Many Island Lake field trip Sunday for birding event with Grasslands Naturalists

Hatters will be travelling Sunday to Many Island Lake, north of Walsh, to participate in a birding field trip organized by Grasslands Naturalists.

The field trip is distinct from the official migratory bird counts the group puts on semiannually.

Corlaine Gardner, chief park interpreter for the Grasslands Naturalists, said the trip is a much more informal event.

“Bird counts are official events,” said Gardner. “We do a spring count and a Christmas count. Those work within a certain territory and with very strict guidelines on how you record the different number of species and the number of different birds of each species.

“Those records are kept from year to year, and because they’re done on a set format they are valuable scientific records.

“Field trips are great opportunities to get out, see what’s happening in the countryside, learn more, meet interesting people and just enjoy beautiful southeastern Alberta.”

Field trips aren’t restricted to birds, although Sunday’s event is focused on avians, she added.

“We do others looking for butterflies (and) wildflowers blooming. We do work-type field trips too, surveying for invasive species and GPS locating them,” said Gardner.

“There’s a whole range of field trips.”

Ben Velner, who’s leading this week’s trip and has been involved with Grasslands Naturalists for 30 years, said Many Island Lakes was a good choice due to its size and location.

“At one time, it was the biggest body of water in that part of the country,” he said. “Because it’s further east than where we are here, you get more migratory birds going towards Saskatchewan than you do Alberta.

“That’s the difficult part — where to go. Most people don’t know where to go.”