Post by Gord on Nov 3, 2006 13:57:05 GMT -8
Got sent up on business on Wednesday which was fine by me. ;D
I was a little nervous about the snow, more so on the road, but it was clear except the final 800 meters from the last steep bit. I was nervous about the coming back part on the hill, but it looked ok (and would prove to be so).
Got to the parking lot and it was cold. Happily the wind wasnt going like it was down in the Valley, so it wasnt nearly as cold as I thought it might have been.
Got some nice views of a small flock of pine grosbeaks feeding at the tops of the trees. The first time Ive seen them perched and not flying by. Also here were two grey jays.
Struck off down the trail, and after going 200 yds, had cut about 5 sets of bear tracks.
Looking ahead to see what to expect (bird, safety and etc wise), I could see a bear up the slope about 100 yds. There turned out to be two feeding close together. I think with the snow on the slopes covering the blueberries, they had moved down in elevation to get at the last of the berries in the alaskan (?) blueberries that are higher from the ground and not buried. I watched and they moved uphill, and I felt comfortable passing after several minutes.
This is of a sow and two cubs (the other set is just outside the frame)
This is of a single cub with a sow further along. Wow again.
It was absolutely dead for birds aside from a flock of 9 pine grosbeaks that circled around several times and almost landed near by. The snow was about 4 inches deep.
At the saddle between Lady and Cheam Peak, I heard something similar to Lapland longspur calls but I suspected snow bunting. I was right as three flew overhead. ;D
Then things got good with a huge flock of bohemian waxwings flying in just up the slope and settling on the trees at the edge. They spent a lot of time flying around to the ground, back to the trees. I made double time hoping to get up to where they were feeding for pictures.
Half way there, a small hawk species roared in and went after the bird it selected into the trees. I was disgusted but the flock came back in several large groups soon after to my delight. I stopped and rested and watched as the very active birds flew from tree to tree, often going down at exposed blueberry bushes but never sitting still for long. Then, a merlin came in for a taste of waxwing and scared the flock off for good. There was also a Townsend's solitare here which I got a brief look at.
Now on to ptarmigan. I was hoping to run into one on my travels. I had a theory that with the snow being soft enough to hold the prints of lighter animals (there were lots of prints from mice and small birds everywhere) it would be simple task to find fresh ptarmigan prints and follow them.
Sure enough, I found some ptarmigan prints (or foolish blue grouse prints but shouldnt be blue grouse this high at this time of year in the middle of a white expanse).
I know it sounds like Im warming up to telling how I found one or maybe even two, but all I can say are lots of ptarmigan prints but no ptarmigan. Prints looked really fresh in places too.
There wasnt much feeding activity or other signs of loitering. The prints just went along pretty much in a straight line, mostly uphill too.
It was very icy up top. Trust me, that was an understatement. Seems the snow melted around the rocks that were near the top of the snow but froze again. Im sure the pair of ravens at the top were highly amused. I finally gave up trying to stand and just slid down on my behind back to the powder.
All the way back down it was very quiet but it's tough to hear things with the "scrunch scrunch" of the snow. I think it was safe to say, it's pretty quiet birdwise up there now, although the low amount was made up for some nice views of what I did see.
What I saw:
Pine grosbeak ~30
Gray jay 2
Chestnut-backed chickadee 6
Snow bunting 3
Townsend's solitare 1
Bohemian waxwing ~250+
Merlin 1
Accipter sp 1
Varied thrush 1
Common raven 2
One ruffed grouse on the bench road near Foley Creek finished off the day.
p.s. I have compressed the pictures in my report keeping members (myself included) with slow connections happy. I hope I found a middle ground between image size and image quality.
I was a little nervous about the snow, more so on the road, but it was clear except the final 800 meters from the last steep bit. I was nervous about the coming back part on the hill, but it looked ok (and would prove to be so).
Got to the parking lot and it was cold. Happily the wind wasnt going like it was down in the Valley, so it wasnt nearly as cold as I thought it might have been.
Got some nice views of a small flock of pine grosbeaks feeding at the tops of the trees. The first time Ive seen them perched and not flying by. Also here were two grey jays.
Struck off down the trail, and after going 200 yds, had cut about 5 sets of bear tracks.
Looking ahead to see what to expect (bird, safety and etc wise), I could see a bear up the slope about 100 yds. There turned out to be two feeding close together. I think with the snow on the slopes covering the blueberries, they had moved down in elevation to get at the last of the berries in the alaskan (?) blueberries that are higher from the ground and not buried. I watched and they moved uphill, and I felt comfortable passing after several minutes.This is of a sow and two cubs (the other set is just outside the frame)
This is of a single cub with a sow further along. Wow again.
It was absolutely dead for birds aside from a flock of 9 pine grosbeaks that circled around several times and almost landed near by. The snow was about 4 inches deep.
At the saddle between Lady and Cheam Peak, I heard something similar to Lapland longspur calls but I suspected snow bunting. I was right as three flew overhead. ;D
Then things got good with a huge flock of bohemian waxwings flying in just up the slope and settling on the trees at the edge. They spent a lot of time flying around to the ground, back to the trees. I made double time hoping to get up to where they were feeding for pictures.
Half way there, a small hawk species roared in and went after the bird it selected into the trees. I was disgusted but the flock came back in several large groups soon after to my delight. I stopped and rested and watched as the very active birds flew from tree to tree, often going down at exposed blueberry bushes but never sitting still for long. Then, a merlin came in for a taste of waxwing and scared the flock off for good. There was also a Townsend's solitare here which I got a brief look at.
Now on to ptarmigan. I was hoping to run into one on my travels. I had a theory that with the snow being soft enough to hold the prints of lighter animals (there were lots of prints from mice and small birds everywhere) it would be simple task to find fresh ptarmigan prints and follow them.
Sure enough, I found some ptarmigan prints (or foolish blue grouse prints but shouldnt be blue grouse this high at this time of year in the middle of a white expanse).
I know it sounds like Im warming up to telling how I found one or maybe even two, but all I can say are lots of ptarmigan prints but no ptarmigan. Prints looked really fresh in places too.
There wasnt much feeding activity or other signs of loitering. The prints just went along pretty much in a straight line, mostly uphill too.It was very icy up top. Trust me, that was an understatement. Seems the snow melted around the rocks that were near the top of the snow but froze again. Im sure the pair of ravens at the top were highly amused. I finally gave up trying to stand and just slid down on my behind back to the powder.
All the way back down it was very quiet but it's tough to hear things with the "scrunch scrunch" of the snow. I think it was safe to say, it's pretty quiet birdwise up there now, although the low amount was made up for some nice views of what I did see.
What I saw:
Pine grosbeak ~30
Gray jay 2
Chestnut-backed chickadee 6
Snow bunting 3
Townsend's solitare 1
Bohemian waxwing ~250+
Merlin 1
Accipter sp 1
Varied thrush 1
Common raven 2
One ruffed grouse on the bench road near Foley Creek finished off the day.
p.s. I have compressed the pictures in my report keeping members (myself included) with slow connections happy. I hope I found a middle ground between image size and image quality.
