June 11-21, 2026 with Jay VanderGaast & Dan Arndt
Though my annual tour calendar is usually filled with exotic birding destinations like Thailand, Bhutan, Costa Rica, Uganda, etc, that I look forward to with great excitement, I've got to say that I get equally excited when this trip is looming in my near future! It's not just that Alberta was my home during much of my youth (though that is definitely a part of it) but also that this tour ranks right up there with the best when it comes to a combination of wonderful birding, spectacular scenery, and some great mammalian highlights. Add in the warm hospitality of the friendly local people, and some delicious cuisine, and there's a whole lot to like about this trip!
As always, after meeting up in the capital city, Edmonton, we began with an eastward jaunt to the smallest of Alberta's 5 national parks, Elk Island. We kicked things off at Tawayik Lake, where, after waiting for a particularly rambunctious bull American Bison to move along, we opened up our tour checklists with a nice mix of wetland, grassland, and forest species, with a colourful, cooperative LeConte's Sparrow highlighting our efforts. Moving north through the park, a roadside stop offered up a Horned Grebe, Ruddy Ducks, and a territorial Sedge Wren, the first of several in the region, and one we often miss. Another stop at Astotin Lake served up an elegant American Avocet, several Bonaparte's Gulls, some very confiding Red-necked Grebes tending their nearby nest, and many other wonderful bird species. After a picnic lunch in the park, we wandered into more open habitats to the east, where a smattering of handsome breeding-plumaged ducks (fewer than normal due to extremely high water levels) caught our eye, as did several sneaky Soras, numerous Black Terns, a handful of Wilson's Phalaropes, and some raucous Yellow-headed Blackbirds. We wound up the day with a final attempt at another key target species, Nelson's Sparrows, finally finding a cooperative pair that gave everyone super views before we hightailed it back to the city.
Getting the Nelson's Sparrows the first day meant we didn't need to look for them the following morning, so we were able to get underway westward right away. A pit stop at Wabamun Lake produced a Common Loon, some American White Pelicans, and Forster's Terns, as well as the usual nesting Ospreys, then it was on to some areas of aspen parkland that have been good for one of the day's main targets, Connecticut Warbler. Conditions were perfect that morning, and before long we heard the distinctive, choppy song of a nearby bird. This bird was a true star, singing from wide open perches at the edge of the forest, giving us all incredible views, including lengthy scope looks for all! Further along, a visit to Beta Lake produced Trumpeter Swans, more Bonaparte's Gulls, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, and Western Tanager, (plus some nice dragonflies!) and a pair of Sandhill Cranes with a young colt; the parents, rust-colored from preening with bills caked in iron-rich mud, were a nice pickup as we drove the back roads back to the highway. That afternoon we rolled into Jasper NP, drinking in the stunning scenery around each and every curve of the road. There weren't many birds along this stretch of the road, but the beautiful landscapes all around more than made up for the lack of birds. That evening, after a delicious dinner at our lodge, we made a trip to the Maligne Canyon viewpoint, where we were rewarded with some fine views of 5 or 6 Black Swifts racing across the blue skies overhead.
Weather the next morning was beautiful for our ride up to the top of Whistlers Mountain to search for White-tailed Ptarmigan. Views from atop were spectacular, including a look at Mt Robson, the highest peak in the Canadian Rockies. Better still, the ptarmigan came pretty easily, and we had an incredible encounter with a very confiding male without having to trek all the way to the top! As usual, there were few other birds on the mountain, but the activity down below more than made up for it. A Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, a quartet of Clark's Nutcrackers, a Pacific Wren singing atop a dead tree, Varied Thrush, Pine Siskins, and 6 species of warblers, Tennessee, Townsend's, Orange-crowned, and Magnolia among them, were just some of the birds we picked up around the lower tram station! After a successful morning, we moved on to a picnic area where Mountain Chickadees, Brown Creeper, and Red Crossbills kept us company through our lunch, and our only American Three-toed Woodpecker for the tour showed up immediately after. We finished the day at lovely Maligne Lake, where a pair of American Dippers were kept busy gathering aquatic invertebrates for a nestful of hungry chicks, and Canada Jays hopped among the many vehicles in the parking lot searching for scraps of food. Our first Black Bears for the trip, and a couple of Moose kneeling down to graze in a roadside meadow contributed to make this a very productive day.
