Birdwatchers flock to Saskatchewan in spring
“REGINA- Saskatchewan
is never as true to its licence plate slogan ‘Land of the Living Skies’ as
during the spring migration of hundreds of bird species.
Stan Shadick has been birding for 54
years & said the province is unsurpassed, attracting enthusiasts from
across North America.
‘I can’t think of any place else
where you have such a concentrated migration of birds, both song birds &
waterfowl,’ he said.
Armed with only a pair of
binoculars, birders wait patiently in the prairie grasses to catch a glimpse of
a particular species…
Shadick organizes birding field
trips through the Saskatoon Nature Society & said it doesn’t take long for
novice birders to learn how to identify different species…
‘Bird song is even more useful than
sight for identifying birds,’ he said. ‘Learning bird songs is a very enjoyable
pursuit.’…
Kim Mann, 49, said she has been
birding across Canada since
she was a child but insists Saskatchewan
is special.
‘You have a whole bunch of different
environments in one province,’ she said, adding that it ranges from prairie to
grasslands to boreal forest. ‘It’s awesome for birding.’
She said last summer Regina
was visited by a Prothonotary warbler, which is a bird from the Louisiana swamps.
‘It was living here for at least a
couple of months,’ she said…
Because Saskatchewan is on the migration route for many
species, birds travel through the province from all over the world, Mann said.
‘We’ve had birds from Siberia, from
the northern Arctic,’ she said.
Shadick & Mann agree that one
highlight of birding in Saskatchewan is
witnessing the migration of the whooping crane, the tallest species of bird in North America.
‘That is a bird that nests in a very
small area just north of Alberta in the Northwest Territories,’…
He said the crane can be seen in
spring, but the best time to spot it is during fall migration.”
Clare
Clancy
THE
CANADIAN PRESS
The
Gazette, Montreal
April
11/2015
Cute Critter Pic
Weekly Chuckle
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