Arrived in heavy rain and poor visibility (didn’t see runway until we were on the ground!) and after getting through the airport, collecting our car, and finding our hotel, it was late afternoon. So after freshening up, we did little but buy an umbrella and find a steakhouse bar in the bustling Gas Town region. Sam fell asleep half way through dinner.

Very few birds. Glaucous-winged Gulls abundant and lots of North-western Crows (possibly my worst ever tick!) Also House Sparrow and Feral Pigeon, and Tom had Vaux's Swifts at the airport when landing and a Starling.

New birds from the hotel window were Bushtits (several were also found later in the day.) Still raining quite heavily so started our day with a big breakfast in a traditional diner, “Hamburger Mary’s”, whilst walking to Stanley Park. On the way we had our first Black-capped Chickadees and American Robins, as well as the only non-melanistic Grey Squirrel of the day.

Just before the park, on the first beach, we saw Pelagic Cormorants and a single Double-crested Cormorant as well as several Great Blue Herons . At the park we walked the northern side of the Lost Lagoon, noting Mute Swans, Mallards, American Herring Gulls, Barn Swallows, Cliff Swallows, Song Sparrows, Red-winged Blackbirds, and Canada Geese.

We then headed to the Aquarium to avoid the rain, emerging a few hours later when the rain had stopped. After filling with a typical American Hotdog, we began a stroll in an anti-clockwise direction around the edge of the park. We had intended to walk half of it and then cut back through the middle, but missed our exit and ended do the lot, a total of over thirteen miles, the last half of it in hot sunshine. Tired, we had a traditional fish and chips at “Mr Pickwick’s” before walking another mile back to our hotel, along the beach, eventually arriving in the dark. Michelle and Sam were fortunate to see a Mouse sp. on the way.

Additional birds and mammals seen on the walk:

Red-breasted Nuthatch
Black-throated Grey-warbler – seen by the Totem Poles.
Bald Eagle – the first of many.
Belted Kingfisher
Ring-billed Gull
Harbour Seal – mother with pup at the start of the walk. 
“Black” Squirrel

 

Rain again, so after breakfast  in the hotel we changed our plans and drove to the George C. Reifel Bird Sanctuary south of Vancouver Island, leaving the planned trip to the higher regions until tomorrow when the forecast good weather would give us good views over the city.

Heavy showers amongst sunshine hampered viewing at times but we had an excellent time at the reserve, seeing the following new species:

Cedar Waxwing
Red-tailed Hawk
Wood Duck – mostly in eclipse unfortunately, though some males looked reasonable.
Green-winged Teal
Brown-headed Cowbird
Warbling Vireo
Pacific-slope Flycatcher?
Violet Green Swallow
Spotted Towhee
Tree Swallow – a few amongst the other hirrundines.
Sandhill Crane – two adults and a juvenile from the tower.
Lesser Yellowlegs
Greater Yellowlegs
American Wigeon
Orange-crowned Warbler
Northern Harrier
Cackling Goose – a single bird away from the flock of Canada Geese.
Pintail
Peregrine – a pair, they were seen food-passing by the children; I missed it as I was busy trying to identify the following bird (of which we later saw quite a few!)
MacGillivray’s Warbler
House Finch
American Goldfinch
Fox Sparrow
Downy Woodpecker
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Black-headed Grosbeak
Starling
House Sparrow
Yellow Warbler

Sam was also lucky enough to see a Mink.

The rest of the (now sunny) day was spent around Granville Market (a twenty minute walk over the bridge from our hotel), though at dusk, myself and the boys drove to Stanley Park where we had wonderful views of Racoon and Striped Skunk.

The weather was fine for our trip to the Capilano Suspension Bridge and Grouse Mountain and we all had a great time. After the trip to the top and back down again in the cable car, we also drove to the ski resort. We recorded the following new birds and mammals:

Capilano
Brown Creeper
Raven
Hairy Woodpecker
Douglas Squirrel

Grouse Mountain
Dark-eyed Junco 
Townsend’s Warbler
Pine Siskin
Steller’s Jay
Vaux’s Swift
Chestnut-backed Chickadee
Yellow-pine Chipmunk
Black-tailed Deer

After a quick drive before the light ran out to the ski resort at Cypress Hill to look for Grouse (not a lot was seen, but we had great views of Vancouver), we finished the day by returning to Stanley Park at dusk to give Michelle views of the Racoons and have more fish and chips! Here we also added Gadwall and Little Brown Bat.

