Discovering the Cold Lake Warbler Tour with Meadowlark Birding Tours
- truenorthbirding
- Jun 25
- 8 min read
Updated: 6 days ago
While researching Canadian birding tours to showcase on my website, I realized that I had never been on a formal multi-day birding tour myself. I had only done a couple guided day tours. I enjoy going out with a guide as I learn so much from them, about birds and about the local area. As an amateur birder, I don’t think its as straight forward as just showing up at eBird hotspots! Anyway, I learned about Meadowlark Birding Tours, a local Albertan tour company, that offers numerous types of tours in Canada and overseas.
I decided to sign up for the Cold Lake Warbler tour, which takes place annually at the end of May. This tour appealed to me for a few reasons. First the cost was reasonable as it just covered the guiding services, guests were responsible for choosing/paying for their own accommodations. Second, it was taking place in Alberta, and was only a three-hour drive from my home in Edmonton. And third, the focus was on warblers, my nemesis!!
I had already known that the Cold Lake area is good for seeing warblers. It is located in the transition zone between aspen parkland and northern boreal forest, which is the ideal landscape for many different migratory birds. While hundreds of species of birds can be found in the region, the main draw for most birders is the 22 warbler species that are consistently seen there in the spring/summer. The coolest part about seeing the warblers in northern Alberta is they are not migrating through; they are singing, breeding, and nesting, which means they can often be found in the same area consistently.
The tour started on a Thursday evening; we were given instructions to meet up for dinner in Cold Lake. The Ramada Hotel was the main meeting spot for the tour, but I am a bit of a princess, so decided to stay at the slightly newer Holiday Inn Express just down the street. I left Edmonton mid-afternoon to ensure I had time to check into my hotel and make it to the Boston Pizza for dinner at 6. Dinner was our introduction to Gavin, our tour guide, as well as the others on our tour. There were 10 other folks on the tour, and apart from visitors from Seattle and Brazil, the rest of the group was from Alberta and British Columbia.
I guess this is a good segue to introduce Gavin McKinnon as the owner and lead guide for Meadowlark Birding Tours, which he has been operating since 2022. I didn’t really research Gavin prior to the tour, but did learn quite a bit about him, and his birding story since then. I found out that Gavin often holds the top eBirder spot in Canada and holds the number one spot for species in 2024 (405 species). I also just listened to Gavin being interviewed on The Big Year Podcast, where he talks about his tours and how he hit 400 species in Canada last year- I totally recommend a listen! While he is younger than pretty much anyone else leading a birding tour, don’t let that detract from what he offers. He has endless bird knowledge, and an amazing ability to hear and locate birds that I have never really experienced before.
After dinner the group wanted to start the tour with a quick bird drive so Gavin took us to a nearby marsh. It was quite hot and windy, so we weren’t expecting to see much. One of my tour-mates had Sedge Wren on her wish list for the trip, and while we did hear a few, we didn’t manage to put eyes on it.
The first morning of the tour started at 5am on Friday, and we headed to Cold Lake Provincial Park. It was drizzling slightly, and our first bird of the day was a Blackburnian Warbler singing loudly, within meters of the parking lot. With the rain softly falling, the group continued into the park and found a Red-necked Grebe on nest as well as a Common Loon. After less than 20 minutes of walking, the skies opened up and it started pouring rain- we all ended up soaked to the bone.
After getting drenched, we decided to head back to the parking lot and further decided to head back to our hotels to change clothes and ride out the rain. About 2 hours later we tried the whole thing again! The second time around the weather cooperated and it ended up being a gorgeous day. We walked about 3.5 hours in the provincial park and ended up with 60 species, including better views of the Blackburnian (in the same area) as well as a Chestnut-sided Warbler.
After a lunch break (and nap), we then headed southwest to the Bonnyville area for some backroad birding near Kehewin Lake. The group were excited to get some good looks at a Baltimore Oriole, who posed nicely right in front of our cars, and a couple Rose-breasted Grosbeaks. This was another random spot that Gavin knew was very birdy, and did not disappoint.
Afterwards we headed to look for some shorebirds at Jesse Lake prior to dinner. This was a great spot with lots of cooperative birds, and we saw hundreds of individuals including American Avocets, Black-necked Stilts, Wilson’s Phalaropes and many other water birds.
We heard some loud alarm calls from way across the water and noticed that there were Ravens raiding some Avocet and Stilt nests- flying away with their eggs. It was heartbreaking to watch, but I guess everyone’s got to eat!!
We had a nice group dinner in Bonnyville before Gavin took us to another known-to-him spot to show us all a Bobolink. While not uncommon in Alberta, these guys are very elusive, and were lifers for many in our group. I had only seen one Bobolink before, out near Tofield a few years ago. While these ones stayed quite far away, we all did get to experience their distinctive (hilarious) call.
