 scope and a GPS (IBA Program will provide GPS if required)
• All data to be added to eBird under the IBA Protocol. I am happy to enter data and share with you if this makes things easier for you

We will meet up for breakfast after each count. I was planning to go to Rosie’s Cafe in Inwood as this is one of the closest available places in the area. The North, West and East Shoal Lakes IBA received a generous donation via Donna which means we can pay for breakfast to thank everyone plus provide some remuneration for fuel.

Please email me at iba@naturemanitoba.ca if you are interested in coming along for the fun on either date

All the best and happy birding!

Tim

Christian Artuso is the chair of the Manitoba Important Bird Area Steering Committee, Coordinator of the Manitoba Breeding Bird Atlas and all Bird Studies Canada Projects in Manitoba. On Sunday, Christian visited Whitewater Lake with Jo Swartz, another of our IBA volunteers, and has produced a terrific blog on his personal website – http://artusobirds.blogspot.ca/2015/08/surveying-whitewater-lake-iba.html.

Enjoy!

IBA Program Assistant Marshall Birch tells a tale of boatin’ n’ birdin’.

3:30 in the morning is not a time I would usually choose to wake up, but if it means I get to ride around in a boat and stroll on a beach instead of being in the office for a day, I’m in. This was the agenda for July 7^th, when Tim and myself would be heading to the Riverton Sandy Bar IBA to meet up with caretaker Joanne Smith for a tour around the IBA. This would be Tim’s first visit to the IBA, and while I had seen it last year, it was in quite different shape this summer. Water levels were lower, meaning quite a bit more of the area was above water. What could this mean for bird populations? We aimed to find out.

Riverton Sandy Bar IBA labelled on map.

We had planned to meet Joanne and her husband Dave at the junction of Highways 8 and 329, just West of the town of Riverton, at 6:30, and we had both actually managed to get out of bed early enough to beat them there. This left us some time to explore the exciting boomtown that is Riverton. In particular, we were interested in catching a glimpse of their famed “Lundi Moose,” Riverton’s town statue (every town in Manitoba needs one, right?). Sure enough we found it, surrounded by a nice assortment of Robins and Warblers singing in the trees. “Lundi,” meaning “grove of trees” in Icelandic, was the original name of this settlement along the Icelandic River, which feeds into Lake Winnipeg. We headed back to the highway to find Joanne and Dave with boat in tow, and followed them back through Riverton to a dock on the Icelandic River. There had been some speculation that the water might be a bit too rough for boating, but things seemed pretty calm so we headed out. We followed the river out to Lake Winnipeg, or more specifically, to a bay on the West side of the lake that is surrounded on the North and East sides by Hecla/Grindstone Provincial Park. To the South is a long sandy bar jutting out from the main land, which has historically reached all the way to Hecla Island at times. It is this bar that gives the IBA its name, as it is here that much of the bird species are found.

A flock of pelicans. Photo by Joanne Smith.

A sand bar also reaches out from the Southwestern point of Hecla Island towards the main land, with little islands poking out between the two bars, though the strip no longer spans all the way across. We headed straight across to the Hecla side first, as it is contained within the IBA, and because it was the smarter/safer boating route to take (I think?). Despite viewing from a distance in a somewhat rocky boat, we counted around 100 American White Pelicans, 150 Franklin’s Gulls, 40 Ring-billed Gulls, 35 Common Terns (including 3 fledgling young), 20 Herring Gulls, 2 Bonaparte’s Gulls, and about 25 other gulls that were likely Herring or Ring-billed, but which we were unable to identify for certain.

Myself, Dave, and Tim havin’ a look around the sand bar. Photo by Joanne Smith.

Following this we headed West to the sand bar which was attached to the mainland. There were a few sandy islands near the tip of the bar itself, and it was here that we found the largest numbers of birds – over 200 Herring Gulls, 24 American White Pelicans, 13 Double-crested Cormorants, along with one Bonaparte’s and one Ring-billed Gull. We were able to pull the boat on shore and hop off to explore the bar by foot. Not wanting to disturb the larger flocks, we headed a ways down the bar before pulling in. There were less species here, but we were able to get a good look at the habitat and check for signs of nesting. Several nests were found, but they looked like they had been abandoned, quite possibly due to a loss of eggs following heavy storms the previous weekend. Aside from the previously mentioned birds, we identified two Common Goldeneyes, one Song Sparrow, one Red-winged Blackbird, three Common Grackles, and one Common Tern, which seemed agitated by us, suggesting a nest nearby. Also of note was a heavily picked-on beaver carcass. What’s a beaver doing on a sand bar anyways? We figured it was washed up, or maybe even carried there by an Eagle or Hawk.