 

Today’s journey started with the first ferry of the day over to the Vancouver Island (Tsawwassen to Swartz Bay as Michelle wanted to go to the Butchart Gardens north of Victoria.) Whilst waiting for the ferry, I had Black Turnstone and Western Gull as well as what looked like three Western Sandpipers. The journey was quite quiet, but did manage to get a Common Guillemot, several Pigeon Guillemots, and two Rhinoceros Auklets. Tom also managed a raft of Scoter that included Black Scoter.

The gardens didn’t produce the hopped for Hummers (probably too late in the year, with most having already left) but were enjoyable all the same, though the baking temperature made it rather tiring at times. Leaving the gardens we took a second short ferry from Brentwood Bay to Mill Bay, saving us a couple of hours drive. Harbour Seals were noted on the way, and then a Steller’s Sea Lion jumped out of the water on to the ferry dock just as we were coming into dock, making quite a racket.

By this time (mid-afternoon) it was very hot and the children went for a swim in the sea before we carried on our journey north.

Not much was seen on the drive apart from Turkey Vultures, but we made a stop at Somenos Lake as I had read that Marsh Wren could be found here (we’d missed it at Reifel as I foolishly forgot to specifically look for it.) We found the small pull-in that leads to a broadwalk over the (dried) marshes and soon scored with our target as well as Savannah Sparrow, a small flock of Brewer’s Blackbirds, and a Merlin. The Merlin, being the dark, Pacific form, had us quite confused for a while, particularly as it spent it’s time dragonfly catching in a manner similar to a Eurasian Hobby. It would take its prey midair before carrying and consuming them at the top of a tall tree before going on another sortie. This was something we’d never witnessed from a Merlin.

We continued down to the lake itself, but it held little, so continued on to Nanaimo where we had an excellent meal on the seafront (including “Nanaimo Bars”.) At dusk we then strolled along the promenade watching the buskers the people crabbing.

Not many birds today. We had a late start as Michelle was feeling quite ill and we needed to decide whether to get her to a doctors. She rested for a while whilst with the boys, I checked out a few places around Nanaimo (Pipers Lagoon and Neck Point.) Here Tom did very well to pick out a Bewick’s Wren and we also managed Northern Flicker and Black Oystercatcher.


Michelle decided she was feeling alright to press on to Tofino, and so we took a slow drive west slow drive west, stopping at places such as Cathedral Grove for walks. No new birds were added until we arrived, in thick fog, at our lodgings at "Bird & Breakfast" were we met with George Bradd. He’d been keeping the Hummingbird feeders well stocked and we managed to get Rufous Hummingbird added to the list.
The rest of the evening was spent visiting the hospital, though Michelle decided she would wait until tomorrow before seeing a doctor so we had dinner in a sea-side pub before an early night.

Much to our surprise, myself and Tom were booked on an early morning tour. We didn’t book on it, but decided to go anyway. First stop was Wickaninnish at the end of Long Beach followed by a short drive to Florencia Bay. Here we had the following new birds:

Great Northern Diver
Wandering Tatler
Surfbird
Surf Scoter
White-winged Scoter
Marbled Murelet – two, close to the shore.
Semipalmated Plover
Western Sandpiper
Least Sandpiper
Winter Wren
Red-throated Diver
Crossbill – several heard only.

Best sighting of all though was a Black Bear seen walking along the beach which we managed to get very close to. We also managed to see a River Otter (in the sea!)

A non-birding afternoon was spent doing the laundry, taking Michelle to the doctors (she finally got sorted!), and taking the boys surfing. We did manage a quick half an hour around the back of George’s Lodge, where Cassin’s Vireo were supposed to be found, but only got a few Gold-crowned Kinglets, though Tom also managed to find a Ribbon Snake and Sam saw a Rufous Hummingbird on the feeders.

