Reservations and prepayment are required on all Ventures. Your place on this Venture will be reserved when your deposit of $200 has been received. Please make your check payable to VENTURES, Inc. and send it to this address or call the office with your VISA or MasterCard #.
Limited to 10 participants.
Churchill, a small town on the Hudson Bay in Manitoba, Canada, started out as a fur-trapping and trading company in the early 1700’s, and grew into a small port when the railway came through in 1929. Nowadays Churchill has become famous among birders for its combination of spectacular migration of birds towards the Arctic and because of easy accessibility to the northern breeding species.
A visit to the bleak tundra of Churchill will be a highlight of our visit to Canada, but there’s much more to offer the visitor. Here too are wide-open prairies, a vast wilderness of mountains and lakes and bird-rich wetlands. Our visit will coincide with the peak of migration, and we should see many birds passing through on their way further north. These should include Hudsonian Godwit and Red-necked Phalarope and the beautiful Little Gull. Ross’ Gull has become difficult to see over the past few years, but we still have a very good chance to see one. The birding here is unforgettable and this variety of habitats from Arctic waters to boreal forests and seemingly endless prairies will give us a chance to see an excellent of northern and boreal species in this spell of Arctic springtime.
We finish the tour with 3 days in the prairies in southwestern portion of Manitoba. Here we will enjoy the wide open spaces as we look for Baird’s Sparrow, Sprague’s Pipit, Chestnut-collared Longspur, Upland Sandpiper and other prairie species.
Leader: Simon Thompson
$3295 per person from Winnipeg, based on double occupancy. (Single supplement $475)
Price includes: All accommodations, internal air, van, boat and train transportation, all meals, service charges, entrance fees & gratuities (except for leader/guide), information packet & bird check-list, leader/guide service.
Not included: Air travel to Winnipeg, alcoholic beverages, laundry, and any other items of a personal nature.
Great Gray & Short-eared Owls, Ross’s, Sabine’s, Little & Thayer’s Gulls, Parasitic, Long-tailed & Pomarine Jaegers, Hudsonian Godwit, Stilt Sandpiper, Spruce Grouse, Willow Ptarmigan, Red & Red-necked Phalaropes, Connecticut & Mourning Warblers, Mountain Bluebird, Boreal Chickadee, Pine Grosbeak, LeConte’s & Harris’s Sparrows, Snow Bunting. (A full birdlist will be sent out upon registration)
You may wish to arrive in Winnipeg the day before in order to explore the city or rest before the tour starts. Just let us know your plans.
Day 1 - Friday, July 2
Our Venture starts in the city of Winnipeg. After
transferring to our hotel, we will have an orientation talk and a group dinner.
Night in Winnipeg D
Day 2 – Saturday, July 3
We will start our trip by heading east into the boreal forests along
the Ontario provincial line. This is one of the richest areas for Neotropical
warblers and thrushes. Blackburnian, Magnolia and Nashville Warblers are common
and along certain forest edges there seems to be a singing Mourning Warbler
every few meters. The haunting songs of Veerys and White-throated Sparrows echo
through the spruce woodlands and Ruffed Grouse scratch for gravel along the road
edges. Add spectacular wildflowers and the chance for Black Bear and we should
have an excellent day today.
Night in Winnipeg BLD
Day 3 – Sunday, July 4
The early morning will be spent at Oak Hammock Marsh, a network of
wetlands and marshes not far from Winnipeg. Here, the noise from the large
colonies of birds makes for a fantastic experience. Franklin’s Gulls,
Yellow-headed Blackbirds, Black Terns and a host of ducks steal the show. We
plan to have lunch at Delta Marsh before heading towards Riding Mountain
National Park, where we plan to arrive in the late afternoon.
Night at
Clear Lake Lodge BLD
Day 4 – Monday, July 5
Riding Mountain National Park is a forested
wilderness that has to be one of the richest places for birds in Canada. This is
an excellent place to see Great Gray Owls, Black-backed and Three-toed
Woodpeckers, and Spruce Grouse. We will search for these specialties of the
boreal forests, as well as hope to find a good selection of warblers, such as
Golden-winged, Nashville & Blackburnian.
Night at Clear Lake Lodge BLD
Day 5 – Tuesday, July 6
We will spend the morning birding in Riding Mountain National Park and enjoying
the spectacular scenery. Our prime objective will be to see any boreal forest
birds that we may have missed over the past few days. Great Gray Owls breed in
the area and we will search carefully and see if we can find any of these very
large birds. Both Common Loons and Red-necked Grebes breed on the lakes, as does
a good selection of ducks. We should see Common Goldeneye, Ring-necked Duck,
Common Merganser and many more before we start to leave these habitats and head
back to Winnipeg.
Night in Winnipeg BLD
Day 6 - Wednesday, July 7
This morning we will head to Winnipeg airport to catch our flight to Churchill.
Churchill has its own unique atmosphere and we will spend the full day exploring
the area. Ducks will be everywhere and should include Black, Surf and
White-winged Scoters, Common and King Eiders, Goldeneye and Long-tailed Duck.
Arctic Terns, Sabine’s Gulls and both Parasitic and Long-tailed Jaegers will be
patrolling the sky, while shorebirds, such as Red and Red-necked Phalaropes,
Hudsonian Godwit and Stilt Sandpiper should be displaying. The star of the show
has to be the exquisite Ross’s Gull, and we will make a special effort to find
this uncommon bird amongst the numerous Bonaparte’s and Herring Gulls.
Night
at Aurora Inn BLD
Day 7 - Thursday, July 8
Today will be another full day in the Churchill area. As well as looking for and
enjoying the incredible avian display, we will be looking for species not seen
the previous day. We will spend most of our time in the Twin Lakes area, where
we may find Harris’ Sparrow, Northern Shrike and Pine Grosbeak. A sunset along
Goose Creek Road will be a fitting end to the day, and we stand a good chance
for additional boreal species in the stunted Black Spruce forest.
Night at
Aurora Inn BLD
Day 8 - Friday, July 9
The
morning will be spent birding on the Coast Road, where we may get Horned Larks
and American Pipits, as well as White-crowned and Savannah Sparrows. Bird Cove
offers excellent shorebird opportunities as they feed on the rocks and tideline.
A special trip today will be on the water, as we take a whale watching trip to
look for Belugas or White Whales. We may also find Ringed, Harbor or Bearded
Seals as they launch themselves out onto the pack ice.
Night at
Aurora Inn BLD
Day 9 - Saturday, July 10
After birding this morning, we will leave Churchill and fly back to
Winnipeg. We will then pick up our van and continue on with our 3 day Prairie
sojourn down into the SW corner of Manitoba.
Night in Brandon BLD
Days 10 – 11 (Sunday, July 11 - Monday, July 12)
The next 2 days will be spent in the remnant
prairies along the Saskatchewan Provincial Line. Here we hope to see Sprague’s
Pipit, Gray Partridge, Baird’s Sparrow, Upland Sandpiper and Chestnut-collared
Longspur.
We plan to return to Winnipeg to spend the night on the evening of Jul 12, so plan to fly out early on July 13.
This itinerary may change depending on weather, flight times and other conditions