Manitoba IBA Program Steering Committee member, Bonnie Chartier, hammering in a sign warning visitors of nesting birds. Photo by Joanne Smith.

We hopped back in the boat and trawled along the marshy coast for a while, hoping to see something of interest. For a moment we thought we saw a couple of shorebirds in flight, but they disappeared into the tall grasses before we could get a good view of them. Next we thought we spotted the head of an interesting species of waterfowl poking out of a clearing in the marsh. It looked goose-like but was oddly fully grey. Even stranger was that it seemed to be able to keep perfectly still, despite us moving in closer for inspection – an inspection that revealed it to be a grey, plastic goose decoy. We were left to question all we had known to be true, as Dave took us back to the Icelandic River. Before getting back to the dock we were able to spot an Orchard Oriole singing from a tree along the banks, as well as four Barn Swallows, which seemed to be living in a big old fishing boat that had been hauled on land. Boat Swallows?

Herring Gulls with chick. Photo by Joanne Smith.

Joanne and Dave hitched up the boat and we headed East of town on the 329, to the main entrance to the IBA. We ignored a gazebo inhabited by Barn Swallows (we’d already seen some that day, and Joanne had been watching them throughout the year), left Dave to do some fishing, and took a stroll down the beach. Due to the lower water levels, the entire sand bar was walkable – last year much of it was underwater. We walked down to about where we had parked the boat on the bar earlier, seeing a nice assortment of birds on the way. We identified one of each of the following: adult and immature Bald Eagle, Sora, Double-crested Cormorant, Canada Goose, Purple Martin, and American Goldfinch; along with two Barn Swallows, two Cedar Waxwings, three Marsh Wrens, four Yellow Warblers, five Song Sparrows, and five Red-winged Blackbirds.

Common Terns. Photo by Joanne Smith.

To our disappointment, we also saw plenty of ATV (all-terrain vehicle) tracks, along with scattered litter (mostly beer cans). The species that nest on this sand bar are in an unfortunate position – if water is high, people aren’t able to easily access and disturb the area, but their nests may be washed out; if water is low, their nests are generally safe from inundation, but they face the risk of being trampled by feet or crushed under vehicle tires. Whether disturbance of the sandbar in this manner reflects a lack of concern for nesting species, or simply a lack of awareness of them, it can and does do real harm to these birds. This harm is reflected in diminishing numbers of many species, which have been recorded over the past several decades – a notable example being the provincially and nationally endangered Piping Plover, which has not been seen at the Riverton Sandy Bar since 1991. While the sandy bar faces threats just as any habitat near to human settlement will, it remains a thriving home to many nesting and migrating birds, and is well worth a visit to anyone interested in seeing large flocks of waterbirds while enjoying a fine day on the beach.

Program Assistant Marshall Birch recounts the his first trip of the summer with the Manitoba IBA Program.

We’d been in the office for a couple of weeks, and with our trip to the Southwestern Manitoba Mixed-Grass Prairie IBA a few weeks away, Tim decided we should get out for a day to visit a nearby IBA. Today we’d be visiting what is likely the province’s most well-known IBA, and a generally popular place for birding and nature outings of all kind – Oak Hammock Marsh. There was no specific goal for the day, but its always worthwhile to periodically stop in at some of the local IBAs to take a look around. In addition, I was getting a bit of a refresher on bird counting, as this would be my first official trip out with the IBA Program since last summer.

Directions from Winnipeg to Oak Hammock Marsh

For those unfamiliar with the site: Oak Hammock Marsh lies about half an hour North of Winnipeg, between Highways 7 and 8, or about midway between Stonewall and Selkirk. The marsh has been restored and managed since the 1960’s through a partnership between the Federal and Provincial Governments and Ducks Unlimited Canada. Today it boasts an extensive system of walking paths, an interpretive centre, and a cafe, helping to make it a popular destination for conservationists, school field trips, birders, nature lovers, and anyone who wants to get out of the city for a day. The marsh is semi-artificial, having water levels in separate cells being controlled with pumps. These levels are cycled to mimic natural conditions, and oftentimes one part of the marsh will present an entirely different habitat from another. While the main paths near the parking lot and interpretive centre are the most popular, the site is far more extensive than the area most visitors see, including grassland habitat to the North.

Killdeer. Photo by Donna Martin.

We headed out on a sunny morning on June 3^rd, arriving before too many groups of school children took over the trails to run and shout and frighten away the birds. On pulling into the parking lot we were met with a pair of Yellow-headed Blackbirds, an Eastern Kingbird, and most interestingly, a couple of Killdeer protecting their nest. They seemed a little stressed out, but they may have brought that upon themselves by placing their nest directly on the path to the boardwalk, which is likely crossed hundreds of times a day by visitors and workers. It was symbolically protected by a couple sticks surrounding it and marking it out. I reminded myself not to step there on the way back.