Today was a Pelagic for myself and Tom where we went fifty miles off shore over the edge of the continental shelf. Conditions were calm, in fact too calm, as birds were scarce and the pelagic ended earlier than expected to go to Cleland Island. I was very annoyed about this as we were due to go there tomorrow and I later let my feelings known to George (who had arranged, but was not on the trip.) Anyway, while it lasted, it we had a great time. Notable species seen:

Harlequin Duck – four females.
Surf Scoter
Black-footed Albatross – one, unfortunately distant, bird.
Fulmar – 1,000+ nearly all dark birds.
Pink-footed Shearwater x 300+
Sooty Shearwater x 500+
Short-tailed Shearwater – three claimed, but incorrectly in my opinion (see photos at bottom.)
Fork-tailed Storm Petrel x 500+
Leach’s Petrel x 2 (one dark rumped, one pale.)
Brandt’s Cormorant x c.50
Osprey – on Cleland Island.
Wandering Tatler – on Cleland Island.
Black Turnstone – on Cleland Island.
Least Sandpipers? – a flock of about twenty waders, several miles from shore.
Red-necked Phalarope x c.20
Grey Phalarope x c.30
Heerman’s Gull x 50+ around Cleland Island.
Western Gull x 4 (probably very much over-looked.)
Common Guillemot x c.50
Pigeon Guillemot x c.50
Marbled Murrelet x 6
Cassin’s Auklet x 9
Rhinoceros Auklet x 40+
Tufted Puffin x 3
Humpback Whale x 6 very close to boat, some breaching.
Harbour Seal x c.20
Sea Otter – mother and pup.
Pacific Shark x 3

Returning late afternoon, we did little for the rest of the day but lay on the beach whilst the children surfed. Just before dusk we checked a site at Florencia Bay that was apparently reasonably reliable for Wolves but unfortunately there were people on the beach until dark.

A few pictures of the pelagic…

The rest can be seen here. These are the claimed Short-taileds, but they seem to be Sooties…

With Tom, I awoke way before dusk to check Florencia Bay for Wolves. We failed, but got extremely close (whilst in the car) to a mother Black Bear with two cubs.

For the rest of the family the day started with a tour with George in which we went in a canoe along a tributary of Kennedy Lake. En-route George spotted the Black Bears where we had previously seen them, but by the time we were able to turn around they had vanished.

Despite the title, “The Paddling with Eagles Tour”, we only saw one Bald Eagle, and that was when we were having lunch and not paddling! Anyway, I did not expect to see too many birds (it was something Michelle wanted to do – fortunately she had now recovered) but it was a lovely and very relaxing way to spend half a day. We did see a few birds too…

Band-tailed Pigeon – several.
Black Swift – x2 with several Vaux’s Swift.
Common Yellowthroat  x 3
Ring-necked Duck
Willow Flycatcher x 2
Baird’s Sandpiper – flying with a flock of six Least Sandpipers.
Spotted Sandpiper x 3
Pacific-slope Flycatcher x 2
Northern Rough-winged Swallow – several.
Violet-green Swallow – several.
Cedar Waxwing – several.
Black-headed Grosbeak

Late afternoon the four of us headed to Cleland Island on the “Seabird Voyage”. The main reason for booking this was to see Tufted Puffin and Sea Otter but as we’d seen the Puffin yesterday and Tom had missed the Otters, plus Michelle and Sam wanted the Otters, our attention turned mainly to them. This was fortunate, as no Puffins were seen. As well as the five Sea Otters, we got a pretty similar set of birds to yesterday, the complete list being:

Red-necked Grebe x 3
Harlequin Duck x 11
Surf Scoter x c.40
White-winged Scoter x 2
Pink-footed Shearwater – a single bird.
Brandt’s Cormorant x c.50
Pelagic Cormorant x c.30
Bald Eagle x 6
Peregrine
Black Oystercatcher x 10
Black Turnstone
Western Sandpiper x 2
Red-necked Phalarope
Heerman’s Gull x 50+
Western Gull – several.
California Gull x 20.
Herring Gull – many.
Glaucous-winged Gull – many.
Common Guillemot x c.50
Pigeon Guillemot x c.20
Marbled Murrelet x 2
Rhinoceros Auklet x 8

We also saw a small pod of Harbour Porpoises, a number of Harbour Seals, and a few Steller’s Sea Lions.