Next up was the highly-anticipated drive along the spectacular Icefields Parkway down to Banff NP, but before getting underway, we managed to sneak in a little early morning birding at the Cottonwood Slough, picking up a few new species, including Boreal Chickadee, Northern Waterthrush, and Blackpoll Warbler. Birding then took a backseat to the scenery as we worked our way south, with a few strategic stops take in incredible sights like the thundering Athabasca Falls, the Columbia Icefields, and the impossibly turquoise waters of Peyto Lake. After spending the night in the scenic town of Canmore, we were back to birding the following morning in Kananaskis Provincial Park. Our morning was filled with the likes of Solitary Sandpiper, Olive-sided Flycatcher, Townsend's Solitaire, Varied Thrush, Lincoln's Sparrow, gorgeous Mountain Bluebirds, and Evening Grosbeak. Switching gears for the afternoon, we took a drive east of the mountains to an area renowned for its Great Gray Owls, cruising the backroads with our eyes peeled for one of these magnificent birds. It took some persistence, but eventually we found one perched atop a roadside fencepost on the edge of a large open area! We were a bit unfortunate with the weather here, however, as a huge rainstorm swept in shortly after we found the owl, forcing the bird to take shelter in a nearby stand of trees, where it effectively vanished, but at least we saw it, and seeing as it took first place in bird of the trip voting, I guess everyone was pretty pleased with their looks!
We continued birding the park as we worked our way through the Kananaskis on the way south to Waterton the next morning. During a leisurely walk around the Lorette Ponds first thing, we found Willow Flycatcher, Western Warbling-Vireo, numerous swallows swooping low over the ponds, eye level Tennessee and Wilson's Warblers, and a super-excited Golden-crowned Kinglet with its golden crown erect and on full display. We followed this up with a visit to the Kananaskis Lakes, where our reward was a group of gorgeous Harlequin Ducks bobbing in the turbulent waters below the dam! Then on to the Rock Glacier, where a longer than usual wait finally produced a hoped for American Pika, looking cute and cuddly as always. A glowing male Pine Grosbeak singing its bright and cheerful song was another good pickup here. A planned stop at the Highwood Pass had to be abandoned as the area was closed due to Grizzly activity, so instead we rolled on down to our picnic lunch stop, where some brilliant male Rufous Hummingbirds kept folks entertained while lunch was being prepared. As we worked our way eastward through the lovely grasslands dotted with stands of quaking aspen, a couple of surprises awaited us. First a sow and a yearling Black Bear, the mother jet black, the yearling light blonde, ambled through a lush green meadow towards the road, eventually passing under the fence and crossing right in front of us. And then a large, immaculate white bird that turned out to be a locally famous leucistic Red-tailed Hawk! I've got to admit when I first saw it gliding in to land at the top of a spruce, my first thought was Snowy Owl! By late afternoon we were close to our destination, and we made a final stop to take in one of my favorite mountain vistas of the entire tour, adding an unexpected Black-headed Grosbeak during the photo stop, then we continued into our final mountain park of the tour, the very underrated Waterton Lakes NP.
Our full day in Waterton was excellent, with fair weather and very little wind, which is not the norm in this normally very windy park. We started our day off with a picnic breakfast in the cottonwood flats along the Waterton River, where bird activity was hopping in the early morning. Red-naped Sapsuckers were busy tapping out a rythym on a dead tree above our breakfast spot, Western Wood Pewees and Baltimore Orioles called out from the cottonwood canopy, and the spiralling song of a Veery emanated from a thicket of willows. Nearby, several dynamite little male Calliope Hummingbirds perched atop some low shrubs and made thrilling display flights and did aerial battle with each other. It was a wonderful start to the day! We then made our way up to Cameron Lake, right on the border with Montana, stopping along the way for gorgeous Lazuli Buntings, skulking Macgillivray's Warblers, and Dusky Flycatcher. Once up at the lake itself, we picked up a few good birds--our first good looks at Fox Sparrow, closer, and better Western Tanagers, and a pair of Cassin's Finches, but it was the mammals that stole the show here. We started out with a successful search for the very local Red-tailed Chipmunk, then quickly spotted another small mammal dashing by in the same area. We managed to follow the speedy little critter, eventually getting good looks at it--a Short-tailed Weasel carrying prey, a vole of some sort! Back at the start of the trail, Hugh, who had stayed back, said he'd seen a bear at the far end of the lake, so we scoped the avalanche slope there, and picked out our one and only Grizzly for the tour. And finally, while folks were making a pit stop back at the parking lot, I spent some time scoping the upper slopes, and managed to spot a lone Mountain Goat, again our only one for the tour! The afternoon was a bit less eventful, though Violet-green Swallows around town and a Western Flycatcher at the lovely Red Rock Canyon helped keep things interesting.
