Post by kastern on Sept 18, 2008 15:37:48 GMT -8
Hi all, We have been back from our latest trip to Alberta since the 7th but just haven't found the time to sit down and report anything. Since today is the first 'dreary' day since we got back, I've started working on it. I'm sort of working backwards on this and it'll be a bit all over the place as I'm going to upload the photos in the order they loaded onto photobucket....
The very last walk of the very last day spotted this Three Toed Woodpecker. This was at Kentucky/Allyene Provincial Park, just outside of Merritt B.C. Unfortunately, only had my small camera with me and it was in dense shade so not the greatest picture.
Not birds of course, but Antelope. These were the first and only Antelope we saw and we saw them just as we were pulling onto the highway after leaving the campsite, heading for home. I always find them so exotic looking....they don't seem like they should be in Canada.
This is Writing on Stone Provincial Park in Southern Alberta. The green trees are where the campsite itself is situated. This is supposed to be the driest area in Alberta. The day we travelled to this park it poured with rain, it rained all that day, all that night and all the following day. I tell you this so you will understand some of the pictures that follow. Those are the Sweet Grass Hills in Montana with fresh snow that appeared while we were there.
This is another view from Writing on Stone. The river is the Milk River and this view is taking from the hiking path that winds through the hoodoo's. Temperatures in Writing on Stone can reach 50 degrees in summer. It is not only home to a multitude of bird species, but also rattlesnakes. Something I learned, after walking through the lawns with only sandels on, is that baby rattlesnakes are born in August and September and are often found in the grass....therefore one should wear shoes. Fortunately, I didn't learn that the hard way. The parks 'snake lady' told my husband as she collected a 4 foot rattler she had found in one of the campsites, to be released closer to where they hibernate.
After the second day of rain, we gave up and just went for a walk in it. This gives an indication of the sheer number of birds. This was near a grove of Choke Cherry trees, dripping with fruit. There were Cedar Waxwings and Robins primarily but you can see a SapSucker in this picture and there were Flickers as well.
Gray Catbird are common in the park although not as ready to show themselves this time of the year (early September) as they were the time we were there in June. I think this was a fairly young one.
Nuttall's Cottontail rabbits are also common in the park, although again, not as visible as in spring. There were a pair living under this cattle guard, much to our dogs delight!
We went for a drive in the pouring rain to see what we could see. My husband was convinced there would be masses of migrating shorebirds everywhere - wrong! We did see this very wet, miserable looking Coyote.
Back at the campsite....the place is alive with deer. This was one of two does that had 3 fawns.
I mentioned before that there are a lots of Flickers there. This one appears to be a Red Shafted rather than the Yellow Shafted you would expect to see there.
There were a number of Flycatcher. I'll leave it up to some of you to decide what type. I saw one of this type feeding a fledgling, which seemed really late in the season. The Eastern Kingbirds, that I know are there in summer, seemed to have already left.
These were the only 'Lifer' of the trip. In a harvested wheat field in the pouring rain...a flock of Gray Partridge.
I cropped this one really close so you can see the golden rust color on the head which identifies them.
Lots of Hawks. I'm not sure of the identity of this one. Possibly a Broad Wing?
Saw a number of Lark Sparrow. This was one of two on the beach by the river. Saw a few other sparrows but in their drab color I found them impossible to identify.
For a while, one day, massess of Common Nighthawks
Eastern Phoboe still seemed to be there.
Lots of Robins, in fact was surprised at how many really young ones there were. Probably second or even third hatches I suppose.
There were very few birds in sight the day we walked in the rain, but I had spotted this pair from a long way off....turned out they were simply Rock Pigeons.
The same walk on a sunny day with far more birds visible including this Rock Wren.
It always takes me by surprise to see a Towhee here. I always think of them as a west coast bird.
There were still a few Warblers around. Mainly Yellow and Yellow Rumped. I chased this one around for quite a while and this was the best photo I got. Not sure what it is. Possibly a Townsend's although it didn't really seem like Townsends habitat. Anybody have any idea?
That same wet day we went for a drive, we drove to this area which is a large Ducks Unlimited site (can't remember the name of it). We had seen several large flocks of Yellow Headed Blackbirds and that was about all there was there, apart from Coots. Very few ducks around and didn't see any Geese at all. Also the only shorebirds seen the entire trip were a few Killdeer in a muddy field.