 

Afterwards, with Tom and an American birder who had been on the boat, we tried Radar Hill for an hour. Not a lot was seen, but we got momentarily excited by a possible Varied Thrush after seeing something in a low bush with a pale orange supercillium and breast. It turned out to be this Black-headed Grosbeak!

The day started pre-dawn for us all before we tried for the Black Bears and Wolves. We failed with the former and temporary car trouble meant we did not have time to really try for the latter, though we did pick up a Wilson’s Warbler and a Surfbird seemingly flying out of across the car-park by our heads was a strange sight. Tom also managed to get on to a Swainson’s Thrush. So after sorting the car, we continued our  long drive long drive to Campbell River where we were to get our float plane over to Knight Inlet.

We had a couple of planned stops on the way, the first being at the Taylor River rest stop were I was told Western Tanager could be found. However, though the pools held a number of passerines, we could find no Tanagers so continued on to our next stop at Little Qualicum Falls. Here I checked and failed for Dipper, but did get on to a flock of Crossbills in flight.

Way ahead of schedule, Michelle requested we look around the rather strange town of Coombs where we had something to eat (with more “Nanaimo Bars”!) and watched the excellent Shane Philip perform. No more stops and we arrived two hours early for our flight, so just sat and watched the sea at Campbell River and enjoyed a beer.

The float plane journey (in a de Havilland DHC-2 Beaver) was very exciting and I sat in the co-pilots seat. Arriving at The Grizzly Bear Lodge, Knight Inlet, the tide was high meaning we had no chance to look for Black Bears as promised, so instead, the four of us went on a walk of our own. We saw little bird life but we all got on to a Mink near the lodge.  After an excellent meal, the children went in to the hot tub with two girls!

Today was our chance to look for Orcas in the Johnstone Straight. The pods had been hard to come by this year and yesterday’s outing produced no sightings. The journey out produced good views of Black Bears (a mother and cub, and what was probably a male.) We stopped and  watched them for quite a while as these were Michelle and Sam’s first sightings.

We then got the bad news that a pod had been sighted heading fast south well out of our range. Nearly all sightings lately had been of the same three pods which swam together in a single pod. They would often swim fast south early morning and return late afternoon, though lately this return had often been late in the evening (as yesterday) long after we would need to return.

We held fast and had reasonable and prolonged views of a single Humpback Whale, and later several sightings of Dall’s Porpoise, as well as Steller’s Sea Lions, Harbour Seals, and Harbour Porpoises. Birds included a number of Bald Eagles, three Red-necked Grebes, a Black Turnstone, and over for hundred Rhinoceros Aucklets. We also got the news that the pod heading south had been “Transient” Orcas and therefore the “Resident” pods may still be in the area.

Then, just as we were about to land for lunch, we got news that the pod had been sighted about an hour north. Ignoring lunch we motored at full speed (getting good views of Dall’s Porpoises by the boat) and found them. We enjoyed excellent views for a couple of hours whilst we had lunch on board our small boat.

The journey home produced several Mew Gulls, our first of the trip. A Rufous Hummingbird was around the feeder at the lodge and I found a dead Vagrant or Dusky Shrew.

Today was expected to be much more straight forward with a journey to see Grizzly Bear within Knights Inlet. The journey lasted about an hour, and although they’d only ever not been seen once on a trip in August, when we arrived there were none! Eventually we found some however, getting four good sightings: A single female; two siblings (aged at about four years); a mother and two cubs (one of which had an extremely white collar); a single large female.

The wind picked up for our journey home, an I was surprised to see a good number of Fork-tailed Petrels so far “inland”. Amongst them we got good views of a pale-rumped Leach’s Petrel. Other birds noted were Rhinoceros Aucklets, Marbled Murrelets, and our first of both Bonaparte’s Gulls (four in total) and Purple Martin (a single bird from the lodge at dusk.)

