Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Back to the Dempster, 2011 – Part 2

In real time it is a pretty wet, miserable day, so might as well continue on with the telling of this trip…although as I recall the weather at this point wasn’t a whole lot better!  We left Beaumont P.P. in the morning and headed west, our destination being Terrace B.C. where we planned to visit friends…rain or drizzle most of the way. 

Seely Lake

Stopped at Seely Lake P.P. to give the dogs, and us, a chance to stretch our legs….this is such a nice little campground, although tiny, squeezed between the highway and I guess, Seely Lake.  It had been extremely ‘birdy’ when we had stayed here in late May, 2 years before, and was just as ‘birdy’ on this day, the 11th of August…also there wasn’t a soul camped here…

Hybrid Northern Flicker

This is one of a family of Northern Flicker that were in the campground…you can see from the mark on the nape of the neck that this family was mixed – Red-shafted and Yellow-shafted.

Continued on to Terrace where we spent the night, leaving in the morning, in the rain….headed back to the Stewart Cassiar Highway…

Skeena River near Terrace

This is the Skeena River as it runs along the highway…Terrace would be back there as we are looking west in this picture…

Wet Campground

Rained the whole day and was still raining when we reached Meziadan Provincial Park in afternoon…after a drive around the fairly large campground, we headed back up into the same campsite we had stayed in 2 years before (yes, we are creatures of habit)

Juvenile Robin in the rain

By the time we were set up the rain had slowed enough for me to get out for a wander….there were lots of Robins here….including lots of young ones like the guy above…

Woodpecker in the rain

This Downy Woodpecker was really working on this tree trunk…

creek leading to lake

I had wandered down to the lake side and found this spot that was just full of Warblers…

Closer look

Looked down at my feet and there was a Wilson’s Snipe standing there! 

Downy & Sapsucker on same tree

by this point the rain had stopped and I decided to go back to the camper to get the DSLR camera in hopes of getting photos of what I was pretty sure was a Magnolia Warbler….on the way…saw this Downy Woodpecker and Red-breasted Sapsucker sharing the same tree….I was actually surprised to see the Sapsucker but after checking the field guide, they are expected to be here.

Thimbleberries

another thing that surprised me were the berries.  I had expected, in fact hoped to find lots of different berries…but the lushness of these Thimbleberries really surprised me.  Back at home Thimbleberries never look like this come berry time.

Red Elderberries

Red Elderberries were in good supply too – all these berries were at least one of the reasons for all the birds…

Interesting Fungi

Back at the campsite we found these fungi interesting….in fact this was just the start of something we hadn’t expected….we’d hoped for Fall Colours, Berries, and Wildlife (except for squirrels, non existent to this point)…we’d never thought about Fungi but as it turned out that would prove to be one of the most interesting aspects of this trip!  Since returning from this trip we’ve bought ourselves a book on Mushrooms…but I still don’t know what kind this one was….

Pentex 024

another matter of interest were the numbers of Rufous Hummingbirds in the Fireweed….before this trip I never would have associated the two together….this was now the 12th of August…I’m giving dates just so you get a sense of when  birds can be expected, even this far north.

Young Warbler?

This was a young Warbler of some sort…I never did get photos of the Magnolia Warbler…by the time I returned, an RV had pulled into the spot that backed onto this area (the campground was over half full) and since I resent people invading my space when camped…I certainly wasn’t about to do the same…even for a bird I’d never seen before!

Ernie Fishing

That evening Ernie decided to make use of his fishing license since it was the first time he’d bought one in several years….it didn’t do any good…he didn’t catch anything.  Shantz found the whole thing rather amusing anyway…

Young Crow

Should include this…one of a number of young Northwestern Crows in the park…. and just for interest sake, when we had been here in I think late May…there had been lots of Flycatchers of a number of varieties….they obviously arrive early and leave early as there were no flycatchers to be seen this trip…but certainly lots of other species!

Cooking breakfast

Might as well throw this picture in…Ernie testing out his new combination stove and grill and Shantz helping…or something…

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