Saskatchewan Birds? (2 Viewers)

Have just moved to Saskatchewan and have been wondering where in the south east you can go to look for birds? So far ive just been driving along the backroads finding all kinds of ducks, but would like to find some more types! (Primarily to photograph)

Here's a couple of links to get you started

http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/SASK.html

http://www.wildbirds.com/FindBirds/...on/SaskatchewanBirding/tabid/189/Default.aspx

wow thanks!! we're hoping to get to the bird sanctuary thing (last mountain) some time this year.. but its like a 6 hour round trip.. or longer..

I know the feeling, we want to go to White Water Lake in S/W Manitoba but it would be a round trip of 5 or 6 hours.
If you go to a river or lake that is bordered with trees or bush you should see a variety of birds. I spend several hours a week just walking a trail that runs along the river just out of town. The vegetation is mainly trees with several clearings. What I see varies greatly, sometimes nothing and other times lots.
I've found you don't have to go to far from home to see birds.
If you put out a suet feeder and a black oil seed feeder you will likely be surprised at what shows up to feed in your own yard.
Happy birding

I looked up Manor SK on Google Earth. It looks like there are some streams and bushy areas a few miles S/W of town.
I was also surprised to see that you are actually a little closer to White Water Lake than we are. Just over 2 hours for you, according to Google Earth.
Here is a link, check out White Water Lake.
http://www.naturemanitoba.ca/birder/birdAreas.html

says almost 3 hours.. but that would be awesome.. right now with all the extra water, we just drive down the backroads.. see all kinds of ducks and wading birds ( my fav is the bittern and the ruddy duck)..
unfortunately we also see a whole bunch of small brown sparrow like birds that we cant identify.. which sucks.. i like having a list of the types of birds i see in a day..

Here are a couple of links, one for a book on Sask birds the other a list, with the list you can look up the birds on line to see pictures of them.
I made my own manual for Manitoba, copied descriptions, habitat, range maps, and pictures from different sources, pasted them all into Microsoft Word and printed it. Organized the manual by family. Works well, I think it is better for me than some of the books I've seen for sale.
Book:
http://www.virtualsk.com/current_issue/sk_birds.html
List:
http://www.naturesask.ca/?s=education&p=fieldchecklistofskbirds

I haven't seen a Bittern as yet, still hoping to make it to whitewater Lake.
Just had an Indigo Bunting visit our feeder, first time I've seen one.

Craig S said:

Here are a couple of links, one for a book on Sask birds the other a list, with the list you can look up the birds on line to see pictures of them.
I made my own manual for Manitoba, copied descriptions, habitat, range maps, and pictures from different sources, pasted them all into Microsoft Word and printed it. Organized the manual by family. Works well, I think it is better for me than some of the books I've seen for sale.
Book:
http://www.virtualsk.com/current_issue/sk_birds.html
List:
http://www.naturesask.ca/?s=education&p=fieldchecklistofskbirds

I haven't seen a Bittern as yet, still hoping to make it to whitewater Lake.
Just had an Indigo Bunting visit our feeder, first time I've seen one.

Click to expand...

i so have that book!! its our go to reference.. however we have found ones that are NOT in there.. so i also have the birds of canada, and birds of north america one to look through!
ive never seen a bunting.. but there are 2 bitterns nesting just down the road from us, so we usually head towards that area to get shots.. seen 3 types of grebes (pied billed, horned and eared), a bunch of wilsons phalarope, sora galore, and elusive virginia rail (posed for me once, now we cant get near it!).

Nice to have the Bitterns so close. I've seen most of what you listed other than the Bittern and Virginia Rail. We have a lake about 15 miles West of us, but, there is not usually a lot of water fowl or waders around. I've seen Snow Geese there on 3 occasions, other than that you see a few ducks, cormorants and twice a Blue Heron. We don't see as much there as we do around town, we generally go just for an outing.
Sunday we are going to Winnipeg to spend a night with family. We plan on going to the Fort Whyte Center. It is comprised of several old clay pits that are now lakes with bush and trails. It is a good outing and we see quite a variety of birds and water fowl.
You must have a lot of marsh around you, we don't have any to speak of near us.
My great grandparents were settlers in Claire, Sask, near Wadena. We have visited Sask many times over the years, but, sadly we have no family left in Wadena now. Sask is a great province with a lot of history.
I found the same sort of thing with the bird books I looked at and wasn't really satisfied with any of them. I found Manitoba Bird Listings at the Museum of Man and Nature and used their list to compile my own book. I also included male and female pictures of the birds. My book is binder sized, but the pictures are larger and easier to see and compare with what I've seen or photographed.

