2014 Summer Vacation - June 25 to 28 - Castlegar, Grand Forks and Creston

These posts detail the birds seen while visiting my sister Patty in Grand Forks. There was only a bit of time for birding, but there was one really good outing.

June 25 - Grand Forks, BC

While watching my sister's grandson Alexi doing some BMX racing, I took this photo. Although it's only a crow, it is an American Crow. This is slightly different from the Northwestern Crow that we get in the Pacific Northwest. The differences in the two species are very subtle: American is slightly bigger and has a hoarser caw. The best indicator is range, the Northwestern is not seen much further east than Hope, possibly Merritt.

American Crow - Grand Forks BC


June 26 -  Near Castlegar, BC

We had some car problems with our air conditioner on our drive to Grand Forks, so I had to take it to Castlegar which had the nearest Honda dealer. Fortunately the work was done under warranty. On my way back to Grand Forks, I stopped at the rest area near the Paulson Pass summit, elevation 1446 metres. I hoped to see some high altitude birds there, but this is the only one I saw. Not the greatest photo, but always a nice bird.

Yellow-rumped Warbler - Paulson Summit near Castlegar BC

June 27 -  Ward's Lake, Grand Forks BC

Grand Forks has very few dedicated bird watching locations, Ward's Lake is one of them. It is quite close to my sister's place and is right off the North Fork road. The lake is not accessible, but the ducks and grebes can be seen with binoculars or scope. However, the trees and bushes above the lake proved to be very good for song birds. I've included one or two photos of each bird I saw.

American Goldfinch

 Willow Flycatcher

 Rufous Hummingbird (Female)

Yellow Warbler (originally posted as Orange-crowned)

Gray Catbird

American Robin

Yellow Warbler

Cedar Waxwing

Downy Woodpecker

Lazuli Bunting

American Coot Chick and Parent

June 25 - Creston Wildlife Centre, Creston BC

We always stop here whenever we travel to or from Alberta on the Crowsnest Highway #3. I never have as much time to bird here as I would like, and have had terrible luck with weather as well. It was raining on and off on this day. I managed to see a couple of birds while Edith and Austin spent time in the gift shop.

Yellow Warbler, Creston BC (originally posted as Orange-crowned)

Tree Swallow, Creston BC

After Creston, we were soon in Alberta. The next post will detail birds seen in Calgary.

2014 Summer Vacation - June 23, 2014 - Western Scrub Jays in Maple Ridge

June 23 - Maple Ridge BC

This is quite a short post about a special bird family in Maple Ridge.

I started my day by heading to Pitt Lake where there had been American Redstarts reported. These are very beautiful but very elusive warblers that appear occasionally in the Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley.I had no luck with them and did not even take a photo at Pitt Lake. Strike one for the day.

My next stop was Maple Ridge where there were solid reports of Western Scrub Jays. This is a bird commonly seen in California and parts of Oregon. There have been some reported in Bellingham in the last couple of years, and there is one that is resident in New Westminster. It appeared in my 2013 Birding Blog.

The Jays in Maple Ridge have been resident for about five years, and made an unsuccessful nesting attempt last year. This year they tried it again and were successful with two offspring being produced. According to the BC Bird Alert website, this is the first recorded nesting success in BC.

I made a stop near the address where the birds were reported and had no luck. I tried knocking on the door of the home owner as it had been reported that he was eager to share his prize birds with birders. No answer. Was this strike two?

I took a break and visited my friend Dian as she lived quite close by. After a good visit, I returned to the location and drove slowly up the street. Suddenly i saw a flash of blue and white across the street and there was one of the adult birds.

I stopped and took some poor quality photos before getting two decent shots shown above and below.

By this time the home owner was back and he came out when he saw me. We had a very good chat about the birds and how proud he was of them. He asked me I had seen the babies yet and helped point them out to me. It's obvious from the photos how they differ from the adults, but I had not done my homework (as usual).

Although there were two fledglings, I have heard that only one may have survived, but I have not confirmed this.

Here is the link to the alert.

BC Rare Bird Alert

2014 Summer Vacation - Columbia Valley - June 21, 2014

The style of this blog is more free-form than the 2013 blog, although I may go to the effort of doing the entire year again closer to year end.

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.