Northern Harrier. Photo by Christian Artuso.

We started along the short boardwalk towards the first observation mound which leads to the Cattail Trail. Along the way were a good sampling of marshy passerines, either seen or heard: Sedge Wren, Savannah, Song, Swamp, and Clay-coloured Sparrows, Yellow Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, Brown-headed Cowbird, and Alder Flycatcher were all identified. Way on up we could see a good amount of American White Pelicans soaring about (we counted around fifty by the end of the day), along with a few Northern Harriers.

Wilson’s Phalarope. Photo by Tim Poole.

We continued to the fist observation mound, known for the Swallows which nest in the gazebo (primarily Barn Swallows, but also a few Bank and Tree Swallows were seen), and its Ground Squirrel colony. From there we followed the Cattail Trail between Cell 1 and the Coot Cell, and further on between Cell 1 and Cell 2, all the way over to the East observation mound. On either side of us was fairly high water, which meant the majority of our sightings were of waterfowl: Mallards and Canada Geese galore, as well as good numbers of Gadwalls, Blue-winged Teals, Northern Shovelers, Redheads, American Coots, and Wilson’s Phalaropes, a few Lesser Scaups, Ruddy Ducks, Soras, Wood Ducks, and Ring-necked Ducks, one Pie-billed Grebe, and one Eared Grebe.

A couple Marbled Godwits. Photo by Christian Artuso.

Further off in the distance of Cell 2, shallower water made good foraging territory for a fairly large group of shorebirds, primarily dominated by Stilt Sandpipers, with a few Marbled Godwits, Willets, and Baird’s Sandpipers scattered about. Other species of interest included Ring-billed Gulls, Black Terns, and of course, more Red-winged Blackbirds than you could shake a stick at. Finally, upon reaching the East observation mound, we spotted a Bobolink – the first I’d ever seen. This seemed like a good enough reason for me to go celebrate with lunch at the interpretive centre, so we headed back. On our way we spotted a large flock of shorebirds circling about. They were difficult to identify in flight from such a distance, and when they finally came down they were primarily out of our view. Tim suggested I go eat while he chased down the flock to see what we were dealing with. I headed back to find that the cafe was closed due to some issues with their water supply, so I got myself a vending machine orange juice and hunkered down to watch a couple of Barn Swallows take turns sipping from a water fountain and battling each other (it was pretty entertaining). Tim arrived with news that the flock seemed to be primarily White-rumped Sandpipers, though there was also a Dunlin in there, and since he wasn’t able to see all of them, the flock were simply recorded as “shorebirds” – around 600 of them.

Bobolink. Photo by Christian Artuso.

Following this, we drove North along Highway 220 to see what else the site had to offer. Here I’d thought the Oak Hammock Marsh was all, well, marsh. Not so. A turn on the 220 takes you West then North along a stretch of tall-grass prairie which contrasts with the marshier areas that most visitors are familiar with. We stopped and got out periodically to survey and found seven more Bobolinks, as well as eleven Savannah Sparrows, a couple Clay-coloured Sparrows, a Western Meadowlark, a few Yellow-headed Blackbirds, an Eastern Kingbird, and a pile of Red-winged Blackbirds. We drove to the Northern limit of the IBA, to a bridge swarmed by its own assortment of Swallows – this time primarily Tree Swallows – before heading back in hopes of beating rush hour.

All in all a fine day was had – we got out of the office, did some bird counts, explored an area of the IBA that I hadn’t been familiar with, and somewhere in there I had a pretty tasty apple. I was prepared for Southwestern Manitoba now.

Tim Poole, Manitoba Important Bird Area Program Coordinator, describes the final day of the Southwestern Mixed-grass Prairie IBA weekend.

So thanks Marshall for the fantastic trip reports from days 1-3 of our southwestern odyssey. After our 2^nd Chicken Chef of the trip, Garry, Bonnie, Ken and Marshall departed on long journeys. This left Christian and me in the company of Colin and Karla for the remainder of the day. At this point I managed to introduce the others to a favourite pastime of mine – driving aimlessly around small towns looking for something. We were searching for the Antler River Historical Society Museum having been given reports of Chimney Swifts entering the chimney. Originally I intended to go in the evening but by this point, tiredness had caught up with everyone and I decided just to take a look instead.

