WILD LIFE SURVEY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 October 1941, Page 6

WILD LIFE SURVEY

BIRDS IN CANADIAN NATIONAL PARK.

OTTAWA. An outstanding feature of a wild life survey conducted in Prince Albert National Park in Saskatchewan last summer was the observation of breeding colonies of white pelicans and doublecrested cormorants in Lavallee Lake. This lake is in the north-wCstern extremity of the park, surrounded by virgin forest, and the birds occur on several islands, the two species in some instances amicably nesting together in the same area. As a rule they are so sociable that, regardless of the amount of space available, very crowded conditions prevail. The largest nesting colony is composed of several thousand adults and juveniles of both species with the pelicans being greatly in tie majority. One"of the showiest of the large birds on the continent, the white pelican is famous for the amount its beak can hold. It has a fascinating habit of flying in circles over a lake, and dropping down on the surface with its feet extended like two large pontoons. This bird nests over a wide • geographic range. Breeding colonies which once occupied islands in prairie lakes and finally withdrew because of settlement, or drought, have taken up summer quarters on many lakes in the northern forest. Even before the advance of western civilisation began, these species habitually nested at many points well north of the Great Plains. The most northern breeding locality recorded for the white pelicans is an island in the rapids of Slave River between Fitzgerald and Fort Smith in the North-west Territories.