We then took our float-plane journey back to Campbell River. Again, I sat with the pilot, this time in a de Havilland Turbo Otter. We then drove to our hotel where we enjoyed a dip in the pool before watching a glorious sunset over the channel whilst having a beer or two on the balcony.

A bit of a lay-in, followed by doing the laundry in the hotel for what seemed forever, meant we were slow getting away. Today was marked as a free day to go on a tour out of Campbell River if we had missed either the Orcas or Bears. As we’d got both, we decided to visit Strathcona Provincial Park as it was supposed to be very good for wildlife, particularly mammals, and views.

Hot afternoons in the heat are never the best time for wildlife viewing, particularly in a forest in autumn and we therefore didn’t see an awful lot. Indeed, the only mammal we saw was Black-tailed Deer and the only real birds of note were a couple of Band-tailed Pigeons. However, as were under no pressure and just enjoyed the walks, the drives, and visiting waterfalls and spectacular scenery.

We left around 5pm for the drive back down to Nanaimo where we checked in to the same hotel as a few days ago and went to the same restaurant on the seafront.

Today started early with the first ferry across to Vancouver. The crossing was uneventful apart from a few sightings of Harbour Porpoise and a Pigeon Guillemot. We then drove to collect our RV for our trip in to the Rockies, only to find out that it wouldn’t be available until 3pm. This scuppered our plans somewhat as I’d wanted to get to Manning. Nothing could be done about it and after shopping for food, eating lunch, dropping the car at the airport and getting a taxi back, it got to around that time anyway. However, there were further delays and after going through all the instructions and loading our luggage and food, it was 4:45pm so we had a bit of a dash in order to get to Manning, several hours away. My first experience of driving an RV was therefore getting through the Friday night Vancouver rush-hour traffic and then driving along mountainous roads in the dark.

After a very quick stop in Hope for some more food shopping (the “Walmart” in Vancouver wasn’t too great) and a visit to the Liquor store (I knew we would need a drink!) we arrived around 9:30pm rather stressed and were told to be aware of a mother Black Bear that frequented the campsite with her cub. We cracked open the drinks (Royal Canadian Rye Whisky for me), had a bite to eat, and spent our first night in the RV whilst a Western Screech-owl called distantly.

I awoke at dawn and whilst everyone was sleeping, took a walk down a slope to the lake by which we were camping. It was a beautiful view with the sun’s first rays clearing the mist from the water on Lightning Lake. I watched it for a moment and then dashed back to get my camera, but in the five minutes it took, most of the mist had vanished!

It seemed quite birdy, so I roused Tom with the promise of a new bird for him (American Crow!) and we took a walk around for a couple of hours. Though we could hear a lot, getting views was tricky and it proved slow, though we got confirmed views of Lincoln’s Sparrow and got on to a Swainson’s Thrush. Returning to the camp, there were some very friendly Clark’s Nutcrackers as well as a Yellow-pine Chipmunks, American Red Squirrel, and a Columbian Ground-squirrel which all sat on the same log briefly, looking like something from a Disney cartoon!

After an alfresco breakfast we walked a few trails (the highlight being a Merlin perched on top of a Beaver lodge) but unfortunately didn’t really have time to do this beautiful place justice as we had a long drive ahead with stop-offs and Michelle wanted to be there before nightfall.

First stop was Princeton as I’d noticed the same supermarket and deli that Michelle had visited briefly last night. Then there were one or two stops at the fruit markets south of Penticon (apparently they are quite famous, locally at least) where we saw our first  Black-billed Magpie. Then finally my stop at Vaseux Lake. This was superb and I only wish we could have had longer; Tom, who was getting lots of new birds, was insistent that we stay longer and drive in the dark again, but I thought Michelle would prefer not to! The only downside was that it was teeming with mosquitoes. Michelle who was tired decided to stay in the RV, and after about half an hour of been bitten all over, Sam went back to join her (plucking the courage for the first time to walk on his own, despite his worry of bears!) This was unfortunate as we later found a Beaver. Having had good views of Beaver on previous trips, I ran back to get him but he missed it by a few seconds.

