Very early this morning, Brian, Mike and I set off for a
location north of Beaverhill Lake to chase down a lead we had on a Sedge Wren. Gerald Romanchuk had provided us with an exact
location, even daring to suggest we would hear and even see our bird right from
the roadside. Experience has led us to temper our optimism on such occasions
but today we had no need to worry! We arrived at the designated location and even
as we climbed out of the car we could hear two Sedge Wrens singing energetically
nearby. We spotted the closest of the two immediately and were able to get a
couple of decent pictures.
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| Sedge Wren |
We started our long journey south right away, making a short
cruise along the south side of Beaverhill Lake before carrying on to Rochon
Sands Provincial Park on the south shore of Buffalo Lake. One of our field
guides suggests this is a good site for Franklin’s Ground Squirrels. This is a bushy-tailed relative of the more common Richardson's Ground Squirrel but it is increasingly rare in Alberta. We spent a
pleasant hour having lunch and exploring the park, picking up several bird
species but no ground squirrel. We decided to ask about them at the Park Office
where a very helpful gentleman assured us they were not only present in the
park but also in the village just outside the park. We spent another half hour
looking around the park but to no avail. We were ready to call it a day and
head for Calgary, but as we left the park and made our way through the adjacent
village we suddenly caught sight of one just twenty feet away. It very quickly
disappeared into someone’s garden but not before we all had a brief glimpse and
even managed a quick picture.
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| Franklin's Ground Squirrel |
Getting both a new bird species and a new mammals species on
the same day is going to be a very rare event for us in Alberta from now on. A
very productive trip indeed!
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