2004 Tour Narrative
We began this year’s Churchill and Southern Manitoba tour at Oak Hammock Marsh where there were, no doubt, more individual birds than at any other site we visited in Manitoba. Many of these were Franklin’s Gulls (our conservative estimate was 8000!) but there were also hundreds of other birds including four species of grebes, Wood Duck, American Avocet, Red-necked and Wilson’s Phalaropes, hundreds of Black Terns, dozens of Marsh Wrens, and hundreds of Yellow-headed Blackbirds. After an early dinner in Brandon, our evening outing began at Shilo Plains where we saw our first Upland Sandpiper, Marbled Godwit, and Chestnut-collared Longspurs among the many Western Meadowlarks. We ended the evening at Douglas Marsh listening to the bizarre sounds of American Bittern, Yellow Rail, and Wilson’s Snipe and had good views of Sedge Wren and Nelson’s Sharp-tailed Sparrow.
Day two began at Brandon Hills where, among countless Red-eyed Vireos, American Redstarts, and Clay-colored Sparrows, highlights were Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, Veery, Swainson’s Thrush, Scarlet Tanager and Indigo Bunting. We also got tantalizingly close to a drumming Ruffed Grouse but just couldn’t see it. On the way back through Brandon we had close views of a pair of Gray Partridge along a busy roadside. Our picnic lunch at Wassagaming was enlivened by several Blackburnian Warblers and a Yellow-rumped Warbler building its nest. After a midday siesta we took an afternoon drive to begin our exploration of Riding Mountain National Park. This was a very pleasant and productive outing with highlights including Three-toed Woodpecker, Boreal Chickadee, Blue-headed Vireo, Nashville and Black-throated Green Warblers, and our first of several Black Bears. The latter seemed to be feeding on this year’s bumper crop of dandelions. After dinner a twilight drive along Lake Audy Road produced wonderful views of a Ruffed Grouse strutting across the road. As it would turn out, all chicken-like birds seemed more abundant than usual this year.
We spent all of day three in the beautiful Riding Mountain National Park where birds were singing from virtually every tree and shrub. One of our first birds of the day was a cooperative male Connecticut Warbler which offered fine views as it sang from high in a spruce. Other groups apparently didn’t fare as well with this species which often arrives late. Another highlight was the Spruce Grouse displaying just feet away from us while a second displaying bird sounded like the distant rumble of thunder. The impressive diversity of birds we encountered at Riding Mountain included Alder Flycatcher, Hermit Thrush, 15 species of warblers including Cape May, Mourning, and amazing numbers of Chestnut-sideds and American Redstarts, Lincoln’s Sparrow, Purple Finch, and Rose-breasted and Evening Grosbeaks. In the evening we took a drive to look for Great Gray Owl - without luck - but had marvelous views of two dueling Sedge Wrens and our first Bobolink.
On day four, we spent a second delightful morning at Riding Mountain. In addition to hearing a Ruffed Grouse or two at nearly every stop, we saw another Three-toed Woodpecker, our only Black-backed Woodpecker, and a hybrid Indigo x Lazuli Bunting. We also heard our only Western Wood-Pewee, Brown Creeper, and Canada Warbler. In the afternoon we drove to Melita, stopping along the roadside for the occasional Swainson’s Hawk.
We spent the following day in the prairies and riparian forest in Manitoba’s southwest corner. The avifauna in this part of the province is very different from that at Riding Mountain so we saw many new trip birds. Some of the day’s highlights included two Ferruginous Hawk nests, a pair of Ring-necked Pheasants strutting across the road, a lek of Sharp-tailed Grouse, Loggerhead Shrike, Eastern Wood-Pewee, Brown Thrasher, many Sprague’s Pipits “skylarking”, and Lark and Grasshopper Sparrows. These highlights were among the countless Upland Sandpipers, Western Meadowlarks, and Vesper and Savannah Sparrows that make the priaries so full of life. The grounds of our hotel were also very birdy and provided some of our best views of Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers, Eastern Phoebe, White-breasted Nuthatch, Yellow-throated Vireo, and Orchard and Baltimore Orioles.
We continued to explore the prairies the next morning and found six Hooded Mergansers behind the hotel, a family of Great Horned Owls in a small copse of aspens, and our best views of Chestnut-collared Longspur. We also saw a migrating Blackpoll Warbler in very unlikely surroundings. We continued on to Whitewater Lake where we saw Cattle Egret and White-faced Ibis, both rare in Manitoba. As we headed back toward Winnipeg, our final stop of the day was Delta Beach. The willows along the shores of Lake Manitoba harbor one of the highest densities of breeding Yellow Warblers anywhere. Our estimate was 150 along a very small stretch of beach!