We had excellent views of a number of birds we’d previously seen and also added the following to our trip (or in some cases life lists):

American Coot
Black-necked Grebe
Townsend’s Solitaire
Grey Catbird
Common Nighthawk
Pied-billed Grebe
Western Wood-Pewee
Eastern Kingbird

All these were ticks for Tom, and although the Solitaire was new for me, the highlight was undoubtedly the Nighthawks. We counted 153 as they flocked (north!) late afternoon. This was particularly pleasing as it was a bird Tom really wanted to see and I thought it may have been too late in the year for them. Nearby we also saw the Rocky Mountain form of Mule Deer which has a near all white tail (just a black tip) unlike the Black-tailed (Mule) Deer we were seeing earlier.

Late (again) we dashed north without any further stops, arriving at Bear Creek just north of Kelowna at dusk.

Walked half of the excellent Canyon Rim Trail with Tom, going as far as “Look Out 3” and cutting back along the short-cut. This proved excellent and took us a couple of hours to complete. Along with the numerous Red-breasted Nuthatches we added Pygmy Nuthatch and Mountain Chickadee to our lists. On the last bridge I did my usual futile check for American Dipper (where are they?) and got momentarily excited when I saw a bird bobbing on the rocks. This turned out to be Northern Waterthrush. Great for Tom, but I was begining to get worried by the lack of Dippers!

Pressing north we stopped for an early lunch at Swan Lake which was apparently good for Western Grebe. At first we had no luck, with every distant diving possibility turning out to be Great Northern Diver. Whilst chatting to a very talkative fisherman (who we christened Raving Loon"), I eventually picked out two distant but tickable birds.

Happy with our find we continued our journey north, stopping for views of American Kestrel which Tom desperately wanted to see and Coopers Hawk (which Tom missed!)

Arriving a couple of hours before dark at Clearwater, this was our first RV “Hook-up” site, so we sorted out what needed to be sorted whilst the children played crazy golf and went for a swim in the cold outdoor pool.

From the Lonely Planet:
“If there’s a waterfall in the woods and nobody’s there, does it make a noise? That’s a question they might ask at – supposedly – thundering Helmcken Falls, which at 141m is Canada’s fourth-highest falls. And do the mist laden clouds over the falls rain dew on the tree- and moss-covered gorge if nobody’s there to get wet? Good questions and ones that are germane given the utter isolation you’ll find in Wells Gray Provincial Park, a wonderland of lakes, peaks, wildlife and dozens of purportedly noisy waterfalls.”

Spent from first thing until mid-afternoon in this beautiful place as much as we could, seeing the Helmcken Falls and the equally spectacular Horseshoe Falls. With Tom, I also hit upon an excellent trail from the Green Mountain viewing tower down to some water. During the day, the following new species were seen:

Chipping Sparrow
Red-naped Sapsucker – a flock of three.
Yellow-rumped Warbler – lots! Where had they been until now?
Red-breasted Sapsucker
Hammond’s Flycatcher
Barrow’s Goldeneye x 3
Western Tanager
American Three-toed Woodpecker

We also found an unidentified perched hawk that needs investigating as well as Least Chipmunks.

We then pretty much just motored on to Jasper, stopping only for gas, and short rest and a photo or two of Mount Robson. On the journey I had an American Redstart. We crossed into Alberta around dusk where I handed over nearly $100 for our five day stay in the Jasper/Banff region. Just before we reached our campsite, a couple of Elk were seen by the side of the road, caught by our headlights.

Edit: 16/09/2010: The hawk was Cooper's Hawk.

A full day somewhere was nice, but the RV still needs packing before hitting the road! As soon as we had done so we headed along the Maligne Valley to Maligne Lake. En-route we had our first Grey Jays and at Medicine lake we got American Pika and a couple of Hoary Marmots. There were also a large number of Mourning Cloak butterflies (probably a better name these days than Camberwell Beauty!), something I’ve never seen in Europe. We also got close views of Mule Deer and more Elk, but bird life was very quiet. So, after visiting the spectacular Maligne Canyon, having something to eat, and then walking a very small section of the watch-tower trail, we headed into town, booked a white-water rafting trip, and took the cable car to the top of Whistler Mountain.

