40 different tours across Saskatchewan<\/a>, taking visitors into prairie grasslands, northern forests and wetlands in search of rare and iconic species.<\/p>\nThe tours attract participants from across Canada, the United States and overseas; he\u2019s expecting a guest travelling from Spain soon. <\/p>\n
\u201cLast winter, I had a couple from Australia that came here.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of Saskatchewan\u2019s biggest birding draws is the whooping crane, one of the rarest birds in North America.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I was very young as a kid, I became interested in the plight of the whooping crane that had become very, very scarce in Saskatchewan,\u201d Shadick said.<\/p>\n
The birds once nested in southern Saskatchewan before disappearing due to settlement, habitat loss and drought during the 1930s. The species nearly vanished entirely. Shadick said the global population dropped to just 21 birds in 1941, with today\u2019s population descending from only 14 surviving individuals.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday the population is somewhere in excess of 550,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
During the fall migration, birdwatchers travel to Saskatchewan for the chance to see the towering white birds feeding in harvested grain fields.<\/p>\n
Snowy owls are another major attraction.<\/p>\n
\u201cSaskatchewan has the highest density of wintering snowy owls of any place in the world,\u201d Shadick said.<\/p>\n
The province is also home to the sharp-tailed grouse, Saskatchewan\u2019s provincial bird, known for its elaborate sunrise courtship dance on prairie display grounds called leks.<\/p>\n
Shadick said Saskatchewan\u2019s geography makes it especially appealing to birders because species from both eastern and western North America can be found here.<\/p>\n
Birdwatching has also become more accessible for beginners thanks to smartphone apps and improved field guides.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s nothing better than a good bird identification book,\u201d Shadick said. \u201cThe bird ID guides have become much, much better than they used to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beyond spotting rare birds, he believes the hobby offers people a chance to reconnect with nature.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a fun hobby. It gets them out into nature,\u201d he said. \u201cYou get outside, which is always good for health.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014<\/p>\n
panews@pattisonmedia.com <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shadick began leading tours after retiring, combining his lifelong passion for birds with fundraising efforts for the wildlife…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":661741,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,66],"class_list":["post-661740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=661740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/661741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=661740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=661740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=661740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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