Easter 2011

In real time, although it is now the 4th official day of summer, it is another cool, wet day….so seems a good time to finish my catching up by reporting on our first trip of the season, which, as usual, was at Easter.

Traditionally, we like to head to Tunkwa Lake P.P. on this weekend even though it isn’t ‘officially’ open, but given the long colder and wetter than normal winter we suspected that the campground at Tunkwa was probably still snow bound.  So, we decided to head over the Hope Princeton Hwy. towards the Okanagan….as we went through Manning Park…3 feet of snow still covered the campgrounds there..

 

So continued on, decided to check out the provincial park campground on Vaseux Lake and were very lucky to get the last unoccupied spot on the lake….

Not only that, but it was actually sunny and warm enough to sit outside!! What a treat!!!

Just spent the afternoon sitting in the sun and soaking up the vitamin D!  and of course taking pictures of any birds that wandered by….like this White Crowned Sparrow – one of several…

or this male California Quail…

the pair of Black-capped Chickadees that were busy inspecting nesting cavities…

or one of a number of Red-breasted Nuthatch…this one all fluffed up and air drying after a bath…

there was a large raft of American Coots out on the lake…

and this pair of Mallards which hung about just off shore – talk about the height of laziness as this female stretched her neck for a drink…they must have been enjoying the warmth as much as we were!

here is a peaceful evening scene of the lake, looking south.

Next morning we set off up the McIntyre Creek road, just opposite the campground…this is a view from part way up the hillside – another sunny warm day.

a female Mountain Bluebird was spotted…

there were a few of the very early wildflowers, like this Sagebrush Buttercup

and these Shooting Stars….both of these pictures taken by Ernie.

 

heading back down towards the campground…

we were amazed to spot these Big Horn Sheep – this area is a preserve for Big Horn Sheep but we’ve never actually seen any here before…

it was astounding how they moved up the cliff face…

and onto the top….

this small herd remained up on the hillside all afternoon…here Ernie is looking at them with the spotting scope…

using a tripod for support I zoomed in from the same location using both the digital as well as the optical zoom on my Canon Power shot camera to get this shot….

The next day, being Easter Sunday, we moved on to the campground at Okanagan Falls Provincial Park as we were invited for Easter dinner at nearby relatives….this is the Okanagan River as it runs behind the campground.