Here White-tailed Ptarmigan were apparently easily found around the boardwalk at the top. They weren’t. I scanned for nearly three hours and the only birds I saw were a Steller’s Jay and American Pipit. The photos in trip reports suggest that the birds are very close, so I guess they simply can’t be found there at this time of year. A few Golden-backed Ground-squirrels were found as well as more Columbian Ground-squirrels and five distant Mountain Goats which we all enjoyed ‘scope views of. The way down was interesting with the cable-car temporarily breaking down and hanging in mid air after quite a wobble and quite a bit of panic by some of the passengers!

Finally, at dusk we drove Marmot Mountain as far as possible (little was seen) before cooking steak and corn outside on the fire (they’d been a fire ban in British Columbia), washed down with beer and whiskey whilst Coyotes howled in the distance.

A bit of a disaster today. Started okay as we drove the Trans-Canada highway to the edge of the park looking for wildlife. We got reasonable view of a Black Bear we found but the roads around Jasper resemble a safari when something is seen and someone soon parked by us, got out of the car, and it was scared off. We also got a good number of Big-horn Sheep. Birds were few and far between but we did see a Sharp-shinned Hawk and I got brief views of a Pileated Woodpecker. After walking a small trail (nothing of note, but very fresh Black Bear prints) and stopping for lunch at the end of the old Fire Road (apparently good for Grouse, but we saw none) we headed into town for our white water rafting trip.

It was here that we realised that we had forgotten to change our watches from Pacific time to Mountain time and we were an hour late, the trip having left. We re-booked for tomorrow and found Michelle in the town. The trip for the following day was not scheduled to finish until 3pm and we were due to take a slow drive along the Icefields Parkway that day. We decided that the best course of action was to take a slow drive along the top third of the Jasper-Banff road so that we could zoom through that section the following day. This we did, getting as far as Sunwapta Falls.

An evening BBQ again, but just as I put the burgers on, a clash of thunder and a huge downpour so we rescued the food as best as we could and ate in the RV.

Started the day by redriving the route along the Maligne Valley, but only as far as Medicine Lake as we wanted to get to Pyramid Lake. Unfortunately the best part of the drive is beyond Medicine Lake, so it didn’t really add anything to what we’d already seen (Mule Deer, Grey Jays etc.)  Pressing on to Pyramid Lake where there were some very good birdy marshes just south of the lake. If I’d have known how good they potentially looked I’d have spent more time here but we just paid a short visit. However, White-winged Crossbill was added to the list and we had better views of American Three-toed Woodpecker.

White water rafting was fun and we saw a few birds too: Osprey, Spotted Sandpiper, and (probable) Western Sandpipers.

Back in town we met with Michelle who had found a Little Brown Bat roosting, so we took a look at that. And then the weather dramatically changed. The wind picked up and the rain came down forcing us to run to the RV where we had lunch before driving the Icefield Parkway.

The views (when we had them during breaks in the rain) were spectacular. We stopped at the Icefield Parkway centre where we had another try for White-tailed Ptarmigan. Unfortunately the heavens really opened and it ruined any realistic chance of finding them here or further down the road at Parker Ridge. In fact the last couple of hours of the drive weren’t much fun. Torrential rain meant we could see little and roadworks after Lake Louise meant we did not arrive in Banff until around 10pm. Having been up before dawn, everyone was exhausted.

Pretty much a non birding day as we owed Michelle some time from the white water rafting. She wanted to go to Lake Louse and Moraine Lake so avoided the Route 1 roadworks and instead drove the 1A that runs parallel and is supposed to be very good for wildlife. We didn’t see an awful lot but did get poor views of a pair of Hooded Merganser which were new.

 

After Lake Louse we headed to Lake Moraine. We started a walk around part of the lake but it was freezing and started first snowing and then hailing. We decided to head to Emerald Lake in Yoho National Park over the border in British Columbia. A beautiful setting and the skies cleared for the rest of the day. A pair of Goosanders were added to the list and I glimpsed a large bird that must surely have been a Pileated Woodpecker (or Ivory-billed if you’re from Cornell?)

