Kamloops winter birding, March 5th

[ed]

John V, Ian F, Joel, and I had a pretty good day birding the Kamloops area. We found White-winged Crossbills and Cassins Finch in the Lac La Jeune community. The Las da Buis grasslands yielded a coyote, no birds! In the Tranquil area we saw a large flock of Bohemian Waxwings( over 700). Not one Cedar among them.
After lunch we checked out the roads in the greater Knutsford area. A Rough-legged Hawk flew off and things were abit slow. Suddenly we saw a grouse high in a tree, yes a Sharp-tailed. We were happy with that! As we drove out we saw a few more which turned into another 15! On our way home we saw 5 Ruffed Grouse in willows beside the highway. We felt pretty pumped to observe these birds and more. Chukars are hit and miss...we missed. My son lives in Kamloops and reported he saw some near his yard that day, 😏. We saw 3 Northern Shrikes, Magpies and American Crows, of course. On the way up we had 40 or more Evening Grosbeaks as well.
Ed Klassen

[Chris]

Sounds like a very good outing. Love the Sharp-tailed Grouse. I see quite a few up here and sometimes they are high in the trees as you guys saw. On one occasion I saw one on a telephone wire!

[ed]

They like the buds in the alders and willows.

[kestrel]

The weather was perfect. There was no breeze almost the entire day, which made the cold easier to handle. In Kamloops the Thompson River was completely frozen-over, something I've never seen before.

One of the crossbills:
White-winged crossbill by Joel Schmidt, on Flickr

A fraction of the enormous Bohemian waxwing flock:
Bohemian waxwings by Joel Schmidt, on Flickr

Interestingly, they weren't eating berries:
Bohemian waxwings by Joel Schmidt, on Flickr
They kept going back and forth between the ground and some trees.

A couple of the Sharp-tailed grouse:
Sharp-tailed grouse by Joel Schmidt, on Flickr

I was surprised to see Ruffed grouse outside of their usual forest habitat:
Ruffed grouse by Joel Schmidt, on Flickr

Ruffed grouse by Joel Schmidt, on Flickr

[paulos]

Nice trip! I'm still looking for those sharp-tailed grouse.