That is the end of this part.
Kathy
The very last walk of the very last day spotted this Three Toed Woodpecker. This was at Kentucky/Allyene Provincial Park, just outside of Merritt B.C. Unfortunately, only had my small camera with me and it was in dense shade so not the greatest picture.
Not birds of course, but Antelope. These were the first and only Antelope we saw and we saw them just as we were pulling onto the highway after leaving the campsite, heading for home. I always find them so exotic looking....they don't seem like they should be in Canada.
This is Writing on Stone Provincial Park in Southern Alberta. The green trees are where the campsite itself is situated. This is supposed to be the driest area in Alberta. The day we travelled to this park it poured with rain, it rained all that day, all that night and all the following day. I tell you this so you will understand some of the pictures that follow. Those are the Sweet Grass Hills in Montana with fresh snow that appeared while we were there.
This is another view from Writing on Stone. The river is the Milk River and this view is taking from the hiking path that winds through the hoodoo's. Temperatures in Writing on Stone can reach 50 degrees in summer. It is not only home to a multitude of bird species, but also rattlesnakes. Something I learned, after walking through the lawns with only sandels on, is that baby rattlesnakes are born in August and September and are often found in the grass....therefore one should wear shoes. Fortunately, I didn't learn that the hard way. The parks 'snake lady' told my husband as she collected a 4 foot rattler she had found in one of the campsites, to be released closer to where they hibernate.
After the second day of rain, we gave up and just went for a walk in it. This gives an indication of the sheer number of birds. This was near a grove of Choke Cherry trees, dripping with fruit. There were Cedar Waxwings and Robins primarily but you can see a SapSucker in this picture and there were Flickers as well.
Gray Catbird are common in the park although not as ready to show themselves this time of the year (early September) as they were the time we were there in June. I think this was a fairly young one.
Nuttall's Cottontail rabbits are also common in the park, although again, not as visible as in spring. There were a pair living under this cattle guard, much to our dogs delight!
We went for a drive in the pouring rain to see what we could see. My husband was convinced there would be masses of migrating shorebirds everywhere - wrong! We did see this very wet, miserable looking Coyote.
Back at the campsite....the place is alive with deer. This was one of two does that had 3 fawns.
I mentioned before that there are a lots of Flickers there. This one appears to be a Red Shafted rather than the Yellow Shafted you would expect to see there.
There were a number of Flycatcher. I'll leave it up to some of you to decide what type. I saw one of this type feeding a fledgling, which seemed really late in the season. The Eastern Kingbirds, that I know are there in summer, seemed to have already left.
These were the only 'Lifer' of the trip. In a harvested wheat field in the pouring rain...a flock of Gray Partridge.
I cropped this one really close so you can see the golden rust color on the head which identifies them.
Lots of Hawks. I'm not sure of the identity of this one. Possibly a Broad Wing?
Saw a number of Lark Sparrow. This was one of two on the beach by the river. Saw a few other sparrows but in their drab color I found them impossible to identify.
For a while, one day, massess of Common Nighthawks
Eastern Phoboe still seemed to be there.
Lots of Robins, in fact was surprised at how many really young ones there were. Probably second or even third hatches I suppose.
There were very few birds in sight the day we walked in the rain, but I had spotted this pair from a long way off....turned out they were simply Rock Pigeons.
The same walk on a sunny day with far more birds visible including this Rock Wren.
It always takes me by surprise to see a Towhee here. I always think of them as a west coast bird.
There were still a few Warblers around. Mainly Yellow and Yellow Rumped. I chased this one around for quite a while and this was the best photo I got. Not sure what it is. Possibly a Townsend's although it didn't really seem like Townsends habitat. Anybody have any idea?
That same wet day we went for a drive, we drove to this area which is a large Ducks Unlimited site (can't remember the name of it). We had seen several large flocks of Yellow Headed Blackbirds and that was about all there was there, apart from Coots. Very few ducks around and didn't see any Geese at all. Also the only shorebirds seen the entire trip were a few Killdeer in a muddy field.
That is the end of this part.
Kathy