Finally, back in Banff whilst Michelle went shopping I went with the boys to the Cave and Basin hot springs until dusk were there was a wildlife boardwalk. A reasonable birding site that held birds such as Common Yellowthroat and Wilson’s Warbler. We also saw a Long-tailed Vole.

Finally, at the RV site, I heard what I think was Barred Owl.

A final mountain drive north up the first section of the 1A before dawn produced one of the sightings of the trip: A Grey Wolf! We also added a female Bufflehead to our list of birds and then eventually stumbled upon our first grouse of the trip in the form of two Dusky Grouse. And then a final bit of mountain birding around Vermillion Lake whilst Michelle and Sam slept. Bitterly cold it produced birds such as Lesser Yellowlegs, Western Sandpiper, Green-winged Teal, American Wigeon, Osprey, Orange-crowned Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, MacGillivray's Warbler, and Chipping Sparrow.

We then headed out of the Rockies (having dipped on Dipper! I checked so many streams but what can you do?) towards Calgary and on to the Badlands.

Dropping the RV was easier than collecting it and we were on the road in our final hire car (a very nice to drive Ford Escape) by mid afternoon. Only stopping to look at our first Swainson’s Hawks the only other new bird in the flat prairies were Mourning Doves, though Tom saw a Western Meadowlark too.

After dropping Michelle and Sam at the hotel, Tom and I carried on to Kinbrook Island Provincial Park about twenty minutes south of the town. Despite the mosquitoes and forgetting to bring a ‘scope (which would have been useful), we had an excellent time. Notable or new birds seen either at the park or at one of the water-bodies en-route included:

Blue-winged Teal x 8
Shoveller x 5
Canvasback x 3
Lesser Scaup
Pied-billed Grebe
Slavonian Grebe x 4
American Coot x 3
Black Tern x 6
Forster’s Tern – pair.
Eastern Kingbird  x 20+
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Clay-coloured Sparrow x 20+
Brewer’s Sparrow x 3
Vesper Sparrow x 20+ 
Yellow-headed Blackbird x 4

Tom also managed another Meadowlark and two flyover Long-billed Curlews, both not seen by me.

We then went into the rather sleepy and strange Badland’s town of Brooks for dinner.

Last day in Canada with a planned visit to the fascinating Dinosaur Provincial Park.
However, before that, myself and Tom had another crack at Kinbrook. On the way we had excellent views of a Great-horned Owl and whilst there had a vireo that could have been either Cassin’s or Blue-headed. Tom also had another Western Meadowlark which I missed, though I did fortunately find a pair just as we were leaving the park. Only mammals we got were road-kills: White-tailed Jack Rabbit and North American Porcupine.

On to the park where we drove through large (100+) flocks of Brewer’s Blackbirds. We had a great time though the trail next to the marshes was infested with mosquitoes which the others were less keen on, particularly as we didn’t see a lot, and just heard a Pheasant! In fact apart from myself, everyone gave up at one point or another and returned to the car. It was at this point Sam called out a large raptor which turned out to be an American White Pelican.I missed it (I’d already missed one that Tom saw earlier) though I did manage poor views of one later in the day on the return drive to Calgary a distant and rather disappointing flight view and my last new bird in Canada.
As for wildlife, apart from that already mentioned, Tom saw a Mountain Cottontail and we saw the following additional birds:



Western Kingbird x 5 ( just outside the park.)
Say’s Phoebe x 2
Rock Wren x 2
Prairie Falcon
Lark Sparrow x 2
Zonotrichia sparrow – bird photographed.

Apart from the above mentioned Pelican, several more Swainson’s Hawks and Red-necked Hawks, as well as a Northern Harrier and a Common Grackle were seen on the drive to a very wet Calgary. We arrived at the airport in plenty of time for Michelle to do some last minute shopping.

Edit 20/09/2010:
The Vireo was Cassin's Vireo.
The “Zonotrichia” sparrow is actually a Lark Sparrow, probably a juvenile…