Archives for 2024

Hi there! I’m Nathaniel, one of the summer staff on this year’s Bird Species at Risk crew. Some of you may have already met myself and my coworker Kim! It’s been a packed summer travelling across Saskatchewan, connecting with landholders and our Stewards of Saskatchewan participants around the province! We started a busy stretch of travel in late June at Nature Saskatchewan’s Spring Meet in Saskatoon, which was a fantastic opportunity to connect with our members and celebrate our 75th anniversary. It was a weekend full of tours and presentations; I joined a group that went hiking for a morning in Pike Lake Provincial Park and then spent the afternoon getting a tour of the Northeast Swale from Renny Grilz and the Saskatoon Nature Society. We spent the day identifying birds and plants, enjoying the sunshine, and learning about the challenges the Meewasin Valley Authority is facing. They’re trying to conserve the invaluable biodiversity found at the Northeast and Small Swales while having to accommodate the construction of new neighbourhoods and a future freeway in the rapidly-growing city of Saskatoon. The weekend concluded with a delicious banquet meal, and presentations from one of our long-time members about the evolution of our journal, the Blue Jay. Following that was a presentation from Renny Grilz, who talked about the work that the Meewasin Valley Authority does, and their work to help create a new national urban park within Saskatoon.

Since then, Kim and I have spent a lot of time in southwest Saskatchewan, visiting with participants in our Stewards of Saskatchewan programming to collect their species-at-risk sighting information and answer any questions that they have about the wildlife on their land. We’ve also been signing up new people into our programs as often as possible, which for me has been an extremely rewarding experience. In mid-July, we spent 2 days conducting grid road searches for Loggerhead Shrikes, as part of a census effort led by the Canadian Wildlife Service. You can read all about that on Kim’s blog post from a few weeks ago!

With all the time spent driving in the southwest, I’ve been enjoying seeing a variety of species along the side of the road, both at-risk and not! Whether it’s Ferruginous Hawks, badgers, White-tailed deer, or Loggerhead Shrikes, it’s a treat to get to see so much wildlife in this unique part of the province. A personal highlight for me was when we saw a pronghorn chasing - yes, chasing! - a coyote away from her young. It was like something you would only see in wildlife documentaries, a moment that should have had David Attenborough’s legendary narration!

We also completed range health assessments on several quarter sections. The goal with those to identify, broadly, what types of vegetation that Sprague’s Pipits, a threatened grassland songbird, are using on the pastures where we find them. These specific health assessments were done in needle-and-thread dominated prairie, which, well – let’s just say “needle and thread” is an accurate name for the seeds of this grass! Our socks and shoes were covered with the sharp seeds, which often made for a few pain-filled steps before we could remove the dozens of seeds that imbedded in a very short time.

As the summer, and my contract at Nature Saskatchewan, comes to a close, I am grateful to the many, many stewards who have welcomed us into their homes and yards throughout the past couple of months. I have found the visits to be extremely rewarding, and it’s a pleasure to be able to learn about the land that they farm, from folks who care about wildlife conservation as much as I do. Protecting species-at-risk, and the habitat that they call home, is a team effort, and it’s been a privilege to travel across the province to work with our stewards.

photo: N. Hak