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.
