2014 Summer Vacation - July 4 & 5 - Sicamous and Kamloops

We left Calgary on July 4th. Since Austin was with us, we felt it would be too much to drive all the way home in one day. We picked Sicamous as a good halfway point and arrived there early in the afternoon. While Edith and Austin went swimming, I went out for about an hour to see if I could find some birds.

July 4 - Sicamous BC

The first place I tried was an area used by a local snow-mobile club. It had Owl in the name so it sounded promising. I did hear and briefly see one Willow Flycatcher, but that was it.

Since our motel backed on to the Eagle river, I came back that way and found a bridge just past the motel. This took me into the Sicamous Industrial Park, which did not look too good either. However, there appeared to be some birds in the trees on an empty property so I stopped. I tried pishing and there was immediate action with a number of sparrows flitting around.

Better yet, these were Chipping Sparrows, a bird I had hoped to see in Alberta. These are a different looking sparrow with their reddish-brown caps. I managed a few good shots.

Chipping Sparrow

In with the sparrows was a Yellow Warbler, it would not sit still long enough to get a good photo.

Yellow Warbler

I wandered around a bit and came across a Gray Catbird. Sometimes they are very elusive and other times they will just sit still and pose for you. This one was a poser.

Gray Catbird

As I was leaving in the car, I saw a Robin on the telephone wire above me. 

American Robin

That was it for Sicamous.

July 5 - Kamloops BC

The last bird seen on our vacation was this Osprey in a nest. We were stopped on the highway waiting for a road paving crew to let us go. Pretty good spot to stop.

Osprey

2014 Summer Vacation - July 2 - Frank Lake Part 2

Once again, Edith took Austin while I went birding. This time it was Spruce Meadows for a National Show Jumping competition. This was my chance to spend a few hours at Frank Lake to see some birds I missed on my first visit and get some better photos (hopefully) of ones I did see.

July 2 - High River, Alberta - Frank Lake Part 2

Frank Lake is located east of High River just off of Highway 23. Once you leave the highway, there is a parallel gravel road with a 90 degree turn towards the lake and blind. The parallel road is a good place to look for swallows, kingbirds and sparrows perched on the barbed wire fence alongside the road.

Going in, it was not too active except for this Savannah Sparrow.

Savannah Sparrow

After turning to head toward the lake, I saw some large birds in the sky to my left. I was hoping to see some American Pelicans, this was my only glimpse of them.

American Pelicans


Once I parked and headed for the bird blind, I was greeted once again by a Wilson's Phalarope.

Wilson's Phalarope

As I approached the blind a Sora (a type of Rail) ran across the path. Rails are usually very shy, but this one was crossing the path every five minutes or so, probably bringing food to a nest. I managed a couple of good shots after a few crossings.

Sora

The approach to the blind is a floating boardwalk, so you are very close to water birds as you go along. Here are some American Coot chicks near the boardwalk..

American Coot Chicks

This bird blind is on of the few I've used where there is always something to see up close Of course. I'm always here in nesting season, it's probably quiet the rest of the year.

Inside the blind there was another birder, a lady from California. She pointed out to me some Western Grebes off in the distance and said that the babies were still on the parent's back. She had a very expensive camera lens with a 1.4 tele-converter and had taken a good photo of them. I was able to get a real nice view with my spotting scope and took a couple of photos. The best one is shown below, heavily cropped. My next expenditure is going to be a digi-scoping adapter to use with either an IPhone or with my camera.

Western Grebe with baby on board (left)

Inside the blind we could see Barn Swallows coming and going over the lake. The nest was on the lake side of the blind just out of our viewing range. This is my best capture of one of the parents leaving the nest.

Barn Swallow

Much more accommodating was a male Ruddy Duck about 20' away. These two photos show it before and after a dive. When it surfaced, it came up in a particularly grassy spot in the lake.

Ruddy Duck

Also close by were two Eared Grebes, a parent and juvenile. This is just after a dive for food and the effect in the first photo is alien-like with the bug-eyed chick. I love the red eye of the parent in the second photo.

Eared Grebes

I then left the blind to explore other areas. I was still hoping to see a Tern, either Common or Forster's. Along the boardwalk I got a decent shot of a Yellow-headed Blackbird, a very common bird at Frank Lake.

Yellow-headed Blackbird

Of course the Sora was still crossing the path and I was able to capture it a bit more in the open. I also briefly encountered a small blackish bird about 50 metres away which might have been a fledged Sora. No time to get a photo unfortunately.

Sora

Next was the spot by the lake shore where I had good luck with the Ibis in 2013. As I approached the area, I saw some terns in flight. Then they started coming in my direction and hovering over me, I was probably close to a nest. I grabbed the next two shots quickly and then moved away from the area.

Forster's Tern

Also over head was a Franklin's Gull. In this plumage it is one striking looking gull.

Franklin's Gull

Then I spotted a California Gull in flight. These are more like the gulls we see on the coast. The key ID factors for this gull are the Black and Red spot on the bill and the amount of pure black in the wingtip.

California Gull

Like last year, there were some White-faced Ibis in this area and I caught these ones in flight.

The last bird I saw before heading back to the car was a Lesser Yellowlegs, a common visitor to the West Coast as well. The first photo shows the size difference between the Ibis and the Yellowlegs.

Lesser Yellowlegs

On the drive out, I found this very strongly marked Savannah Sparrow.

