Memories of Grande Prairie Alberta

My first visit to Crystal Lake in Alberta’s Grande Prairie was in June-2005 while on my way to Alaska. I was using The MILEPOST travel guide to inform me of interesting places along the route. My time at Crystal Lake was rewarding enough to cause me to seek it again when in 2022, I retraced much of the route I had taken in 2005. I visited Grande Prairie once on my way north in late May, and again as I traveled south in early July. Following are the notes I recorded from those visits.

2022-05-31 Crystal Lake in Grande Prairie

There is a park near the center of the town which surrounds a good-sized lake called Crystal Lake. I stopped there in 2005 on my way to Alaska. I remember enjoying it then, but I enjoyed it more this time, because I was in charge of my itinerary. There is a dock at the southwestern shore that provides splendid views to the water and the nearby marsh.

While stationed at the dock, I concentrated on gulls and waterfowl in flight. I had hoped for grebes, but Mallards put on a pretty good show with their amorous activities. I rarely concentrate on Mallards, but on this day I could not resist their randy antics. I watched as the hen gave her “come hither” calls, and once the suitors joined her, she took flight, leading them on a ride as they struggled to stay close to her. There were a lot of take-offs and landings, and I tried my best to capture the action.

Most of the gulls there were Franklin’s, and I enjoyed spending time with them as they flew in close enough for competent images. There seemed to be only a single individual white-headed gull. After reviewing my images, I decided it was a Ring-Billed Gull.

Trumpeter Swans were here when I visited 17 years ago, and I saw them again on this visit, though they were quite distant. Given that these birds can live over 25 years in the wild (most live less than 12 years), I considered that perhaps these could be the same birds I met in 2005. But I learned from a conversation with a lady who lives on a lakeside property nearby, that last year, the resident male got into a violent confrontation with a Canada Goose and seriously injured a wing. Swans have a reputation for mating for life, but this season, the female brought with her a new mate. Local observers counted the previous male as overly aggressive, which stands up to the memory of the bird I met in 2005. So far, this new male is much more mellow.

During my visit yesterday, I explored the trails on the south-side of the lake and met birds I had not seen in 2005. Yellow-Shafted Northern Flickers provided my best images here. I even captured copulation in action.

I left Grande Prairie Wednesday morning, with Dawson Creek as my targeted destination. 

2022-07-03 Return to Grande Prairie

When I arrived in Grande Prairie, I drove straight to Crystal Lake and spent a few hours there. There were few new actors on stage, but the Trumpeter Swans were now towing cygnets with them. In fact, like the proud parents they were, they showed them off from much closer than I’d have expected; perhaps 60 yards out from the observation deck. Red-Winged Blackbirds were now feeding full-sized juveniles, and Franklin’s Gulls dominated the ‘gull-scene’, with a few Ring-Billed Gulls scattered in.

I enjoyed my time with these birds, but I think I spent as much time conversing with the old-timers there as I did with the birds. One of the old guys and I chatted for quite a while. We had both retired with long experience as electricians, and in my case, related fields.

The Fourth of July does not get much attention here in Canada. Last Friday, July 1st, is their closest equivalent. Called “Canada Day”, it celebrates Canadian autonomy, which resulted from a campaign of Canadian delegates petitioning the British for self rule. It was on July 1, 1867 that the Eastern and Maritime Provinces gained their independence. Two years later, the nation added the vast holdings of the Hudson Bay Company in the west to its territory.

Many historians view the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1885 as the event that unified the assembly of provinces into a single, cohesive nation. I am reminded of Gordon Lightfoot’s epic masterpiece, “The Canadian Railroad Trilogy” when I think of those times. And he wrote: 

There was a time in this fair land when the railroad did not run,
Long before the white man, and long before the wheel,
When the wild, majestic mountains stood alone against the sun,
Where the deep green forests were too silent to be real.

I took my leave from Grande Prairie with a plan to do a lot of driving. With 196 miles of road to Slave Lake, it was unlikely I would get all the way there by the end of the day. So I found a birding destination between these two points called Lake Kimiwan and stopped to visit what the locals claim is “The Birding Capital of Canada”. But that is another story.