Dinosaur Provincial Park

Last day in Canada with a planned visit to the fascinating Dinosaur Provincial Park.
However, before that, myself and Tom had another crack at Kinbrook. On the way we had excellent views of a Great-horned Owl and whilst there had a vireo that could have been either Cassin’s or Blue-headed. Tom also had another Western Meadowlark which I missed, though I did fortunately find a pair just as we were leaving the park. Only mammals we got were road-kills: White-tailed Jack Rabbit and North American Porcupine.

On to the park where we drove through large (100+) flocks of Brewer’s Blackbirds. We had a great time though the trail next to the marshes was infested with mosquitoes which the others were less keen on, particularly as we didn’t see a lot, and just heard a Pheasant! In fact apart from myself, everyone gave up at one point or another and returned to the car. It was at this point Sam called out a large raptor which turned out to be an American White Pelican.I missed it (I’d already missed one that Tom saw earlier) though I did manage poor views of one later in the day on the return drive to Calgary a distant and rather disappointing flight view and my last new bird in Canada.
As for wildlife, apart from that already mentioned, Tom saw a Mountain Cottontail and we saw the following additional birds:



Western Kingbird x 5 ( just outside the park.)
Say’s Phoebe x 2
Rock Wren x 2
Prairie Falcon
Lark Sparrow x 2
Zonotrichia sparrow – bird photographed.

Apart from the above mentioned Pelican, several more Swainson’s Hawks and Red-necked Hawks, as well as a Northern Harrier and a Common Grackle were seen on the drive to a very wet Calgary. We arrived at the airport in plenty of time for Michelle to do some last minute shopping.

Edit 20/09/2010:
The Vireo was Cassin's Vireo.
The “Zonotrichia” sparrow is actually a Lark Sparrow, probably a juvenile…

The Badlands

A final mountain drive north up the first section of the 1A before dawn produced one of the sightings of the trip: A Grey Wolf! We also added a female Bufflehead to our list of birds and then eventually stumbled upon our first grouse of the trip in the form of two Dusky Grouse. And then a final bit of mountain birding around Vermillion Lake whilst Michelle and Sam slept. Bitterly cold it produced birds such as Lesser Yellowlegs, Western Sandpiper, Green-winged Teal, American Wigeon, Osprey, Orange-crowned Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, MacGillivray's Warbler, and Chipping Sparrow.

We then headed out of the Rockies (having dipped on Dipper! I checked so many streams but what can you do?) towards Calgary and on to the Badlands.

Dropping the RV was easier than collecting it and we were on the road in our final hire car (a very nice to drive Ford Escape) by mid afternoon. Only stopping to look at our first Swainson’s Hawks the only other new bird in the flat prairies were Mourning Doves, though Tom saw a Western Meadowlark too.

After dropping Michelle and Sam at the hotel, Tom and I carried on to Kinbrook Island Provincial Park about twenty minutes south of the town. Despite the mosquitoes and forgetting to bring a ‘scope (which would have been useful), we had an excellent time. Notable or new birds seen either at the park or at one of the water-bodies en-route included:

Blue-winged Teal x 8
Shoveller x 5
Canvasback x 3
Lesser Scaup
Pied-billed Grebe
Slavonian Grebe x 4
American Coot x 3
Black Tern x 6
Forster’s Tern – pair.
Eastern Kingbird  x 20+
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Clay-coloured Sparrow x 20+
Brewer’s Sparrow x 3
Vesper Sparrow x 20+ 
Yellow-headed Blackbird x 4

Tom also managed another Meadowlark and two flyover Long-billed Curlews, both not seen by me.

We then went into the rather sleepy and strange Badland’s town of Brooks for dinner.

Banff

Pretty much a non birding day as we owed Michelle some time from the white water rafting. She wanted to go to Lake Louse and Moraine Lake so avoided the Route 1 roadworks and instead drove the 1A that runs parallel and is supposed to be very good for wildlife. We didn’t see an awful lot but did get poor views of a pair of Hooded Merganser which were new.

 

After Lake Louse we headed to Lake Moraine. We started a walk around part of the lake but it was freezing and started first snowing and then hailing. We decided to head to Emerald Lake in Yoho National Park over the border in British Columbia. A beautiful setting and the skies cleared for the rest of the day. A pair of Goosanders were added to the list and I glimpsed a large bird that must surely have been a Pileated Woodpecker (or Ivory-billed if you’re from Cornell?)

