Bird Watching: Chaplin Lake, SK, a Western Hemispheric Shorebird Reserve, 1 by Lilypon

Lilypon wrote:
You're very welcome Tigerlily. :) Come spring the skies over Saskatchewan turn black .... we always grin when we see the V's of the Canada Geese (winter is finally over ;):

" As home, migratory stop and breeding ground, Saskatchewan hosts over 25 percent of the continent's ducks and geese. In the summer season, swans and sandhill cranes flock to the province by the millions. Saskatchewan also is one of the best places on earth to view rare whooping cranes, magnificent white birds bordering on extinction. The Canadian Wildlife Service hosts a Whooping Crane Hotline (306-975-5595) for reports on the latest sightings.

Beginning in May, waves of migrating birds stop down in Saskatchewan to rest and feed before continuing on to breeding grounds farther north."


However I often forget how many other species of birds fill our skies come spring and are also returning to rest &/or breed. This is a partial list of the birds that have been recorded in counts at Chaplin Lake:

American Avocet
Baird’s Sandpiper
Black-bellied Plover
Buff-breasted Sandpiper
Dunlin
Hudsonian Godwit
Killdeer
Least Sandpiper
Lesser Golden Plover
Lesser Yellowlegs
Long-billed Curlew
Long-billed Dowitcher
Marbled Godwit
Pectoral Sandpiper
Piping Plover
Red Knot
Red-necked Phalarope
Ruddy Turnstone
Sanderling
Semipalmated Plover
Semipalmated Sandpiper
Short-billed Dowitcher
Spotted Sandpiper
Stilt Sandpiper
Upland Sandpiper
White-rumped Sandpiper
Willet

Shorebird surveys conducted by the Saskatchewan Wetlands Conservation Corporation and Environment Canada's Canadian Wildlife Service revealed that over 30 species, with a peak count of 67,000 birds in a day using the lake.

Here's a picture I posted a couple of years ago (be sure to click on the thumbnail). It shows only a small part of the mega V of returning Geese. There were hundreds of mega V's like this one filling the sky that day.