On the Road: Roadside ponds

Breadcrumb Trail Links

Sometimes soft gravel roads and prairie potholes are just what one needs

Published Jun 12, 2026 • Last updated 1 hour ago • 7 minute read

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A willow stands beside a dugout filled by the recent rain near Redland, Ab., on Wednesday, June 10, 2026. Mike Drew/PostmediaArticle content

It kinda felt like a tire was going flat.

The truck wasn’t tracking quite straight, the steering felt wobbly and I was losing power like something was dragging behind. But then, suddenly, everything was back to normal and I was rattling along with gravel dust trailing behind.

It wasn’t a flat tire after all. I’d just hit a long patch of soft road.

There were plenty of them on the side roads along the Rosebud River but that was kind of a good thing. It meant there was plenty of water in the ground just below the surface. Great for the growing crops. And it also meant most of the previously dry sloughs had water in them.

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That was what I was looking for, roadside ponds and potholes and the life around them. For a lot of the year they are barely damp but with the recent rain, I figured they might be a little more than that.

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Interestingly, though, several of my known spots were still fairly dry. There was water in them but vegetation had encroached around the edges over the last couple of dry summers so I couldn’t see much of the life around them.

I could hear it, though. Frogs were singing at every damp spot, taking advantage of the moisture for some late-spring courting. Tiny and mostly hidden in the vegetation, I never did see any of them, though.

Things got a little different once I hit the Rosebud River valley. More rain here, maybe, or maybe a higher abundance of low spots but either way, there were more potholes to explore. And some man-made ones, too.

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A phalarope swims through the reflection of a willow standing beside a dugout filled by the recent rain near Redland, Ab., on Monday, June 8, 2026. Mike Drew/Postmedia

A dugout over toward Redland was overflowing with water and life was taking advantage of it. Aspens, poplars and a willow with a handful of rough-barked trunks stood along the banks while frogs sang from among the drowned grass below them. Shoveler ducks, teal and mallards paddled around the waters while little red-necked phalaropes chased bugs across the surface.

It was damp and green over by Redland, too, and the roads here were particularly soft. Not a surprise considering the valley is flat-bottomed with Serviceberry Creek adding its latte colour to the Earl Grey tint of the Rosebud just a little ways west of town.

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A kingbird takes off after a bug near Redland, Ab., on Monday, June 8, 2026. Mike Drew/Postmedia

Out in the open, kingbirds chased bugs while in the sheltered parts of the south-facing slopes, little warblers and other songbirds belted out their choruses. A patch of aspens and poplars had a little spring running through it fast enough that I could hear the trickling and there were even patches of horsetails in the shade near the stream.

Out where the sun was brighter, osier dogwood was blooming and there were still enough wolf willow blossoms to perfume the air. A few chokecherries still had their stalks of white flowers and a feral honeysuckle bush tucked in a stand of hawthorn was crowned with pink petals. Not sure how that ended up in a prairie coulee but there it was.

A honeysuckle bush gone feral near Redland, Ab., on Monday, June 8, 2026. Mike Drew/PostmediaOsier dogwood blossoms near Redland, Ab., on Monday, June 8, 2026. Mike Drew/Postmedia

Thinking I might find more little sloughs I swung west from Redland along the slopes of the Wintering Hills toward Rockyford. But I didn’t have much luck. Either the rain hadn’t hit as hard here as I had thought or the ground was so dry that it just sucked it up. The pastures were lush and green and the crops, early in the season though it is, looked healthy.

But I wanted birds and water so I headed over to a sure thing.

Severn Dam sits on a coulee between the Chimney Hills to the south and the end of the Wintering Hills to the north. Its levels fluctuate, of course, but with the rain, I figured it would be pretty full.

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A ringbilled gull patrols the shore at Severn Dam east of Rockyford, Ab., on Monday, June 8, 2026. Mike Drew/Postmedia

And it was. Unfortunately, though, the campground that has been there for years is now closed so the only place I could get to was the dam itself. I could see pelicans way down at the far end and a few cormorants flying around but without a long hike — laziness and lingering hospital excuses precluded that — I was stuck at that one spot.

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Gulls flew by, though, swallows swooped through air and yellow-headed blackbirds hunted bugs among the rocks on the dam face. Beyond that, though, not much to see. But there were more sloughs close by so I rolled on toward them.

A female yellow-headed blackbird approaches her nest on a recently refilled slough east of Rockyford, Ab., on Monday, June 8, 2026. Mike Drew/PostmediaA female yellow-headed blackbird with a beakful of bugs for her babies at Severn Dam east of Rockyford, Ab., on Monday, June 8, 2026. Mike Drew/Postmedia

The pastures were startlingly green in the rolling grassland between the two ranks of hills and you could almost hear the cattle getting fatter as they grazed. But the first set of potholes I passed were disconcertingly dry. I was beginning to wonder if I’d picked the wrong direction to go.