Finally, back in Banff whilst Michelle went shopping I went with the boys to the Cave and Basin hot springs until dusk were there was a wildlife boardwalk. A reasonable birding site that held birds such as Common Yellowthroat and Wilson’s Warbler. We also saw a Long-tailed Vole.

Finally, at the RV site, I heard what I think was Barred Owl.

Jasper to Banff

Started the day by redriving the route along the Maligne Valley, but only as far as Medicine Lake as we wanted to get to Pyramid Lake. Unfortunately the best part of the drive is beyond Medicine Lake, so it didn’t really add anything to what we’d already seen (Mule Deer, Grey Jays etc.)  Pressing on to Pyramid Lake where there were some very good birdy marshes just south of the lake. If I’d have known how good they potentially looked I’d have spent more time here but we just paid a short visit. However, White-winged Crossbill was added to the list and we had better views of American Three-toed Woodpecker.

White water rafting was fun and we saw a few birds too: Osprey, Spotted Sandpiper, and (probable) Western Sandpipers.

Back in town we met with Michelle who had found a Little Brown Bat roosting, so we took a look at that. And then the weather dramatically changed. The wind picked up and the rain came down forcing us to run to the RV where we had lunch before driving the Icefield Parkway.

The views (when we had them during breaks in the rain) were spectacular. We stopped at the Icefield Parkway centre where we had another try for White-tailed Ptarmigan. Unfortunately the heavens really opened and it ruined any realistic chance of finding them here or further down the road at Parker Ridge. In fact the last couple of hours of the drive weren’t much fun. Torrential rain meant we could see little and roadworks after Lake Louise meant we did not arrive in Banff until around 10pm. Having been up before dawn, everyone was exhausted.

Jasper

A bit of a disaster today. Started okay as we drove the Trans-Canada highway to the edge of the park looking for wildlife. We got reasonable view of a Black Bear we found but the roads around Jasper resemble a safari when something is seen and someone soon parked by us, got out of the car, and it was scared off. We also got a good number of Big-horn Sheep. Birds were few and far between but we did see a Sharp-shinned Hawk and I got brief views of a Pileated Woodpecker. After walking a small trail (nothing of note, but very fresh Black Bear prints) and stopping for lunch at the end of the old Fire Road (apparently good for Grouse, but we saw none) we headed into town for our white water rafting trip.

It was here that we realised that we had forgotten to change our watches from Pacific time to Mountain time and we were an hour late, the trip having left. We re-booked for tomorrow and found Michelle in the town. The trip for the following day was not scheduled to finish until 3pm and we were due to take a slow drive along the Icefields Parkway that day. We decided that the best course of action was to take a slow drive along the top third of the Jasper-Banff road so that we could zoom through that section the following day. This we did, getting as far as Sunwapta Falls.

An evening BBQ again, but just as I put the burgers on, a clash of thunder and a huge downpour so we rescued the food as best as we could and ate in the RV.

Jasper

A full day somewhere was nice, but the RV still needs packing before hitting the road! As soon as we had done so we headed along the Maligne Valley to Maligne Lake. En-route we had our first Grey Jays and at Medicine lake we got American Pika and a couple of Hoary Marmots. There were also a large number of Mourning Cloak butterflies (probably a better name these days than Camberwell Beauty!), something I’ve never seen in Europe. We also got close views of Mule Deer and more Elk, but bird life was very quiet. So, after visiting the spectacular Maligne Canyon, having something to eat, and then walking a very small section of the watch-tower trail, we headed into town, booked a white-water rafting trip, and took the cable car to the top of Whistler Mountain.

Here White-tailed Ptarmigan were apparently easily found around the boardwalk at the top. They weren’t. I scanned for nearly three hours and the only birds I saw were a Steller’s Jay and American Pipit. The photos in trip reports suggest that the birds are very close, so I guess they simply can’t be found there at this time of year. A few Golden-backed Ground-squirrels were found as well as more Columbian Ground-squirrels and five distant Mountain Goats which we all enjoyed ‘scope views of. The way down was interesting with the cable-car temporarily breaking down and hanging in mid air after quite a wobble and quite a bit of panic by some of the passengers!

