FOAM LAKE BIRDING
No. 175
My hiatus from writing these articles lasted a lot longer
than the couple of weeks that I had anticipated. A combination of medical problems will do
that to a fellow. To top it all off I
have trouble reading my own handwriting at the best of times but after cataract
surgery it is a real challenge to say the least (My first copy is hand written). Anyway, here goes.
In the last week of June my wife and I took a five day
trip through the grasslands in southern Saskatchewan
starting in the east at Roche Perce and ending up in the west at the Cypress
Hills. Of course visits to the east and
west blocs of the Grasslands National Parks were a must. We did not see any lifers but saw many birds
that are more or less endemic to that area.
I did not have a good picture of a Swainson's Hawk but I got a very good
one this time. Hawks are skittish in
general but these two Swainson's were completely unconcerned as we stopped the
car, backed up a bit, rolled down the window, poked out the camera and took the
pictures. This week's picture clearly
shows the white chin, belly and breast with the rest being a dark brown.
The locals told us that there had been almost a foot of
rain this spring and it showed.
Everything was a luxuriant green, all depressions were filled with water
and cattle grazed in belly high pasture grass.
Recently the federal government decided to get out of the
community pastures business and turn it all over to the provincial
governments. The provincial government
of Saskatchewan
does not want to manage the pastures and is developing plans to sell/lease the pastures with
restrictions as to their use and development.
A sizable group of conservationists wants the lands left in public
hands. Now we have two opposing points
of view with strong support on both sides of the issue so a bit of a dust up is
sure to follow. Also, the debate has
spilled over beyond Saskatchewan's
borders. When we stopped for lunch at a
recommended restaurant in Val Marie we happened to bump into Margaret Atwood
and her long time partner and renown birder, Graeme Gibson. Both were supporting the group that wants the
community pastures left in public hands.
It will be interesting to see how it all shakes down in the end.
We left Val Marie for a bed and breakfast near
Eastend. After a good night's sleep and
breakfast we headed for the T-Rex museum perched halfway up the bank of the Frenchman River
Valley overlooking the town of Eastend. Save for the front the whole building is
built into the side of the bank of the Frenchman River
Valley. It is really a cave with a fancy front and
well appointed interior that only a federal government could afford to build. There is no fee only a silver collection but
the film and guided tour are informative.
Of course what would any museum be if it did not sell souvenirs - in
this case fuzzy dinosaurs.
The last day we spent in the Cypress Hills. The hills are good for rarities like the
Bobcat (not Lynx) which is not found anyplace else in Canada. There are about a half dozen birds here that
cannot be found anywhere else in Saskatchewan. I have been fortunate enough to have seen
three such species- the Dusky Flycatcher,
the Macgillivray's Warbler and the Red Naped Sapsucker. All three are common in the Rockies
but are found only in the Cypress Hills east of there.
Although this article is short on birds I do hope some of
you who have never been to the southern part of our province make a point of
seeing it. It is a whole different but
very interesting world out there.
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