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.