On the Road: Thousands and thousands of birds

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With thousands of birds around, it definitely was not a dull day

Published Apr 03, 2026 • Last updated 12 hours ago • 7 minute read

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Snow geese rise into the air and blend with the background at McGregor Lake near Milo, Ab. on Tuesday, March 31, 2026. Mike Drew/PostmediaArticle content

Looked like it was going to be another dull day.

It was cold and a bit cloudy with the sun finding just enough room to occasionally peek through and light up the blue mist that swathed everything.

I was on my way east to look for birds, any birds, really, but hopefully snow geese. I knew they were in the area but they rarely come close to the city so I headed out toward some sloughs and shallow lakes where I hoped there might be a few.

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Trumpeter and tundra swans, Canada geese and ducks huddle around open water on a wintery Weed Lake at Langdon, Ab. on Wednesday, April 1, 2026. Mike Drew/Postmedia

First stop was Weed Lake by Langdon. I knew it would have some open water and hoped that maybe, despite the snow and cold, there might be a bit more. Turns out there was, but not a lot, and that it was now freezing over again.

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There were birds there, plenty of tundra and trumpeter swans, a mix of pintails, wigeons and mallards along with Canada geese and ring-billed gulls. But because of the re-expanding ice, they were mostly huddled far from the road, making pictures pretty tough.

Nice to see them, of course, but these birds have been around for a while and I was hoping for something new. Like snow geese. But there were none there.

Trumpeter swans fly over mostly-frozen Weed Lake at Langdon, Ab. on Tuesday, March 31, 2026. Mike Drew/Postmedia

I kept going east and a bit south, pushing through the -12 C mist toward ponds I’d had luck at before. Not today, though. They were frozen and snow-covered with not a bird in sight except for two small bunches of Canada geese in a barley field.

Okay, change of plans. No snow geese close by and no way of knowing if there might be any further east. But the Carseland weir was near. Pelicans? Unlikely but worth a look.

The light was hazy but bright over the Bow River valley. Most of the ice was gone from the main flow so there was plenty of open water. But surprisingly few birds.

No pelicans, of course, and no surprise at that. But very few geese and swans either. There were goldeneyes and pintails, wigeons and mallards, an eagle overhead. No snow geese, needless to say. But nothing I hadn’t already seen today.

Trumpeter swans swim past goldeneye ducks on the Bow River near Carseland, Ab. on Tuesday, March 31, 2026. Mike Drew/PostmediaCanada geese and goldeneye ducks just above the Bow River weir near Carseland, Ab. on Tuesday, March 31, 2026. Mike Drew/PostmediaCanada geese, pintails and trumpeter swans on the Bow River near Carseland, Ab. on Tuesday, March 31, 2026. Mike Drew/Postmedia

Except for one.

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Perched on a log lined with ice, wings spread and angled toward the hazy sun, was a cormorant, a double-crested cormorant. And that was a genuine surprise.

Cormorants are fish eaters so there was plenty in the water for it to feed on. But unlike other waterbirds, they don’t have oil to shed the water from their feathers. After they dive down to hunt, they have to find a place to haul out and dry off. The oily feathers of other water birds allow the water to bead up and run off.

But cormorant feathers soak it up so they have to shake off what they can and let evaporation do the rest. Great when temperatures are above freezing. Not so great when, like now, it’s around -8 C. I hope it’s managing somehow.

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A lone and likely very cold cormorant spreads its wings to both warm itself and dry its feathers above the Bow River weir near Carseland, Ab. on Tuesday, March 31, 2026. Mike Drew/Postmedia

I wasn’t sure what to do next. The day wasn’t looking any more promising but there was still plenty of it left and I didn’t want to just give up. It was tempting, though. There have been far too many days like this lately.

But sitting at the top of the valley, I realized that I was already about halfway to Milo and McGregor Lake. It would likely still be mostly frozen but the south end would have some open water. Might as well go have a look.

The wintry countryside between Arrowwood and Milo, Ab. on Tuesday, March 31, 2026. Mike Drew/Postmedia

The countryside was snowy and very un-springlike and the lake itself was mostly ice-covered. But there was some open water close to the boat launch and a couple of killdeers that took off as I pulled up so I parked for a minute and sat with the windows rolled down to listen.

I could hear the ice moaning and grumbling as it flexed with the moving water underneath it. There were robins, too, and a meadowlark which I never did see. But along with that was an undulating, high-pitched honking sound. And suddenly, it got louder.

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A dark cloud rose from down the lake and through my long lens I could see that it was birds, literally thousands of birds. The dark tone was caused by a cloud shadow that had fallen over them but as the cloud twisted and shifted, I could see that the birds were white.

Snow geese.

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A dark cloud of several thousand snow geese rises over McGregor Lake near Milo, Ab. on Tuesday, March 31, 2026. Mike Drew/Postmedia

I had to look later to see it but there were actually two huge flocks, one in the foreground sitting on the ice and another in flight over the open water beyond. Both of them were a kilometre or so away so I couldn’t see either very clearly, but from the sound of their cries and the roar of their wings, I could tell there were many, many thousands of them.