Savannah Sparrow

And finally this  Clay-colored Sparrow to end the day and the Alberta birding for this year.

Clay-colored Sparrow

2014 Summer Vacation - June 30 - Calgary Birding

While Edith took Austin to Heritage Park for the afternoon, I had the opportunity to do some birding nearby.

June 29 - Glenmore Weaselhead Reserve - Calgary, Alberta

This park is located in Southwest Calgary in the Elbow River valley. It is adjacent to the Sarcee Indian Band's territory. From the park entrance, there is an escarpment with a paved path down to the river. It is a popular place for walkers and bicyclists.

As I was walking down the path a raptor flew overhead and I took a couple of quick shots. I assumed Swainson's Hawk, but after looking at the photos realized it was an Osprey.

Osprey

For birders, the main attraction is the bridge over the Elbow River. Each summer there is a large Cliff Swallow colony nesting under the bridge. You can see the conical mud nests below the bicyclist in this photo.

Although it's easy to locate the nests, and the swallows, it's quite a challenge to photograph them. The adult birds are in constant motion going to and from their nest. By putting my camera in sports mode and shooting five frames per second, I was able to get a few decent shots.

The birds fly low over the river scooping up bugs to feed their nestlings.

Cliff Swallow

Here are a couple of Swallows approaching their nests. There can be 3 - 6 eggs per nest and the practice of putting 1 or two eggs in other nests is common.

Cliff Swallows at Nest

Here's a good catch of a Swallow leaving the nest for the next food run.

Cliff Swallow leaving Nest

After crossing the bridge, there is a small stream the feeds into the river. Here there was a family of Common Mergansers, a mother and five ducklings. The father has completed his duty and is off moulting somewhere hundreds of miles away.

Common Merganser Female and  Ducklings

Common Merganser Ducklings

While walking along the river in a forested area, I tried to do some pishing to see if anything would pop up. sure enough a sparrow came into view. My first impression was Savannah, but when I looked at the photo in the camera viewer, I realized it was a White-throated Sparrow, a common bird east of the Rockies.

We get a few here on the coast, but the related White-Crowned and Golden-Crowned Sparrows are much more common.

White-throated Sparrow

I was preparing to leave and called Edith to check their status. She told me to take my time as they were just about to go on a boat ride. I decided to get off the main path going up the hill and found myself in more of a grassland environment.

I heard a repeated buzzy insect-like noise, but was smart enough to know that some grassland sparrows make these sounds. I scanned around and found this lovely Clay-colored Sparrow. I had seen these for the first time back in 2007, but had not seen one since. My photos this year were much better than the ones from seven years ago.

Clay-colored Sparrow

Clay-colored Sparrow

This ended my outing at the Weaselhead.

July 2 - Calgary, Alberta

What would a trip to Alberta be without Magpies? Here's one on the front porch of my cousin's house in South-west Calgary.

Black-billed Magpie - making noise, as usual

Black-billed Magpie - quiet for now...

2014 Summer Vacation - June 29 - Fort MacLeod and Frank Lake Part 1

Our first night in Alberta was spent in Lethbridge, my home town. We wanted to take Austin to Head-Smashed-in-Buffalo-Jump (HSIBJ), so it made no sense to go all the way to Calgary from Grand Forks.

June 29 - near Fort MacLeod, Alberta

Just as we made the turn left off Highway 2 to go to HSIBJ, I spotted a hawk on a telephone post. I was expecting to see Swainson's Hawk in Calgary, but this was the only one I saw and photographed. A little blurry but it will have to do.

Swainson's Hawk

At HSIBJ I was hoping for Cliff Swallows and perhaps some grassland sparrows, but the only bird I saw was this Robin.

American Robin


June 29 - High River, Alberta - Frank Lake Part 1

Frank Lake is a place I try to get to every year. Since we were coming from the south, it made sense to stop and do a bit of scouting to see what the bird activity was like. I planned to come back here on the day that Edith and Austin were going to Spruce Meadows later in the week.

Last year's post-flood visit in August was disappointing. Even though High River was one of the worst flood victims, Frank Lake - only 10 KM to the east - was quite dry. However, no flooding this year and early July is the best time for birds.

Here are a some of the birds seen on the scouting mission.

Wilson's Phalarope - this is a shorebird where the gender roles are reversed. The females are colourful while the males are drab.The females are larger and breed with as many males as possible. Each male is left to take care of the nest and the young after they hatch. After laying her eggs, the female migrates south.

This is probably a female.

Wilson's Phalarope

Ibis is a bird normally associated with the southern US, but the White-Faced Ibis breeds in Southern Alberta and Saskatchewan.I took better photos on my second trip, they will be in a subsequent posting.

White-Faced Ibis

Franklin's Gull is present in large numbers at Frank Lake. They all seem to nest in the tall grass and the photo below is a common sight as they collect nesting material.

Franklin's Gull

The Eared Grebe is beautiful in summer plumage.By late June the nestlings have hatched and may be riding around on the mother's back. This year they appear to have hatched a bit earlier and they are swimming on their own, but still dependent for food. There is a blind on the lake and it's usually possible to get good close-ups without  disturbing the birds.

Eared Grebes

The next bird is one I see on the Coast. It's a beautiful bird that is always difficult to photograph. This is the last bird seen on the scouting mission, there are quite a few more in the next Frank Lake posting.

Cinnamon Teal