Friday June 20th was my last day of work for 2 weeks. This and subsequent posts chronicle the birding I was able to do during my vacation. Locations include the Columbia Valley near Chilliwack, Pitt Lake, Maple Ridge, Grand Forks BC, Frank Lake near High River Alberta, Calgary, and Sicamous BC.
June 21 - Columbia Valley with Mary-Jean Payeur
Columbia Valley is a small rural community south of Cultus Lake. It is adjacent to the Canada/US border which is marked by a logged out boundary on the mountain sides. It is a good place for birding as the roads are not busy and the farming is not so intensive that there aren't good patches of natural grasses and shrubs for bird habitat.I arranged to pick up my friend Mary-Jean at Cultus Lake at 8:00 AM, but was running a bit early. I stopped at the Sardis Pond to see if there were any Cackling Geese there. They are often seen there by the local birders. No luck with the geese, but I did get a very nice shot of a Great Blue Heron.
I picked up Mary-Jean and we headed up the Valley. We did this trip last year in September with MJ driving, but this time it was my turn. One of the great things about the Valley is that the roads either end in dead-ends, or loop back on themselves.
This photo shows what the area is like. It is not much different from when I lived in Sardis in the 1970's.
Our first stop was a spot from last year where we had seen many barn swallows preparing to migrate south. No swallows this time, but looking at the trees revealed these:
I believe these are Western Tent Caterpillars. More from them later.
We then heard a bird singing behind us and looked up to see this White-crowned Sparrow.
I should have known the song without looking, but I just don't hear these birds that often. Also on the same wire was a very young looking Savannah Sparrow.
We got back in the car and soon came to a fork in the road. I decided to turn left and almost immediately saw a Willow Flycatcher perched on a small tree. It flew just as I got my camera focused on it.
The road was slightly higher than the field off to the side of the road and we decided this was an excellent place to stop for a while. Something caught my eye overhead, it was a Turkey Vulture. They are quite common in the Fraser Valley and around Hope Airport.
My attention went back to the field as I could hear some repetitive singing, not that close but noticeable. I scanned the field and saw a flash of blue. it was a Lazuli Bunting. I only got one shot of it and had to do some cropping to produce the image below. I'm still waiting for a good close-up of this species.
I mentioned another Caterpillar photo, not sure how it got up here and why it wanted to be there at all.
We drove to the end of the road and saw a red-tailed hawk with my new spotting scope, but not much else. We returned back to the field and I took a couple of more Willow Flycatcher photos.
I'd say this may be a young bird as it is quite fluffy.
That ended our Columbia Valley excursion.
Next post details a trip to Maple Ridge to see a BC rarity.
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