I wanted a better look but the lakeside land is all private and even if it weren’t it was mostly snow-covered and mucky. So I took the main road south along the lake to see what I could see.

Open water along the northwest shore of McGregor Lake near Milo, Ab. on Tuesday, March 31, 2026. Mike Drew/Postmedia

The light was terrible, the mist turning everything at a distance into white on white. There was obviously one huge flock out on the open water but when they took off they blended into the snowy hills behind them. In fact, the only real way to tell the geese from the snow and ice was that the geese were more of an ivory colour.

I spent a while going back and forth, stopping when I could see open-water bays — thousands of pintails and wigeons — but not much luck getting a clear view of the geese. So I decided that since I was already headed south, I might as well keep going to check the open water toward the end of the lake.

About a quarter of the flock of several thousand snow geese roost on the ice at McGregor Lake near Milo, Ab. on Tuesday, March 31, 2026. Mike Drew/PostmediaHundreds of pintails and wigeons in a sheltered bay at McGregor Lake near Milo, Ab. on Tuesday, March 31, 2026. Mike Drew/Postmedia

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Snow geese take off over McGregor Lake near Milo, Ab. on Tuesday, March 31, 2026. Mike Drew/Postmedia

The snow cover diminished as I headed south, the piebald brown and white fields giving way to yellow and brown grass and stubble. It looked, in fact, like the last time I’d been down this way nearly three months ago in January. Colder now, though.

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I saw dozens of harriers hunting along the way and horses idling in pastures but there wasn’t much on the water where the road crosses over so I kept going toward Lomond. I wondered if any of the many recent snowfalls had reached the dry land out that way so I wanted to have a look.

If it had, there was no evidence of it. Everything looked dry, the old farm buildings desiccated. The soil around a green cover crop did seem a bit more damp and there had definitely been some growth in this field since January but otherwise, it looked the same.

A harrier patrols the shoreline at McGregor Lake near Milo, Ab. on Tuesday, March 31, 2026. Mike Drew/PostmediaAn old homestead in the snowless country south of Lomond, Ab. on Tuesday, March 31, 2026. Mike Drew/PostmediaSomething green in the snowless country south of Lomond, Ab. on Tuesday, March 31, 2026. Mike Drew/Postmedia

At Travers Reservoir and Williams Lake, the water was ice-free. But there were very few birds either. Gophers and mule deer, greening cactus, a few hawks but the snow geese I’d expected, except for a single flock, just weren’t there. Time to head back to McGregor.

The mist had mostly dissipated and I found a killdeer hunting on the edge of a field in bright sunlight. They have such stunning eyes! And in the sky further north, snow geese.

A killdeer hunts on the edge of a canola field west of Lomond, Ab. on Tuesday, March 31, 2026. Mike Drew/Postmedia

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Snow geese fly overhead at McGregor Lake near Milo, Ab. on Tuesday, March 31, 2026. Mike Drew/Postmedia

They were rising from the big flock near the middle of the lake, a cloud of white catching the late afternoon sun. The sound was incredible, overwhelming everything else and as a few of them passed overhead, I could hear the wind in their wings.

Pintails and wigeons were flying out to feed in a nearby field, zipping in and settling on the muddy stubble. I could hear meadowlarks and saw one fly by but I was concentrated on the ducks and I missed it.

Pintail ducks fly in to a field to feed near Milo, Ab. on Tuesday, March 31, 2026. Mike Drew/PostmediaCanada geese, pintails and wigeons at McGregor Lake near Milo, Ab. on Tuesday, March 31, 2026. Mike Drew/Postmedia

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Snow geese cover a slope in a field as wigeons and pintails feed below them near Milo, Ab. on Tuesday, March 31, 2026. Mike Drew/Postmedia

This is going to sound pretty lame but I was having trouble showing the extent of the flock with my camera. Out on the water and the ice to the north was a swath of birds maybe two hundred metres wide and at least a kilometre long. I find numbers like that very hard to judge but there had to be at least 50,000 birds just in that flock. There was a second, smaller bunch further south and another one along the shore.

Way too much to take in.

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A cloud of snow geese takes off from McGregor Lake near Milo, Ab. on Tuesday, March 31, 2026. Mike Drew/Postmedia

They were on the move now, too, a thousand or so in a field I could actually get fairly close to and waves of them heading across the sun and further west. Flocks of pintails and wigeons flew with them.

So I just sat and watched, their poop spattering down like thick rain as they lightened their burdens above me. Their constant calls were cacophonous but lovely, the hiss of their wings adding a beat to their rhythm.

Snow geese in the sky at McGregor Lake near Milo, Ab. on Tuesday, March 31, 2026. Mike Drew/PostmediaSnow geese head out to feed near Milo, Ab. on Tuesday, March 31, 2026. Mike Drew/Postmedia

Sure looked like it was just going to be just another dull day when I’d left in the morning.

But ending as it was with thousands of birds around me, it definitely was not.

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Snow geese fly across the late-day sun near Milo, Ab. on Tuesday, March 31, 2026. Mike Drew/Postmedia

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On the Road: Thousands and thousands of birds

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