This morning, Tuesday, we decided to look for Whooping Cranes and other birds at the locations the birding couple at Wanuskewin had told us about yesterday. It was another sunny morning in Saskatoon. So after breakfast we set out, driving about an hour north of the city, to the area around Blaine Lake, Marcelin, and Leask. Once we got off the highway, all the roads were well-maintained gravel. We saw several road graders at work during the day.
We drove many kilometers along those roads, looking in the fields, ponds and lakes for birds. And found lots of birds, but no cranes at all, neither Sand Hill nor Whooping Cranes. What we did see was thousands upon thousands of Snow Geese on the fields, ponds, and in the air.
We also saw large flocks of Canada Geese, a few types of ducks, several Common Ravens, Black-billed Magpies, plus a few crows and Bald Eagles. We gave the cranes ample opportunity to show up as we drove and drove over the prairie, but they didn’t oblige us.
Yesterday we had heard about the Crooked Bush grove too, which is in the same area, so we stopped by to see it. It’s a small grove of aspen trees that have defied their normal upright, straight growth habit and instead are twisted and gnarled. Nobody has figured out why.
Much of the area we traversed today was agricultural and some of the crop was recently cut or still standing. We figured out that lots of it is canola seed, ready to harvest. Many other fields have rolled hay.
During our hours driving through farmland, looking for birds, we saw a mosque, an Orthodox church, and a few small Protestant churches in very small towns. The racial and religious diversity of the people we’ve seen in Saskatoon and Vancouver has left us feeling like Canada is much more diverse than the US.
Dinner was takeout from a Vietnamese restaurant tonight, since Dave is still feeling crummy from his cold.