Here is a link to a good site to help identify birds or animals:
http://www.enature.com/home/

Here is a link to Birdpost.com, you can maintain a list of sightings and place your sitings on a map. You can upload pictures to their site as well.
http://www.birdpost.com/

well, its usually just fields, but with all the rain.. nice puddles and ponds on the side of the road.. seen all kinds of ducks.. ruddys, shovelers, green and blue winged teals.. canvasbacks and redheads...wigeons, gadwalls and grebes galore!
i usually come home with my new types of birds to identify and we go to the sask book first, then the canada and north america ones.. ive started printing out my photos and having them in a photo album.. that way i can see at a quick glance what we have seen..

You are fortunate to have all that water fowl so close. Best I see on my walks along the river are Wood Ducks, Mallards and Canada Geese. I have seen Sandhill Cranes and Snow Geese fly over during migration.
We once went to Oak Hammock Marsh, which is North of Winnipeg, but we didn't see much. All the waterfowl were further out in the marsh and would fly off before you could get within a few hundred yards of them. We have had better luck at Fort Whyte Center, which is much closer for us to go to.
What kind of camera are you using?
We have Canon DSLR's. We get some nice pictures and many that are not that great but are good enough to be able to identify the birds we have seen. We really enjoy our bird outings.
Manitoba has around 400 native birds or birds that come here to breed, I've seen around 175 of them and my wife has seen about 165. Some of the birds live in the north and we would have to travel to maybe Churchill to see them. Many pass through on migration but head far to the north to breed.
We see a lot of different birds as they migrate north but we never see them when they migrate south in the fall.

i just moved here from ontario actually, and we never see birds like this.. around here they say this is highly unusual as well..
im using a Nikon D3100, with a 55-200 lens.. i need a bigger lens! we get some great shots if the bird is within 30 feet or so.. beyond that, blurs.. hopefully enough to identify it, but not when theyre little brown smudges..
saw my first flicker and got a horrible blurry pic.. but enough that you can ID it, which is the important part i guess..
theres supposed to be a bird sanctuary place up past regina.. we're thinkin of heading there one day.. dunno much about it tho..

My wife has a Canon XS with a 70-300 image stabilized lens. After about 20 feet images start to blur as we shoot hand held. We have monopods and tripods but don't like using them. I have a Canon T1i and a 500mm mirror lens, which is a very cheap lens but it works well enough for me, I get some half decent shots, any other shots are usually good enough to identify what is in the shot. For what I paid for it I am quite surprised at the results I get. Next year I am hoping to get a Canon 70-300 L series lens and a 1.4x teleconverter, that would give me a lens of about 420m. That should put me in camera heaven.
My wife was using a 55-250 lens but wasn't satisfied with it, so I gave her my 70-300 to use and she likes it a lot more.
Nikon makes a good camera and have some very good lenses. If you can, spend the extra for a good Nikon lens.
Check out B&H photo, they are in New York but when you order from them the check out prices includes shipping, taxes and duty. Another place to check out is The Camera Store in Calgary, good prices, and only GST, shipping might be free. Buying a Nikon lens from the U.S. might be considered grey market in Canada and thus you would have no Canadian warranty.
Just got back from Winnipeg, had a good time with my brother, then went to Fort Whyte Center, hardly any water fowl at all. Lots of Swallows, like hundreds. We were there about 45 minutes and had to leave due to rain. Was a good outing other than the swarms of mosquitoes in the bush.
Hope you post some of your pictures, would love to see a Bittern and a Rail.
Don't know anything about the bird sanctuary near Regina, but we do love going to the Fort Whyte Center in Winnipeg, it is a sanctuary with several lakes and ponds with trails. I think I got a picture of some kind of Grebe there today, but it was really far off and I'm not certain how the picture turned out. There were a lot of Pelicans as well, but they were at the far end of one lake that is not accessible by a trail. Took some very distant shots of them but I'm certain they won't be very good.

yea i want the 70-300 or 55-300 next.. good thing i have a birthday coming up.
i posted a picture of the bittern.. the file for the rail is too big and it keeps saying the connection has timed out.. so i gotta work on that one..
my bf has the same nikon as me, but i have the bigger lens.. so when i upgrade he will get this one..
so far it works for the drivebys we do.. unfortunately, rain again has stopped me from going out the past couple days.. hopefully it will clear up in time for babies to make an appearance!!

