Image taken at Henderson Lake

By LNN Staff

Death of waterfowl at Henderson Lake still undetermined

Jan 17, 2022 | 4:39 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – After multiple concerns about dead birds at Henderson Lake have been raised, the City of Lethbridge is addressing the issue.

Residents walking around Henderson Lake may have noticed a number of deceased waterfowl recently.

While most of the area’s waterfowl population flew south for the winter, some stayed in Lethbridge.

The effect of this is that, during the recent cold snap and then subsequent warmer weather, a number of them have froze in the lake and died.

Although the cause of death is still being determined, this “mortality event” is not unheard of and frequently happens during the wintertime.

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Coreen Putman from the Helen Schuler Nature Centre says we see this almost every winter.

“At Henderson, we do have kind of variable ice conditions, and so as the ice expands and the open water shrinks, one of the things that happens is that the waterfowl that are utilizing Henderson Lake, there’s just less open water for them to sort of share. You know, certainly, in that overcrowding, I think we can all – you don’t think of times, even with humans, it’s the same kind of stresses that happen. So, you know, as those individuals are really crowded, there becomes maybe less food that’s available.”

The city states that the instability of the lake ice makes it unsafe for staff to remove the waterfowl at this time.

Putman also says that feeding the birds at Henderson Lake can lead to overcrowding which has a negative impact on the ecosystem.

“Artificial feeding by people is usually things like bread or crackers or popcorn or things that are really not high nutritional value for those animals, and so the birds are going into the winter season with really poor nutrition and with poor health.”

“Some of those birds that you know, as the as we get colder weather that would maybe normally trigger them to move a little bit further south, they’re actually not able to engage in that migration at that time because they’re actually not healthy enough be able to do that.”

Residents are reminded to not feed waterfowl as this often results in poor nutrition, can delay migration, and lead to overcrowding of waterfowl habitats.