Finally, at dusk we drove Marmot Mountain as far as possible (little was seen) before cooking steak and corn outside on the fire (they’d been a fire ban in British Columbia), washed down with beer and whiskey whilst Coyotes howled in the distance.

Wells Gray to Jasper

From the Lonely Planet:
“If there’s a waterfall in the woods and nobody’s there, does it make a noise? That’s a question they might ask at – supposedly – thundering Helmcken Falls, which at 141m is Canada’s fourth-highest falls. And do the mist laden clouds over the falls rain dew on the tree- and moss-covered gorge if nobody’s there to get wet? Good questions and ones that are germane given the utter isolation you’ll find in Wells Gray Provincial Park, a wonderland of lakes, peaks, wildlife and dozens of purportedly noisy waterfalls.”

Spent from first thing until mid-afternoon in this beautiful place as much as we could, seeing the Helmcken Falls and the equally spectacular Horseshoe Falls. With Tom, I also hit upon an excellent trail from the Green Mountain viewing tower down to some water. During the day, the following new species were seen:

Chipping Sparrow
Red-naped Sapsucker – a flock of three.
Yellow-rumped Warbler – lots! Where had they been until now?
Red-breasted Sapsucker
Hammond’s Flycatcher
Barrow’s Goldeneye x 3
Western Tanager
American Three-toed Woodpecker

We also found an unidentified perched hawk that needs investigating as well as Least Chipmunks.

We then pretty much just motored on to Jasper, stopping only for gas, and short rest and a photo or two of Mount Robson. On the journey I had an American Redstart. We crossed into Alberta around dusk where I handed over nearly $100 for our five day stay in the Jasper/Banff region. Just before we reached our campsite, a couple of Elk were seen by the side of the road, caught by our headlights.

Edit: 16/09/2010: The hawk was Cooper's Hawk.

Kelowna to Wells Gray

Walked half of the excellent Canyon Rim Trail with Tom, going as far as “Look Out 3” and cutting back along the short-cut. This proved excellent and took us a couple of hours to complete. Along with the numerous Red-breasted Nuthatches we added Pygmy Nuthatch and Mountain Chickadee to our lists. On the last bridge I did my usual futile check for American Dipper (where are they?) and got momentarily excited when I saw a bird bobbing on the rocks. This turned out to be Northern Waterthrush. Great for Tom, but I was begining to get worried by the lack of Dippers!

Pressing north we stopped for an early lunch at Swan Lake which was apparently good for Western Grebe. At first we had no luck, with every distant diving possibility turning out to be Great Northern Diver. Whilst chatting to a very talkative fisherman (who we christened Raving Loon"), I eventually picked out two distant but tickable birds.

Happy with our find we continued our journey north, stopping for views of American Kestrel which Tom desperately wanted to see and Coopers Hawk (which Tom missed!)

Arriving a couple of hours before dark at Clearwater, this was our first RV “Hook-up” site, so we sorted out what needed to be sorted whilst the children played crazy golf and went for a swim in the cold outdoor pool.

Manning to Kelowna

I awoke at dawn and whilst everyone was sleeping, took a walk down a slope to the lake by which we were camping. It was a beautiful view with the sun’s first rays clearing the mist from the water on Lightning Lake. I watched it for a moment and then dashed back to get my camera, but in the five minutes it took, most of the mist had vanished!

It seemed quite birdy, so I roused Tom with the promise of a new bird for him (American Crow!) and we took a walk around for a couple of hours. Though we could hear a lot, getting views was tricky and it proved slow, though we got confirmed views of Lincoln’s Sparrow and got on to a Swainson’s Thrush. Returning to the camp, there were some very friendly Clark’s Nutcrackers as well as a Yellow-pine Chipmunks, American Red Squirrel, and a Columbian Ground-squirrel which all sat on the same log briefly, looking like something from a Disney cartoon!

After an alfresco breakfast we walked a few trails (the highlight being a Merlin perched on top of a Beaver lodge) but unfortunately didn’t really have time to do this beautiful place justice as we had a long drive ahead with stop-offs and Michelle wanted to be there before nightfall.

First stop was Princeton as I’d noticed the same supermarket and deli that Michelle had visited briefly last night. Then there were one or two stops at the fruit markets south of Penticon (apparently they are quite famous, locally at least) where we saw our first  Black-billed Magpie. Then finally my stop at Vaseux Lake. This was superb and I only wish we could have had longer; Tom, who was getting lots of new birds, was insistent that we stay longer and drive in the dark again, but I thought Michelle would prefer not to! The only downside was that it was teeming with mosquitoes. Michelle who was tired decided to stay in the RV, and after about half an hour of been bitten all over, Sam went back to join her (plucking the courage for the first time to walk on his own, despite his worry of bears!) This was unfortunate as we later found a Beaver. Having had good views of Beaver on previous trips, I ran back to get him but he missed it by a few seconds.

We had excellent views of a number of birds we’d previously seen and also added the following to our trip (or in some cases life lists):

American Coot
Black-necked Grebe
Townsend’s Solitaire
Grey Catbird
Common Nighthawk
Pied-billed Grebe
Western Wood-Pewee
Eastern Kingbird

All these were ticks for Tom, and although the Solitaire was new for me, the highlight was undoubtedly the Nighthawks. We counted 153 as they flocked (north!) late afternoon. This was particularly pleasing as it was a bird Tom really wanted to see and I thought it may have been too late in the year for them. Nearby we also saw the Rocky Mountain form of Mule Deer which has a near all white tail (just a black tip) unlike the Black-tailed (Mule) Deer we were seeing earlier.

Late (again) we dashed north without any further stops, arriving at Bear Creek just north of Kelowna at dusk.

Drive to Manning

Today started early with the first ferry across to Vancouver. The crossing was uneventful apart from a few sightings of Harbour Porpoise and a Pigeon Guillemot. We then drove to collect our RV for our trip in to the Rockies, only to find out that it wouldn’t be available until 3pm. This scuppered our plans somewhat as I’d wanted to get to Manning. Nothing could be done about it and after shopping for food, eating lunch, dropping the car at the airport and getting a taxi back, it got to around that time anyway. However, there were further delays and after going through all the instructions and loading our luggage and food, it was 4:45pm so we had a bit of a dash in order to get to Manning, several hours away. My first experience of driving an RV was therefore getting through the Friday night Vancouver rush-hour traffic and then driving along mountainous roads in the dark.

After a very quick stop in Hope for some more food shopping (the “Walmart” in Vancouver wasn’t too great) and a visit to the Liquor store (I knew we would need a drink!) we arrived around 9:30pm rather stressed and were told to be aware of a mother Black Bear that frequented the campsite with her cub. We cracked open the drinks (Royal Canadian Rye Whisky for me), had a bite to eat, and spent our first night in the RV whilst a Western Screech-owl called distantly.

Strathcona

A bit of a lay-in, followed by doing the laundry in the hotel for what seemed forever, meant we were slow getting away. Today was marked as a free day to go on a tour out of Campbell River if we had missed either the Orcas or Bears. As we’d got both, we decided to visit Strathcona Provincial Park as it was supposed to be very good for wildlife, particularly mammals, and views.

Hot afternoons in the heat are never the best time for wildlife viewing, particularly in a forest in autumn and we therefore didn’t see an awful lot. Indeed, the only mammal we saw was Black-tailed Deer and the only real birds of note were a couple of Band-tailed Pigeons. However, as were under no pressure and just enjoyed the walks, the drives, and visiting waterfalls and spectacular scenery.

We left around 5pm for the drive back down to Nanaimo where we checked in to the same hotel as a few days ago and went to the same restaurant on the seafront.

Grizzlies

Today was expected to be much more straight forward with a journey to see Grizzly Bear within Knights Inlet. The journey lasted about an hour, and although they’d only ever not been seen once on a trip in August, when we arrived there were none! Eventually we found some however, getting four good sightings: A single female; two siblings (aged at about four years); a mother and two cubs (one of which had an extremely white collar); a single large female.

The wind picked up for our journey home, an I was surprised to see a good number of Fork-tailed Petrels so far “inland”. Amongst them we got good views of a pale-rumped Leach’s Petrel. Other birds noted were Rhinoceros Aucklets, Marbled Murrelets, and our first of both Bonaparte’s Gulls (four in total) and Purple Martin (a single bird from the lodge at dusk.)

We then took our float-plane journey back to Campbell River. Again, I sat with the pilot, this time in a de Havilland Turbo Otter. We then drove to our hotel where we enjoyed a dip in the pool before watching a glorious sunset over the channel whilst having a beer or two on the balcony.