Lightning Lake, Manning Park, May 20

[james]

On Monday I had time to go a bit further afield for birding than I normally do. Thought I would check out the Great Blue Heron Reserve, but on the way I made a snap decision to go to Cheam Lake Wetlands instead. And wouldn't you know it, when the exit for Cheam Lake Wetlands came into view, I decided again to keep going
...all the way to Manning. I regretted that deeply on the way home, because of traffic, but the birding at Lightning Lake was pretty good. Lots of Townsend's and Yellow-rumped Warblers singing, a Hammond's Flycatcher, Barrow's Goldeneyes staying close to the lake edges, a few Common Mergansers, a curious Mountain Chickadee, and both species of kinglets, to name a few. Grouse were booming throughout the hike but I never spotted any.

There were a lot more dead trees than I remembered so I thought maybe I would see an American Three-toed or Black-backed woodpecker but no dice. There were lots of signs of woodpecker and sapsucker activity though. Some of the live spruces had a lot of scales stripped from their bark. Other points of interest: blooming glacier lily and orange honeysuckle, and a bat hunting over the lake in a less windy spot. This was at about 2 pm so I guess it was hungry.

[Chris]

Always enjoyable going to Manning.

How much snow is up there?

[james]

Hardly any at the lakes. Just a few slippery patches in the shade . Looked like there would be more up the trail to Mt Frosty.

[kenneth2019]

I was up there on Wednesday, it was snowing heavily but not staying on the ground. The snow level was only a few hundred feet up, zero degrees celcius at the lake. My knee has Me restricted to flat ground so I did not go up.
Birding was good even on the level, there were Mountain Bluebird and Yellow-headed Blackbird at the boat rental.