Marten River—May 28

Today was an excellent day here at Lesser Slave Lake.  At 6:30 I arrived at the Boreal Center for the birding festival.  After a pancake breakfast there was a bird walk let by a woman name Margo who is with the Alberta Parks system and a very knowledgeable birder.  She was particularly good in birding by ear and I learned a great deal form here.  Our bird list for the morning totaled 44 species of which 11 were warblers.  I was a bit hesitant because it had rained all night and was still raining when I left the campground, but by the time I reached the center the rain had turned to a fine mist.  The walk was about 2.5 kilometers to the banding station and was a very pleasant experience. Along the way we had many singing species the most common of which was the Ovenbird.  We had nice looks at American Redstarts, a very cooperative Cape May Warbler, many Yellow Warblers, several Tennessee Warblers, Common Yellowthroats, one Magnolia Warbler and, of course, Yellow-romped Warblers.  At the banding station we were able to observe close up Swainson’s Thrush, Blackpoll Warbler, and a Canada Warbler.  In addition, there was a Hermit Thrush and the ever present Chipping-sparrow.  As I write this there are several Yellow-rumps singing near the campsite.  On our return to the Center they had hamburgers prepared and some very good coffee.  This was followed by a celebration of the 10^th birthday of the Center complete with a cake and singing happy birthday.  Then we were treated to a great presentation by Chris Fisher, one of the authors of Birds of Alberta and who is a trip leader for expeditions to Antarctica, Australia, New Zealand and other locations around the world.  He was excellent and I have recruited him to be a speaker in the future at the Laredo Birding Festival.  The day has actually turned out to be nice once again in the afternoon with the sun breaking through and hopefully it the rain will cease.  They have been very dry up here until the last week when they have had abundant rain.  Unfortunately, Fort Morgan where wildfires have displaced 80,000 people and destroyed their homes did not receive the rainfall here.  Fort Morgan is northeast of here and hopefully the rain is moving there to help get the wildfires under control.  I will be here tomorrow and will return to the banding station with my camera.  Sadly, the weather was too iffy to take it along on the hike this morning.