Our time in the spectacular Canadian Rockies came to an end the next morning with a picnic breakfast at the Maskinonge Marsh with Common Loons, Sandhill Cranes, Bald Eagles, Wapiti, and Coyotes keeping us company. But the tour wasn't quite over yet, as we still had a couple of days to explore the bird-rich prairies to the east. In the scenic Milk River valley that day, we enjoyed numerous looks at Ferruginous Hawks, including some active nests, a quartet of Prairie Falcons at a traditional nest site, huge nesting colonies of Cliff Swallows, both under bridges and on the cliffsides above the river, and Say's Phoebe, among others. Despite the high water levels, prairie potholes turned up a large number of waterbirds including Canvasbacks, Redheads, Eared Grebes, Willets, Marbled Godwits, and American Avocets, with a pair of Great Horned Owls roosting in some old cottonwoods at one abandoned farm overlooking one of the ponds. And the vast grasslands in the grazing reserves held numerous Horned Larks, Western Meadowlarks, a few Lark Buntings, Vesper and Savannah sparrows, dapper Chestnut-collared Longspurs, and even a male Thick-billed Longspur that seemed to have a beef with Richardson's Ground-Squirrel in its territory! After a quick lunch, we worked our way north with stops at Tyrell Lake, where White-faced Ibis, Black-necked Stilt, and Cinnamon Teals were good finds, and in grasslands near the town of Taber, where we enjoyed great looks at several Grasshopper Sparrows and Western Kingbirds.
We wrapped things up the next morning with a visit to the badlands at Dinosaur Provincial Park, where on the prairie level along the entry road we added an Upland Sandpiper teed up on a roadside fencepost, several Loggerhead Shrikes, and, after some effort, enjoyed amazing views of a Sprague's Pipit! Meanwhile, down in the valley, Rock Wren, Brown Thrasher, the handsome Lark Sparrow, and a day-roosting Common Nighthawk were among the quality finds. Before hightailing it back to Calgary, we made a final attempt for the elusive Baird's Sparrow, but were hampered by some strong winds, so we had to settle for a Long-billed Curlew as our final trip bird.
Dan and I had a great time travelling with you all through Alberta with you all, and enjoyed sharing all these sightings and sights, with such a wonderful group of clients. Many thanks to all of you for joining us on the trip, and we look forward to seeing you again somewhere soon!
Birds of the Trip:
1: Great Gray Owl
2: White-tailed Ptarmigan
T3: Harlequin Duck
T3: Connecticut Warbler
T3: Thick-billed Longspur
Mammals Recorded:
American Pika (Ochotona princeps): Rock Glacier in Kananaskis PP
White-tailed Jackrabbit (Lepus townsendi): Seen by some on the final day around Brooks.
Mountain Cottontail (Sylvilagus nuttallii): one at Dinosaur PP.
Least Chipmunk (Neotamias minimus): Mt Lorette Ponds.
Yellow-pine Chipmunk (Neotamias amoenus): Seen along the Sibbald Creek Road.
Red-tailed Chipmunk (Neotamias ruficaudus): Along the trail at Cameron Lake.
Woodchuck (Marmota monax): One on a round hay bale on the way to Beta Lake.
Hoary Marmot (Marmota caligata): the namesake of Whistlers Mountain, where we saw a couple.
Columbian Ground Squirrel (Urocitellus columbianus): Common in the mountains.
Richardson's Ground Squirrel (Urocitellus richardsonii): Abundant in the prairies.
Common Golden-mantled Ground Squirrel (Callospermophilus lateralis): A few at various mountain sites.
North American Red Squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus): common throughout the mountains.
Common Muskrat (Ondatra zibethicus): Seen on one of the marshes in the south.
Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes): one in the Water Valley region, another in the southern prairies.
Coyote (Canis latrans): A few in grasslands on either end of the tour.
American Black Bear (Ursus americanus): only 7 in total, but in a nice assortment of colours.
Brown Bear (Ursus arctos): One scoped at the far end of Cameron Lake.
Beringian Ermine (Mustela erminea): aka Short-tailed Weasel. At Cameron Lake.
Wapiti (Cervus canadensis): throughout the mountains, but big numbers seen during our final picnic breakfast at Waterton.
Mule Deer (Odocoileus hemionus): especially numerous in the southern regions.
White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus): numerous and seen nearly daily.
Moose (Alces alces) Caribou (Rangifer tarandus): Just a couple feeding near the road at Maligne Lake.
Pronghorn (Antilocapra americana): Fair numbers in the southern prairies.
American Bison (Bos bison): Plenty at Elk Island NP, including that one frisky bull!
Rocky Mountain Goat (Oreamnos americanus): A single one high on the mountainside above Cameron Lake.
You can see my complete trip report on eBird at this link: https://ebird.org/tripreport/538165
You can see my iNaturalist report of non-avian taxa at this link: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/field-guides-birding-tours-alberta-rockies-2026-with-jay-vandergaast-dan-arndt
You can download a combined PDF of this page and the eBird report at this link: https://fieldguides.com/triplists/alb26TRIPLIST.pdf
-- Jay