84 
ORNITHOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS NEAR BELVEDERE, 
ALBERTA, 1926 
By P. A. Taverner 
The scene of operations was the vicinity of Belvedere, Alberta, 60 
miles northwest of Edmonton and 15 miles west of Busby on the Edmonton, 
Dun vegan, and British Columbia railway. Our immediate location w T as 
at the north end of lac La Nonne near the house of Mr. A. D. Henderson 
whose interesting ornithological and oological reports had induced us to 
investigate this particular area. It was largely due to this friendly assistance 
and advice, based on some twenty-eight years experience in the locality, 
that the season’s work was so successful. Notes on 205 species of birds 
were obtained and specimens of 164 of them collected. 
The writer left Ottawa on May 15, was joined in Winnipeg by C. G. 
Harrold, and in Edmonton by Hamilton M. Laing, both of whom had 
been engaged for the season in the capacities of junior zoologists. Mr. 
Harrold, Mr. Laing, and the writer arrived in camp on the 24th just as a 
party consisting of Prof. Wm. Rowan, R. H. Rauch, and R, C. Harlow 
were leaving on an oological collecting trip by wagon to beyond Fort 
Assiniboine 40 miles directly north on Athabaska river. They returned 
May 27 with interesting information, much of which was available for 
this report. Most of the work was done within walking distance of camp, 
but occasional trips were made in various directions and from July 8 to 
16 was spent by a small lake, 6 miles north of Pembina river at Belvedere, 
that we called Wharton lake. June 24 and 25 were spent on the long 
point in Beaverhill lake, near Tofield, Alberta, assisting Prof. Rowan and 
his associates in banding a large colony of Franklin’s gulls. The writer 
left camp for Ottawa on July 26. Harrold remained until the end of 
September and Laing until October 26. 
Lac La Nonne is a fine, open body of water 4^ miles long by 1§ wide. 
Its shores are fringed with a narrow border of marsh, the dominating 
species being tule (bulrush, Scirpus sp.), and reed-grass ( Phragmites sp,), 
making attractive breeding ground for water birds. The lake is deep and 
the water clear and wholesome. The country about is well wooded with 
coalescing poplar bluffs growing open and clear with little tangled under- 
brush, There are few clearings or farms immediately on the lake, but 
more north across Pembina river and east towards Busby. There are 
many small lakelets and ponds scattered nearby and occasional muskeg. 
To the west the country is practically solidly wooded and contains con- 
siderable spruce. The party were informed that originally the country 
was all spruce, but the spruce being killed off by extensive forest fires it 
has been replaced by poplar that now has grown almost like original forest, 
the only conifers remaining being in the muskegs and other small spots 
that the fire missed. It is probably due to this succession of floral, and a 
persistence of faunal, associations that much of the biological interest of 
the locality is due. We have here a number of far northern animal forms 
amidst southern intrusives, making a mixture of life zones distinctly 
puzzling to a distributionist until it is realized that the Hudsonian elements 
are relict and the Transition ones recently intrusive. 