A new addition to our tour this year was a stop in Thompson. After the short flight from Winnipeg we landed in Thompson and headed out to Paint Lake Provincial Park. Our primary targets of the day, Cape May and Bay-breasted Warblers, were both numerous in the park along with Magnolia Warblers and the abundant Tennessee Warbler. Our other primary target, Philadelphia Vireo, was surprisingly common and we had fun comparing their song to that of the equally common Red-eyed Vireo. We also enjoyed several Bald Eagles, our only Common Terns, lots of Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers, and our only Olive-sided Flycatcher. At 5 PM we boarded the overnight train to Churchill. The scenery along the way was spectacular: spruce-aspen forest in the evening, then tundra and muskeg after dawn, all on low ground with abundant ponds and lakes. We saw a few birds along the way, most notably some 50 Willow Ptarmigans between dawn and our 8:45 AM arrival in Churchill.
When we arrived in Churchill we were greeted by a spectacularly beautiful day (the locals were all in shorts!) but an unusually frozen terrain. The Churchill River was solid ice down to the weir and several roads were impassible but the warm weather made it easy to stay in the field and we saw many nice birds. We began at the granary ponds where we had our only good view of Baird’s Sandpiper despite numerous distant birds and fly-bys later in the week. We also enjoyed our first Arctic Terns, Lapland Longspurs, and Snow Buntings as well as studies of Greater and Lesser Scaup. We then went to Beech Bay Road where we had stunning views of a Smith’s Longspur and a fly-by flock of Bohemian Waxwings. Then to Akudlik Marsh where, apparently, insects frozen in the ice was the best food source around for shorebirds. We enjoyed a gorgeous female Red Phalarope among the many Red-neckeds as well as close studies of Least and Semipalmated Sandpipers. We continued out Launch Road to Camp Nanuk and enjoyed delightful views of American Golden-Plover and Parasitic and Long-tailed Jaegers but decided to turn around where the road was partly washed out. Our final stop of the day was at the Billenduke’s feeders on Goose Creek Road where Harris’s Sparrow and Pine Grosbeak performed nicely (as they would each time we visited later in the week).
The weather was even more pleasant the next day. We spent the morning doing a “big sit” of sorts along the river at the end of Goose Creek Road. With a mix of ice and open water, the bird activity was excellent and we felt our chances for a Ross’s Gull were better here than anywhere else. Although we didn’t see a Ross’s, we did see two Little Gulls, 13 Sabine’s Gulls, a Black Tern (rare in Churchill), a Short-eared Owl, and a welcome morning flight of songbirds including many Yellow and Blackpoll Warblers, Clay-colored Sparrow (another local rarity), and several Smith’s Longspurs. Later, we stopped at Akudlik Marsh and had closer views of two Little Gulls as they fed over the marsh. On Launch Road we found a wonderful little spot with a pair of Hoary Redpolls, a Common Redpoll nest, a close view of a Harris’s Sparrow, and a cooperative pair of American Golden-Plovers. The Churchill dump, which had been virtually birdless the day before, had a good flock of gulls including eight Thayer’s and a Glaucous. There was also a flock of Ruddy Turnstones there, one of which sported a color band combination indicating it had been trapped at Port Mahon, Delaware in Spring 2002.
The following day was more like typical Churchill weather: cold and drizzly. Although we stayed warm in the van, an American Bittern huddled by the side of Goose Creek Road looked miserable. Still no Ross’s Gull along the river and less activity there overall. Beech Bay Road produced nice comparisons of Snow and Ross’s Geese as well as frustratingly distant flocks of shorebirds including many White-rumped and several Baird’s Sandpipers. At the dump we had more studies of Thayer’s Gull along with two Icelands for comparison.
By day eleven, the road to Twin Lakes had been plowed so we gave that a try. Along the way, we had a wonderful encounter with a male Hudsonian Godwit hovering in display right overhead. Although snow cover limited where we could go, Twin Lakes produced many birds including three Spruce Grouse, an amazing five Northern Shrikes, several friendly (or hungry) Gray Jays, a close Palm Warbler, many Blackpoll Warblers, and a nest-building female Pine Grosbeak. By the time we returned to Churchill, we learned that the first Ross’s Gull of the season had been seen by a boat party on the river. We quickly went to the end of Goose Creek Road and were fortunate to find another group with the Ross’s in sight. The bird was somewhat distant but gave nice views in the afternoon light as it fed on the river with Bonaparte’s and Sabine’s Gulls. The bird eventually flew across the river to the northwest and out of sight. On the drive back, we stumbled into our sixth Northern Shrike of the day, an astronomical figure for Churchill.
Our final day was another spectacular one. Without any real target birds remaining, we simply enjoyed the beautiful weather, exploring the boreal forest at Nodwell Trail and studying shorebirds, Arctic Terns and Little Gulls at Akudlik Marsh. After an early dinner, we took a 6:30 PM flight back to Winnipeg.
Michael O’Brien
Updated: October 2006