Returning to Tilston, it was time to take a rest. Downtime is also a great excuse to explore and I took a walk through the town. Tilston has an interesting history. Apparently it was once a bustling town with a station on the Canadian Pacific Railway. The town is now much smaller than at its peak, the school has been abandoned (http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/sites/tilstonschool.shtml) and derelict houses have been demolished. The large grain elevators and other farm buildings are still a sign that this is old arable country which contrasted a bit to the prairie pastures further east and south.

Wetlands surrounding Tilston are home to an abundance of birds and other wildlife. Photo by Tim Poole

The storm clouds were gathering over Saskatchewan and North Dakota by mid-afternoon and heading our way. There remained a fair few birds around including Say’s Phoebe, Sora, Western Meadowlark, blackbirds and various waterfowl. Soon after the rumbles of thunder and flashes of lightning were over us and it was time to retire to a dry building.

Sora, a common species of rail heard whinnying frequently on wetlands around Manitoba. Photo by Tim Poole

The combination of storm, tiredness and the fact we had seen pretty much everything there was to see meant that we avoided any further birdwatching that night. The following morning Christian and I set off early for a visit to Whitewater Lake IBA. This was my first visit to this site apart from during the depths of winter and I was excited by the prospect of seeing some of its rich birdlife and getting to find out a bit more about one of Manitoba’ best known IBA’s.

It had been mentioned by various people that Whitewater Lake had expanded somewhat since the original IBA boundary had been determined. It is well known that we are currently experiencing a period of high water levels across Manitoba, maybe not quite the resurgence of Lake Agassiz, but still, enough to significantly alter habitats over a wide landscape. The area outside the IBA is currently very important for birdlife, with large bodies of temporary water, small wetlands, muddy scrapes for shorebirds and temporary pools in the middle of agricultural fields in abundance. There were also a number of Ducks Unlimited signs highlighting Conservation Easements and Wetland Restoration Projects. It was pretty obvious that the last few years must have hit local farmers hard, with entire arable fields now under water or covered in cattails rather than arable crops. It’s amazing to see how quickly nature will re-establish itself when the opportunity presents itself.

Part of the western end of Whitewater Lake which would previously have been a combination of agricultural field and wetland. Photo by Tim Poole

Unfortunately at this point I should say that I doubt we managed to get as far as entering the IBA itself. The main viewing mound to the south is now inaccessible and the roads were too tricky on the day due to the heavy overnight rainfall, to enter on either the north or west. Ironically from a birding point of view, this would not matter so much but from the point of view of our Caretakers Colin and Gillian, this must be frustrating. The area as I previously mentioned was teeming with birdlife. The highlights for me, still so new to Canada, were 2 lifers. The first being the White-faced Ibis. These colonial nesting birds are relative newcomers to Manitoba having only begun to appear as the water levels began increasing during the last 10 years. My 2^nd lifer was a California Gull which is a rare breeder but more common visitor to Manitoba.

Not a California Gull or Ibis maybe but this Virginia Rail peeked his head through the grass at Whitewater Lake IBA. Photo by Tim Poole

Other species of interest included cracking views of a Virginia Rail, a pair of Upland Sandpipers, Great White Egret, American Bittern, Great Blue Heron, Ring-necked Duck, Swainson’s Hawk, Sora, 4 species of grebe, Willet, Avocet, Marbled Godwit, Wilson’s Phalarope, Brown Thrasher. In total 71 species in just a short visit and a great introduction for me for this IBA. It did occur to both of us though that we might need to look at that IBA boundary again at some point.

We left Whitewater and headed north towards Highway 1. We took a quick detour to look for the Field Sparrow north of Souris and secured my 3^rd lifer of the day in the process. Field Sparrows are another vagrant which usually breed in the eastern USA as far north as southern areas of Minnesota and North Dakota. This particular bird has been in this spot the last couple of years so he obviously likes it! We also had great views of Lark Sparrow and a further 30 species. Back on the road and heading for home via the Sioux Valley to look for Yellow-breasted Chat, another Manitoba rarity. This time, for the first time all weekend we were unsuccessful. It was pretty windy and we wondered if on a better day we might have heard it. Since then Garry Budyk and John Weier managed to hear one in that spot, so obviously we missed out!

Field Sparrow in song. Photo copyright Christian Artuso (http://artusophotos.com/)

Then it really was heading home. At this point I wanted to thank everyone for making this weekend a success, landowners, volunteers, Christian (driver and birdwatcher extraordinaire), Bonnie, Garry, Colin, Karla, Ken, Marshall, Alex, Colin and Gillian. Carrying out single day IBA blitzes to census bird populations is likely to be an important tool to increase the area covered and accuracy of our IBA monitoring. Watch this space for more news on this front in the future.