On May 25th and 26th, I visited a couple friends at the Delta Marsh, by Lake Manitoba. I stayed the night with my good friend Kristen Zumdahl, who is living at the marsh for the spring and summer to study Franklin’s ground squirrels. I’ll first describe some of the incredible bird activity at the marsh, and then talk about Kristen’s awesome research!

The productivity at this location makes for wonderfully high bird activity – in total that weekend I observed 72 bird species! I birded the Saturday morning with bird expert Cal Cuthbert, who has taught me so much about the birds of Manitoba and showed me all the great birdy spots of the marsh. This time of year there are still migrants passing through, including some warblers and sandpipers, while many other birds are already in the middle of their breeding activities. I highly recommend visiting this area for birding, it was one of my favorite birding days of my stay in Manitoba so far. While most buildings along the beach are private cottages, there is also a campground that people can use for visiting more than a day.

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It was lovely to observe so many different behaviours and songs all in the same vicinity. Wrens scurrying around in tall vegetation, various blackbird species singing on their territories, goslings paddling next to their parents, sandpipers and plovers running long the lake shores. It was an incredible sight to see so many American White Pelicans, some in groups on the water foraging in synchrony, a cooperative strategy for herding fish. Another neat sight of grouped birds are Cliff Swallows, crowding around wet spots on the ground to scoop mud in their mouths while their wings flutter behind their backs, then hurrying back to their nest site to continue sculpting their nests. What a busy endeavor to make their nesting structures one mouthful at a time!

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One of the large biomasses in this area is the huge abundance of midges (chironomids), clouds of them swarming in the skies, and covering buildings and plants. When walking through grasses or other vegetation, hundreds more of these midges emerge like a layer of fog. It was hard to avoid getting any between my glasses, or accidentally inhaling them. Thank goodness these midges didn’t bite! Though regarding biting bugs, there were tons of ticks – I ended up with a total of ~70 ticks, still pulling them out of my hair as I was driving back to Winnipeg.

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Being with Kristen at the marsh made the experience of all the bugs much better. 🙂 It takes me back to when we did field work together in California. As mentioned earlier, she’s staying in the Delta Marsh for the spring and summer, studying Franklin’s ground squirrels (squirrel photos below taken by Kristen). She is a Master’s student at the University of Manitoba, and is a hardcore field biologist! In her study, she traps the squirrels, marks them, and attaches a radio collar so she can locate where they go using radio telemetry. To lure them into the traps, she uses good ‘ol peanut butter – apparently they love it so much that sometimes they’ll be waiting by the trap to get in even before it’s set up! Little is currently known about this species, and Kristen is researching new grounds on their sociality, breeding ecology, and home ranges. This study is super valuable for understanding the life history of the Franklin’s ground squirrels. They stay underground for most of the year, emerging only in the spring and summer, and Kristen is tracking and trapping them daily during their active months to learn more about their behaviours. I’m excited for her results and new insights on these squirrels!

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I hope to make another trip out to Delta Marsh in the next month or two, and hopefully see some of the young squirrels and bird fledglings. I’m very glad I went to visit when I did, as it has been extremely hard to find time to make trips anywhere while being in graduate school. I’m learning it’s necessary to make time for the things I want to do and go do them, even if there are a million of other things to do for school & work. It’s important in life to do the things you love, and for me that includes birding and visiting good friends 🙂

-Evelien