Purple Martin colony in Neepawa, en route to Riding Mountain
Credit: Jeff Wells
After more than a year in planning, I joined a group of 12 intrepid explorers from Audubon Pennsylvania in Winnipeg, Manitoba on June 1st for nine days of birding and learning more about conservation issues and successes in Manitoba. We drove three hours northwest to Riding Mountain National Park to start our adventure and despite an evening arrival at our lodging, our local guide, birder extraordinaire Cal Cuthbert, brought the group out in the last days of light in search of the elusive Great Gray Owl. We scanned fence posts and fields just south of the park for an hour until it was too dark to see, constantly serenaded by the beautiful whistled “Oh-sweet-Canada-Canada-Canada” song of countless White-throated Sparrows but without sighting an owl.
Birding at Clear Lake in Wasagaming
Credit: Jeff Wells
The next morning was our one full day for exploration of Riding Mountain Park (which is on the southern edge of the Boreal Forest region) and is almost an island of boreal habitat largely surrounded by agriculture. Before breakfast we did a walk around the little vacation village of Wasagaming. Blackburnian Warblers were everywhere, the males showing off their bright orange throats in the tops of the tall white spruces.
Blackburnian Warbler
Credit: Jeff Wells
One male Cape May Warbler gave us a quick look at his flashy yellow breast and reddish cheeks. A pair of Merlins, clearing nesting nearby, called and displayed while we watched them in our telescopes from point-blank range. Loud, boisterous Black-billed Magpies squawked and fluttered by. Scanning Clear Lake we were witness to one of the oddest things we had ever seen in the bird world. A breeding plumaged male Long-tailed Duck was on the lake which was an oddity in itself as the species breeds 500-1000 miles further north. We assumed it was just a migrant that had been grounded by the rainy weather that had been over the region until a few days before. But then the bird took things to a new level. It began displaying and calling to a female Common Goldeneye and aggressively trying to keep away the male Common Goldeneye that had been happily escorting her around the lake. We watched for at least 10-15 minutes as that Long-tailed Duck tried to drive away the male Common Goldeneye and show off for the female.
Here's a video of the very persistent (and likely confused) Long-tailed Duck:
