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.