Really liked the pictures of the Rail and Bittern.
Rain washed us out today too, thunder storms coming up from N Dakota over night, not certain if we will get out Tuesday.
Haven't looked at our pictures from today as yet, but doubt we got anything to post as all shots were pretty distant.

had a really good day yesterday.. saw like 10 new types..

tree swallows, scaups, bufflehead, a western kingbird i think, some type of sparrow (Savannah possibly), a possible sandhill crane that was WAY too far away..a red necked grebe, and 2 other really long beaked birds.. found one of them in the book but forget.. hope some of the pictures turn out so i can positively ID them!

and we're discovering bitterns everywhere now!

Those are some nice sightings. I think you are on the migration route of Whooping Cranes, that would be a nice catch.
Managed to get out 3 times this week, saw a few new birds. I am up to 179 birds now.
I am guessing your are shooting without a tripod. Even with a 70-300 lens after about 20 feet your shots are going to be iffy. If you are shooting from a vehicle you could use a bean bag draped over the window for support. If you get a 70-300 lens you should look into getting a teleconverter. A 1.4 teleconverter would boost you to about 420mm. I'm considering ordering a Kenko 1.4x tc from B&H for my 70-300IS lens. They are supposed to be pretty good. I have seen samples in the gallery of people using them and they get some good shots. Don't think it would be worse than my 500mm mirror lens. Don't mind the 500mm but in bush it is often difficult to find your subject as I have no zoom and can't zoom out to locate what I am shooting.
One thing I do to compensate for camera shake is I take a series of pictures, just keep my finger down on the shutter and get several pictures, usually one or two of them are better than the rest, works most of the time, particularly for the small birds.
Temp was over 17C last night so mosquitoes will be out soon, in fact went to fill feeders this morning and killed two.
The Bitterns must be nice to see, haven't seen one yet. Have you heard them call?
I lucked in a few days ago and had a Red Eyed Vireo land and perch about 10 feet from and pose nicely. Also saw an Eastern Towhee, we are on the western edge of their range. Both birds were firsts for me.
I'll be heading out again this morning, it's a great walk. The last few outings I could hear tons of birds, but with the trees and bush in full leaf they are really hard to see much less take pictures of. Second bridge on the trail is flooded again so my walk yesterday was only about half of what I usually do. Today I will wear rubber boots.
Hope you post some of your latest pictures, I will probably post a few later today.
This is my 3rd year of birding and I am really enjoying it.

yea im going to be upgrading lenses soon i hope..
ive seen those beanbags, they look awesome.. most of the time with me, its just that the birds are tooo far away! .. i have gotten quite lucky with some being right on the edge though..
i was able to ID all my birds.. the 2 long beaked ones are a willet and a godwit..
saw my first bobolink.. those are funny looking birds..
this is my first season bird watching.. i think ive photographed about 60-65 types so far..

You are certainly getting lots for your first year. I think I got about 75 my first year, but you are well on your way to surpassing that.
You sure are fortunate to have all those water fowl and waders so close by and in such numbers.
Next week we plan on going to a lake west of town, but, we seldom see much water fowl there, we see the occasional wader and we see wild turkeys quite often. It's a nice outing, but we see more birds around town than we see there.
This week was mostly Flycatchers and Vireos.

had a pretty good day yesterday.. saw a bunch of new ones, and quite a few favs.. some gadwalls (easily scared away birds, i dont think im ever going to get a good shot), geese with babies, bufflehead, bobolink, the (i think) lesser Scaup, an eared grebe, pintail, red necked grebe (3 doin the mating honking.. was funny).. mountain bluebird (i think.. blue back with white and orange front), mourning doves, wilsons phalarope, barn swallows, pied billed grebe.. then the old favs, mallards, shovelers, blue winged teals..

and new ones.. we saw a double crested Cormorant, what i believe is a vesper sparrow and a clay coloured sparrow, a bunch of northern harriers, spotted sandpipers, turkey vultures (3 circling.. too far to see the details, but the pink head showed up).. and a bunch of ravens or crows.. still dont know how to tell those apart

not a bad day... left the house at like 930, did nothing but drive around.. got home at like 330.. and saw deer, beaver, moose and muskrats on top of the birds!!