In Search of Whoopers

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The whisper of the prairie breeze is suddenly disturbed by a loud, bugle-like trumpeting as a family group of three Whooping Cranes, their wings beating slowly and deliberately, fly just above the horizon to reach the edge of the lake northwest of Saskatoon. The area around Saskatoon is one of the most reliable areas on the continent to see the tallest bird in North America, the endangered Whooping Crane. This is also the perfect time to observe one of the world’s best birding spectaculars: the fall waterfowl and shorebird migration. We’ll see snow-white Tundra Swans with 2-metre wingspans and flocks of up to half-a-million Greater White-fronted, Snow, Canada and Ross’ Geese on their way south from arctic nesting grounds. The sonorous calls of the huge flocks of Sandhill Cranes will always attract our attention as they fly overhead to their nearby feeding grounds. Saskatchewan’s backcountry is the perfect place for our prairie waterfowl and wader spectacular.