Gardiner Dam Birding Tour

Join me for a 8 hour driving tour from Saskatoon to observe raptors, songbirds and water birds that concentrate in this birding hotspot at all seasons of the year. Your guide has shown this area to many visitors. In late spring and throughout summer, we will watch for rare Piping Plovers and Loggerhead Shrikes plus nesting Great Blue Herons and Osprey. We should see Western Meadowlarks, Western Kingbirds, Swainson's Hawks, Marbled Godwits, Black-billed Magpies and many woodland songbirds. We also hope to hear the beautiful song of the threatened Sprague's Pipit as it flies high above the grasslands. In late summer and early fall, we will view the massing of over a thousand white pelicans that offer a great photographic opportunity. In late fall, winter and early spring, this birding hotspot comes alive with numerous Bald Eagles, Greater Scaup, mergansers and many other varieties of ducks and geese. Snowy Owls, Glaucous Gulls, Golden Eagles and Gyrfalcons sometimes occur here.

This driving tour out of Saskatoon will visit Danielson Provincial Park on Lake Diefenbaker where Piping Plovers occur in summer and a flock of Sharp-tailed Grouse is often found in winter. We will also visit the Gardiner Dam birding hotspot on the South Saskatchewan River, which is considerd one of the best birding spot in Saskatchewan in winter months and attracks a wide variety of birds at any season of the year. We may walk some trails in Coldwell Recreation Site looking for songbirds. In spring, summer and fall, we may also opt to visit the river overlook at Round Prairie Metis Cemetery as well as Broderick Reservoir where huge concentrations of Snow Geese and other waterfowl occur in fall. We can stop to pick up sandwiches for lunch or we can plan to eat at the renowned Terrace Dining Room in the village of Broderick.