April Migrants 2024

 I doubt I'm the only birder to say this, but spring is the best time of year to be a birder.  After months of House Sparrows and Black-billed Magpies, it is a relief to see something new.

The early migrants come through in April.  There aren't a lot of passerines among the early migrants, but there are a few, like this Dark-eyed Junco.  The Juncos are just passing through, but we usually see them for a few weeks in the spring.

American Tree Sparrows come through in April, too, but this year we didn't see a single one.  With migrants sometimes it is just a matter of being in the right place at the right time.  It's not as if the Tree Sparrows come to our patio like this junco did, and they don't stick around.  They are heading further north and seldom linger here. 

Horned Larks are also among the earliest birds to return north in the spring.  They can be seen at the edges of roads, often returning when there is still snow.  At first it seems as if there a dozen Larks in every mile of country road, but after a while they spread out or continue north.  We will see them right up till about August when they decide it is time to head south again.

Spring ducks are easy to see and come in bright colours.  Here we have a male Redhead and a pair of Ring-necked Ducks.  The Ring-necked is one of those birds that was named by someone holding the duck in hand.  Seeing the neck ring is a bit harder in the field.  We only see them in migration, they prefer to go further north to breed.

There are two scaup families that visit Saskatchewan.  The Greater Scaup shows up early, rests and eats, and continues north.  The Lesser Scaup does the same, but then some of them stay here to raise their babies.  I can't tell them apart. There are lots of suggestions about the shape of the head and the shading in the head colour, and even how much white is on the face of the female, but I still can't say which is which when I see them.   I've been told that the ones that visit Gardiner Dam in April are more likely to be Greater, which means these might be Greater.  But this is such an uncertainty that I won't label them as such.  All I can be sort of sure of is that the ones we see in June or July are Lesser Scaups.

There is no such problem with Buffleheads.  Nothing else looks like them.  The female is less distinctive as you can see, but she has the same head shape and the cutest little bill ever.  (By the way, these duck photos were all taken at Gardiner Dam and from a distance.  I have better photos but have decided to just include here photos taken in April of this year.)

Gardiner Dam is also a favourite spot for American White Pelicans.  These pelicans are not nesting. They don't breed until they are three years old, so I understand that the pelicans fishing below Gardiner Dam are younger birds.

We've been seeing Osprey at Gardiner Dam for many years.  There seemed to be at least two active nests when we were there this April.

Other early arrivals are gulls, like these Franklin's Gulls which stick around all summer and are frequently seen feeding in fields behind equipment.

California Gulls also breed in the lower part of Saskatchewan.

We get four or five species of grebes in Saskatchewan.  We have only seen four so far, as the Clark's Grebe is still unticked on our life list.  The fun thing about grebes is just as you look at them they disappear and it is anyone's guess where and when they will reappear.  This one is the Eared Grebe.

Shorebirds are also early migrants.  Gardiner Dam is not a great location to see them, but many different shorebirds can be seen at smaller sloughs as they pause on their way north.  Some of them will nest as far north as Alaska or the Northwest Territories. These three are distant Lesser Yellowlegs.  Hmm.  Wonder where they found that name?

I saved my favourite of these early migrants for the last.  The Great Blue Heron.  We can see individual herons almost anywhere during the summer, but there is one place we are guaranteed to see many, though only from a distance.

There's a Great Blue Heron nesting site at Gardiner Dam. These nests were already occupied on April 14 this year.  (This photo was taken from a road through a hay field using a telephoto lens and then cropped.)