(Guest post by Bob Lefebvre)
On the (Canadian) Thanksgiving weekend in October, I was in Northern Alberta to visit family, and of course to do a little birding on the side. On October 9th I was driving, along with my brother and brother-in-law, through the town of McLennan, when we noticed that the edges of Kimiwan Lake, the local birding hotspot, appeared to be blanketed in white. Since it had not yet snowed and the lakes were ice-free, it was apparent that there were a lot of white birds out there.
I thought at first that they might be Snow Geese, but as soon as we got a little closer we could see that they were swans, and there were thousands of them.
Kimiwan Lake is a large, shallow wetland right in the town of McLennan, about 440 km northwest of Edmonton. It is internationally recognized for its importance to wildlife, particularly waterfowl and shorebirds.
There is an interpretive centre operated by the Kimiwan Lake Naturalists. A boardwalk winds around some ponds and extends well out into the marsh. This autumn the water level was low, and when we reached the end of the boardwalk we were still quite far from the main lake.
Below is the view (in the summer) looking out onto the lake from a point near the end of the boardwalk:
Looking back towards the interpretive centre:
On the October day that we were there, the entire edge of the lake was covered with swans, and this is a big lake. We tried to guess at the number, and came up with (conservatively) at least 10,000. The true number could be much higher, but it’s difficult to say. I assumed they were all or mostly Tundra Swans – they were too far away to properly identify (I didn’t have a scope with me), and it was too windy to hear any calls, but I’m not sure there are ever that many Trumpeter Swans in one spot.
As you can see from this next sequence, there were also a lot of geese on the lake, which would occasionally be put to flight by a passing raptor.
There were several Northern Harriers hunting along the shore:
We also saw a few Sandhill Cranes and a pair of Bald Eagles, but I didn’t get photos of those. I did capture some swans in flight:
At the northeast end of the lake there is a band of golden conifers – possibly indicating damage from the mountain pine beetle, which has been decimating the region:
If you’re ever in this part of Alberta in the spring, summer, or fall, it is well worth stopping off at Kimiwan Lake.