Our second full tour-day started at 5am again, and a drive to the northeast side of Cold Lake. It was extremely smoky out, and the skies were glowing red at dawn. I actually woke up feeling a little hung over, and realized it was from breathing in smoke all night through the air conditioning unit at my hotel.
We spent about 3 hours driving and walking the forest edge for some hard to spot warblers. High up in the forest canopy we were able to catch glimpses of a Connecticut Warbler. This morning really highlighted Gavin’s ability to hear birds- he could hear the faintest birds singing, through his open car window, on a gravel road, and knew precisely where to stop. For example, Gavin's ears led us to a stop that included a LeConte’s Sparrow and a Nashville Warbler. I didn’t get many photos this day but had great views of some lifers, most notably a Black-throated Green Warbler, and a Blue-headed Vireo.
We headed back down to Cold Lake Provincial Park to try again to lay eyes on a Mourning Warbler, who we all heard and caught glimpses of the previous morning. We did try for quite some time to see him, but he unfortunately remained elusive. All was not lost though, we did get good looks at a gorgeous Canada Warbler before heading back to our hotels for lunch and a nap.
That afternoon we hit the east side of Cold Lake and crossed the Saskatchewan border to Meadow Lake Provincial Park. There were reports of Sabine’s Gulls out on this part of the lake the day before, but unfortunately, they seemed to have moved on. It was quite warm and windy, and was getting late into the afternoon, so we didn’t see a ton of birds, but it was very cool to see a few bear cubs right off the road.
After an ice-cream and bathroom break in Pierceland, we headed to a marsh that Gavin though would be our best chance at a Yellow Rail and a Sedge Wren. We did definitely hear them both, but they were too far out into the marsh to see anything. Here I learned that Gavin has never actually seen a Yellow Rail, so we all didn’t feel so bad that we couldn’t see one either!
Our last morning was spent birding in another Albertan hotspot, Sir Winston Churchill Provincial Park in Lac La Biche. Sir Winston Churchill Provincial Park is a well-known breeding site for many warblers including the Blackburnian, Cape May and Bay-breasted Warbler. I had been there a couple of years before, staying in the comfort cabins, which I highly recommend. The cabins are very comfortable with a full bathroom, one or two bedrooms and a fully equipped kitchen. Weekends book up quickly in the summer, but if you time your bookings (they open 180 days in advance) it is not too difficult to score a weekend. In addition to the 15 cabins, there are 2 tipis and 72 regular campsites available to book at the park.
It was almost a two-hour drive from Cold Lake to Lac La Biche, and we all got to sleep in a bit leaving Cold Lake in a car convoy at 6am. We all drove our own cars for this leg, which ended up being kind of lonely as I had gotten used to driving my tour-mates around for the past two days. Anyone who has done any amount of birding knows that birders are generally a super friendly and agreeable bunch, and this trip was no different. I thoroughly enjoyed playing chauffeur to Peggy, Del and Peter- we shared many stories and lots of laughs.
After the two hour drive from Cold Lake, it was nice to get out for a long walk. There was word that a Northern Parula was spotted in the park recently, and of course Gavin heard it where it was previously seen. We spent some time trying to put eyes on it but ultimately failed. We got excited, as this bird was quite far away from its normal summer grounds in Eastern Canada/US. While we were unsuccessful for the Parula, we did get really great looks at a Magnolia Warbler.
My new friend Del had high hopes of getting some shots of an Ovenbird on this trip, and while we heard quite a few, we hadn’t really been able to see any until this morning, when we found one who was deep in the trees. Another highlight of this morning was a Bay-breasted Warbler. While I really didn’t get any good shots, I did get a great look through my binoculars.
Around 11 am the tour officially wrapped up. In total we saw over 120 species of birds over 3 days. You can see our eBird trip report here.
Like any birding tour, all mornings were early starts, but I didn’t find the 5am meeting time super painful. The days were a bit long, with lots of driving, but Gavin made sure to buffer in breaks at lunch and dinner time. Overall, I had a fantastic time! I don't think you can beat the value for a long weekend of birding. I fully recommend the Cold Lake Warbler Tour and am already looking at booking something else with Meadowlark Birding Tours.
As an mid-level birder and photographer, I suffer from a bit of imposter syndrome, but that disappeared instantly with Gavin and this group. Birders are so friendly and love sharing their knowledge, and this whole group was no different. I want to give an extra special shout out and huge thank you to Del Spenst for sharing so many of his photos with me.
Thanks for the great trip everyone!
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