But no, the series of low spots over where the Wintering Hills begin to rise again all had water. Some more than others, of course, but the one I had really hoped for came through.

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Cattle on fresh green grass near Redland, Ab., on Monday, June 8, 2026. Mike Drew/Postmedia

This slough is very often nothing but dry, sulphurous mud but today it held plenty of water. And it looked like it had been wet for a while. Reeds were growing in bunches and bugs were everywhere. Got my first mosquito bite of the year and the buzzing nearly equalled the voices of the frogs.

Out on the water ruddy ducks splashed around, the males with their bright blue bills and the females diving for morsels on the bottom. Some of the males were still doing their funny bubble dance where they puff up and vibrate to produce a low wall of air bubbles around their chest. It looks goofy but the ladies seem to like it.

There were plenty of yellow-headed blackbirds hollering from the reeds or poking around looking for bugs. Lots of eared grebes, too, handsome birds with bright red eyes. Further out on the water I could see several of their nests.

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A male ruddy duck performs its bubble dance on a recently refilled slough east of Rockyford, Ab., on Monday, June 8, 2026. Mike Drew/PostmediaAn eared grebe north of Strathmore, Ab., on Monday, June 8, 2026. Mike Drew/Postmedia

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A willet slides through the shallows as a gadwall passes at an ephemeral slough east of Rockyford, Ab., on Monday, June 8, 2026. Mike Drew/Postmedia

There were more little potholes on the edges of fields as I headed back west again. Several of them held ring-billed gulls while a few had willets and ducks like gadwalls but a lot of them had no birds at all. I thought for sure I’d find killdeers at least but all I saw was mud.

West of Rockyford along the Serviceberry Creek valley there were more damp spots and I could see where the high water in the creek had flattened the grass around the bends before backing off. The cutoff meanders were all full of water but maybe the birds hadn’t gotten around to discovering them yet.

I did find a Swainson’s hawk that had definitely discovered at least one small bird. Perched on a fence by an old farmhouse — and later, on the house itself — it had feathers and a bit of fresh blood on its claws. Not much further along, a pair of pheasants stayed close to a line of caraganas in case the hawk started feeling peckish again.

A Swainson’s hawk at an old farmstead west of Rockyford, Ab., on Monday, June 8, 2026. Mike Drew/PostmediaPheasants west of Rockyford, Ab., on Monday, June 8, 2026. Mike Drew/Postmedia

I’d hoped to find more birds once I got closer to irrigation country but the potholes north of Nightingale were mostly dry. I managed to find a pie-billed grebe at a deeper slough surrounded by cattle but there was a paucity of much else. At least I found a meadowlark to pose for me.

Time to start heading back so I aimed south toward Strathmore. I’m still getting a handle on this diabetes thing I now have going so I was pretty sure I needed food. Strathmore would have that, of course.

A pie-billed grebe swims west of Rockyford, Ab., on Monday, June 8, 2026. Mike Drew/PostmediaA meadowlark gives a look west of Rockyford, Ab., on Monday, June 8, 2026. Mike Drew/Postmedia

But it turned out to have more. And it was what I had been looking for all day.

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There’s a slough next to a feedlot just north of town that always has some water in it but the rain had filled it and another pond right up to the road. And there were plenty of birds.

There were all the usual ones, the mallards, teal, coots, geese and gulls along with interesting birds like black terns, grackles and rusty blackbirds.

A black tern about to take off north of Strathmore, Ab., on Monday, June 8, 2026. Mike Drew/PostmediaA yellow-headed blackbird yells out its territory at a recently refilled slough east of Rockyford, Ab., on Monday, June 8, 2026. Mike Drew/Postmedia

And so many eared grebes. There were dozens of them swimming around and diving for water bugs and other morsels while in one corner of the pond a whole whack of them had built nests. In a couple of weeks there will be striped baby grebes everywhere here. I’ll be back.

I rolled on into Strathmore, happy I’d found a few more birds, at least, but I had to pull over and stop again.

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An eared grebe on its nest north of Strathmore, Ab., on Monday, June 8, 2026. Mike Drew/Postmedia

I don’t know if the body of water has a name but it’s in Gray Park pretty much in the middle of town. And there were all kinds of birds. Some of them were the same as what I had already seen but there were pelicans, herons and cormorants, too. One itchy heron shared an island with a trio of cormorants, scratching away as ducks swam by.

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An itchy blue heron shares an island with cormorants on a pond in Strathmore, Ab., on Monday, June 8, 2026. Mike Drew/Postmedia

Kinda made me wish I’d just ended out this way in the first place.

But that would have been too easy.

Sometimes soft gravel roads and prairie potholes are just what I need.

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A recently refilled slough east of Rockyford, Ab., on Monday, June 8, 2026. Mike Drew/Postmedia

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