Birds and Wildlife

Anahim Lake is situated on the Pacific Interior Flyway. It is estimated that over one million birds use this migration route funneling between South America and Alaska.

The lake is a feeding ground for a colony of American White Pelicans in the summertime, and at various times throughout the year you can see herons, grebes, sandhill cranes, many different ducks, woodpeckers, kingfishers, red-wing blackbirds, swallows, rufous hummingbirds, osprey, bald eagles, and many others. 

Trumpeter swans can be seen in the Spring and Fall.  They were considered an endangered species until they were brought back from the edge of extinction by well known naturalist Ralph Edwards of Lonesome Lake, which is located in nearby Tweedsmuir Park.

"A sanctuary outside of time."
J&A Akehurst, Kelowna, BC

You can often hear the haunting call of the loon, or the howl of coyotes and wolves.  In the early part of the 1900s moose began to move into the area. Local Natives did not have a name for these animals and so called them Mowich, or deer. You might see them in low lying meadows or swamps. The area around the Itcha and Illgatchuz mountain ranges supports the largest and healthiest herd of Woodland Caribou in British Columbia. Also commonly seen are fox, coyote, mink, beaver, muskrat, and river otter.