Research on Kimiwan Lake
Kimiwan Lake is a well known staging lake
for waterfowl with regional and national importance. The following is
research done in the area.
Fall
Staging Swan Surveys
Avian Inventory
Compiled by M. Heckbert with the assistance
of members of the Kimiwan Lake Naturalists.
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Fall Staging Swan Survey
Kimiwan Lake stages high numbers of swans
in the fall with both tundra and trumpeter swans spending time at the
lake. However the total fall staging numbers of swans had not been
documented prior to 2001. Attached is a summary of the document. Below you
will find the complete survey document available for download.
"This
survey was the first comprehensive and systematic survey of staging swans
at Kimiwan Lake and has turned out to be a very cost-effective method of
quantifying the value of Kimiwan Lake to staging swans.
Kimiwan
Lake is highly utilized as a staging lake for swans, although the extent
of use by both species of swan was not quantified. Fall staging counts at
Kakut Lake, AB were carried out by Ducks Unlimited Canada staff in 2001
between August 21 and October 19. At Kakut Lake, trumpeter swans were
first recorded on September 21 and were present until October 12. Single
day counts of swans peaked on October 5 when 633 swans were recorded. In
total, 878 swans were recorded throughout the survey period, with an
average of 175.6 swans observed per survey day, for a total of 6451
swan-days. Kimiwan Lake averaged over three times the number of swans
observed during each survey day and had 3.52 times the estimated number of
swan-days.
There
appears to have been a substantial migration pulse of swans during the
first week in October as evidenced by similar peaks in observed birds at
Kimiwan and Kakut Lakes. Other less dramatic migration pulses were
observed during the third and last weeks of October at Kimiwan Lake.
Both the timing of scheduled
surveys and the viewing location for the survey were tested. While it was
the surveyors opinion that there was less bird movement and more accurate
counts in the early afternoon, the original location for viewing within
the Town of McLennan continued to be the best spot for a complete view of
the lake."
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Avian Inventory
(an excerpt)
"In 1999 Kimiwan Lake was
nominated and accepted as an Important Bird Area (IBA). The IBA program,
funded through Bird Studies Canada, Bird Life International, Canadian
Nature Federation, and the Canadian Millennium Partnership Program,
recognizes locations across Canada which contain significant bird
resources. There are four general categories of IBA sites. They include
sites which hold significant numbers of endangered, threatened or
vulnerable bird species, sites that hold endemic species or those with
restricted ranges, sites that hold an assemblage of species restricted to
a biome, and sites where birds concentrate in significant numbers when
breeding, wintering or migrating.
Kimiwan Lake was
identified as an IBA based on surveys which showed significant numbers of
migrating pectoral sandpipers (5%-28% of the world population) and
long-billed dowitchers (12%-24% of the world population) used the lake as
a migration stopover. Additionally regular counts of waterfowl have shown
that more than 26,000 birds each day during migration periods and 5,000 to
20,000 birds per day during molting periods. The lake also supports larger
numbers of Franklin’s gulls (over 5000 non-breeding gulls) annually.
The Kimiwan Lake Naturalists [formerly the Kimiwan Lake Wildlife and
Preservation Society (KLWPS)], a local non-profit group located in the
town of McLennan identified that more current information on bird use was
required in order to address habitat management issues and to provide
updated information to visitors to the area. Subsequently, funding and
support was received from the partners (see cover page) and the Kimiwan
Lake Avian Inventory Project 2000 was initiated in May 2000. The project
focused on the collection of songbird, waterfowl and shorebird data in
May, June and August."
