Back in 2020 there were numerous reports of a lone Whooping Crane in a farmers field in Camrose County (central Alberta). This is about 1000 km away from its usual breeding territory in Wood Buffalo National Park, so all the local birders were twitching away! This was summer 2020, which was the peak of COVID restrictions. That August, myself and two friends decided to look for it, separately in our own cars (remember social distancing?!) Lucky for everyone, the bird really didn't move around too much that summer, and was pretty easy to spot, being close to 1.5 metres tall. The crane remained quite far out in a farmers field, so we only really got good looks through our binoculars. It felt really special to see such a rare bird, which only a few years ago was nearly extinct.
The story of the Whooping Cranes is one of cautious optimism. In the 1940's, the birds were almost driven to extinction because of overhunting and habitat destruction. It is thought that there were less than twenty birds left at that time. Through serious conservation efforts in both Canada and the United States, there are estimated to be over 800 birds now. The largest breeding population of Whooping Cranes spends its winters on the south coast of Texas and its summers in Wood Buffalo National Park (which straddles Alberta & the Northwest Territories). This group is referred to as the Aransas-Wood Buffalo Migratory population.
In Canada, the only places to reliably see Whooping Cranes are on their breeding grounds or during their migration. The birds breed in Wood Buffalo National Park, which is extremely inaccessible to the general public, so people generally head to central Saskatchewan in the fall to see them while they are migrating south for the winter. The birds spend a few weeks grazing in farmer's fields in September and October before heading south.
Fast forward to 2025, when a friend and I decided to go looking for more Whoopers, and since we had no plans of attempting Wood Buffalo National Park, we headed east to Saskatchewan. While we could have probably figured out where to look for the birds from eBird reports, we both preferred hiring a guide. There were a couple of short birding tours available (Eagle-eye, Meadowlark) but the timings of those tours didn't work for us. After looking further online, we did find a local Saskatoon company that offered a few different tours. We ended up choosing Stan Shadick, who volunteers with Living Sky Wildlife Rehabilitation and offers day and multi-day tours throughout Saskatchewan. A bonus of booking with them is you can receive a tax receipt for part of your tour, as he donates his time for the charity.
We scheduled our tour during the Canadian Thanksgiving long weekend so we would have some extra time to spend a night in Saskatoon prior to the tour. Stan called earlier in the week to see if we might want to reschedule, as the forecast was for strong winds and rain/snow on the weekend. He reassured that the Cranes would still be visible, but the roads might get a bit messy, so we decided to stick with our original plan.
Saturday morning we left Edmonton headed to Saskatoon. My friend and I both love road trip adventures, and we always try to find fun local places to check out the journey. Our first stop was in Vegreville at the
World's Largest Pysanka (Easter egg).
While
Wikipedia seems to think that the Pysanka Museum in Ukraine has the world's largest Pysanka, these claims do not seem to be mirrored anywhere else. The Vegreville pysanka is 9 metres (>25 feet) long and weighs over 2500 kg (5000 lbs), and is super impressive as the largest or second largest in the world!
Next stop was for some road trip snacks at
Only Sourdough Bakehouse & Pizzeria in Kitscoty. We tried their cinnamon buns and everything bagels. Both were delicious- my only regret was not stocking up on more goodies to take home. They are open limited days and hours, so check their facebook page before heading over.
Our first stop in Saskatchewan was in Battleford, to see Canada's largest baseball bat at the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. The museum was closed when we stopped there, so we really just stopped to get a photo with the giant bat. As far as giant roadside attractions go, I wouldn't rank this as a must-see, but was pretty cool anyway.
While driving to the giant bat, we noticed a sign for Fort Battleford National Historic Site. Neither of us knew anything about the site, but we decided to detour to take a look. The site was also closed for the season, so we resorted to google to learn some history of the area. I am ashamed to say that I knew nothing of the events that took place here prior to my visit. While originally Fort Battleford was a central military base for the North-West Mounted Police, it played a central role in the North-West Rebellion of 1885. It was here that eight indigenous men were hanged for their role in the rebellion, in what is now Canada's largest mass hanging. I do encourage you to read more about the history- local historian
Craig Baird/Canadian History Ehx has some great podcasts if you're interested in learning more. While all of the interpretive buildings were closed, we still found the grounds very moving, and the history of the area was palpable.
We finally rolled into Saskatoon just before dinner. As the largest city in Saskatchewan, it was definitely giving Edmonton vibes, with many of the same architectural details. It was very warm out, almost 15 degrees, so we took advantage and enjoyed a river valley stroll before dinner.
When we woke up the next day, the weather had fully turned. It went from almost 15 degrees on Saturday to just above zero Sunday morning. Also as expected, it was raining/sleeting and was super windy. We headed out to pick up our tour guide Stan just before 8. On the drive out to find the cranes. Stan shared a lot of conservation history, as well as some stories collected leading these tours. It took just over an hour to see our first Whooping Cranes, and in all honesty, they were not too hard to find! Giant white birds on the brown prairie do stand out.
The first group we saw was actually close to a large flock of Snow Geese, and they were quite far out in the fields- we needed a scope or binoculars to really get good looks. Stan insisted we stay in the car, even when the birds were very far away- he wanted to ensure that we never stressed the birds.
All of my photos look "noisy" as it was alternating between pouring rain and almost snowing, if you look close you will see the graininess is actually rain drops! It was downright miserable this day, the wind felt like ice, and I had to constantly change positions of the car so that the wind wasn't blowing right into whichever window was open.
On a very muddy back road, where we almost got stuck, we lucked out with seeing a couple groups of Whooping Cranes much closer to the road. It was so neat to see families, with many pairs having a colt (first year crane) with them. Stan mentioned that normally the cranes are not in mixed flock groups, but we did see some around here with Sandhill Cranes, and earlier with Snow Geese.
All in, we saw over 90 Whooping Cranes! This is completely mind-blowing as it represents almost 20% of the entire breeding population. We also saw all of these birds prior to lunch. We did do a bit more birding in the afternoon, with Stan taking us to Redberry Lake. Here we did find some lifer White-winged Scoters, but I didn't get any photos as they were quite far out on the lake. It was so cold standing close to the lake that we didn't last long, and were soon back at our hotel for the night.
Downtown Saskatoon has many great restaurants, and it was hard to decide where to eat. Prior to dinner we stopped for a flight of beer at
Shelter Brewing downtown, which was very cute and super popular. We ended up at eating at
Odd Couple, which was recommended by a few different people. I cannot overstate how good this dinner was! My friend and I shared the set dinner for 2, and it was completely amazing (honestly I am still thinking about it a month later).
The next morning we stopped for breakfast at a Saskatoon institution, the Broadway Cafe. As the weather was slightly better this morning, we decided to stop for a quick look for birds at Radisson Lake on our way back home.
Radisson Lake is a popular place for birders to stop, with open grazing land on one side, and the lake on the other. We saw hundreds of thousands of geese and ducks coming in to rest on the lake. Lucky for us (& unlucky for the bird), we caught this Merlin enjoying his catch. It is pretty hard to guess the bird he was snacking on, but the general consensus is possibly a Snow Bunting.
After an uneventful drive, we made it home in time for Thanksgiving Dinner. At just over a five hour drive from Edmonton, Saskatoon is a relatively easy get away. Even though my photos are not print worthy, it was super rewarding to see so many Whooping Cranes in such a short distance. Saskatoon itself is very cute, and worth a trip on its own!
