Birding by Shantz

Back to the Dempster 2011 – Part 20

2012-02-15T14:22:00.001-08:00

Now, on Sunday of the Labor Day long weekend, we would pack up and head back up the Alaska Highway to the campsite at the Liard Hot Springs…

hadn’t gone very far up the highway when we encountered this herd of Wood Bison….

so might as well take some time and look at Wood Bison pictures…

why did the bison cross the road? To tie up traffic would be my guess!

they learn young…

more of them out this window as well…

kind of cute in a homely way…

and this would be the best ‘head shot’ I’d get – look at all the burrs and bits in the fur….needs a good grooming!

proceeded on to the campground, and true to his word, the park host had saved us a spot. It was even a fairly private spot in this rather packed campground. By now the weather had cleared so we set off for a walk along the boardwalk to the actual hot springs…this is along the way…

there were a family of Mallards paddling around in the warm water….

closer look at one of them and the ‘muck’ they were feeding in….

this spot is a bit ‘off trail’ and behind where the actual hot springs are located…

the boardwalk now ends at the hanging gardens – not looking terribly ‘garden like’ this time of the year. You used to be able to walk to the upper springs, but that has now been completely blocked off due to a very rare endangered snail that lives in those springs…

here is some of the vegetation along the board walk…

and a small corner of the hot springs themselves…I really didn’t want a picture of all the occupants of the springs…

Later, Ernie went back to indulge in a soak in the springs…and found that the signs warning ‘Bear in area’ are there for a reason as this guy was walking along not far from the board walk….

later in the afternoon, either the same, or another bear was in the campground – see it up that tree?

I like to call this picture ‘like father, like daughter’ – what were they staring at?

the bear of course!!

That would pretty much be it for our stay at Laird Hot Springs. The next day we’d be heading to a spot I wanted to stay at….

Back to the Dempster 2011 – Part 19

2012-02-14T13:51:00.001-08:00

Left Big Creek campground the morning of September 3rd. We were now into the Labor Day weekend but, as it turns out, naively thought that it wouldn’t make a difference ‘up here’.

stopped at Watson Lake to dump the holding tanks. There is a nice little park here with a free dumpsite…

while Ernie did the dirty work I wandered about and was surprised to see this Red-necked Grebe youngster, still being fed by a parent..

duties done we were soon back on the highway….that is the Laird River down there…

at another spot along the highway we saw a family of Swans way off in the distance…

we are now back in British Columbia and also back in ‘Bison’ country…

here is an up close and personal look at a Wood Bison head….

stopped at the Laird River – there is a very small ‘rough and ready’ camping area here…

The river makes an abrupt turn at his point…

These asters were in flower – not sure of the exact variety that they are…

Our plan had been to stay at Laird Hot Springs, however, when we got there the campground was full (remember it was Labor day weekend and this is a campground you can reserve and as we found out – it is a favorite long weekend destination for residents of Fort St. John) so we continued on to Muncho Lake …

Where we found McDonald Campground on the north end of Muncho Lake to still have some vacancies so we quickly grabbed a spot. I much prefer this campground to Laird…far more scenic and far less busy…but Ernie, for some reason had his heart set on staying at the hot springs…

All of these campsites back right onto the lake.

In spring the wildflowers in this campground are spectacular….now it was time for ‘fall colour’

found a few late bloomers….

and some interesting seed heads – I’m not sure what this is a seed head off…

but they were quite tall as this picture shows…

The High-bush Cranberry were pretty spectacular…

and there were some of those Northern Grass of Parnassus here as well.

here is an evening shot of the lake…

and another….if you notice there are some birds just off of those reeds…

They were Greater White-fronted Geese. They had been on shore when Ernie (who took this picture) had been in the area, but had moved out by the time I got there.

This juvenile Bald Eagle was also there but it was getting pretty dark for taking pictures by this time. It was about this time that the park manager came to collect fees and when Ernie complained about not being able to get into Liard….the fellow said ‘no problem’ I’ll leave your name at the gate, and save a spot for you…so in the morning we would be retracing our route back to Liard Hot Springs.

Back to the Dempster 2011 – Part 18

2012-02-09T19:11:00.001-08:00

This won’t be a very exciting posting. It was September 2nd when we left Whitehorse and headed east on the Alaska Highway.

it is a long stretch…

stopped at one point along the Alaska Highway – this is the view on one side…

and on the other a large marsh area….there were a couple of Moose down there…

Like the ones at Gravel Lake – too far away for decent pictures – this was the most moose we’ve seen on anyone trip though…

Stopped at Rancheria Falls again…

Found this interesting – the squirrels have been storing various mushrooms up in the trees – presumably to dry for a winter food supply…

and speaking of mushrooms there were a lot of these very pretty white ones at the entrance of the trail…not sure of the ID…closest thing I can find are Smith’s Amanita – if that is the case then they are also very poisonous!

Our spot for the night would be at Big Creek Territorial Campground – we had stayed here on our previous trip – although we swore it’s name should have been Big ‘Mosquito’ campground as it was the worst spot for mosquitoes we encountered. Not so this time – bugs simply weren’t an issue this trip. Had we realized at the time that there was another campground not too far down the road near Watson Lake, we would have pushed on – live and learn! As it was we made the best of this rather uninspiring spot.

this is ‘Big Creek’….I went for a bit of a walk on the little bit of trail that exists there…

Found this, which appears to be a very late blooming cut-leaf Anemone

Was also intrigued by this clover – I’m not sure I’ve ever seen clover quite that colour before!

Here is a close up of one of the flowers…

there were also these strange fungi that I can’t find in my book…

and these, younger versions of the same type I think…

and this – a type of lichen I think, but again, I can’t find it in my books…

Some brilliant flower weed…and that would about do it. The next day would be far more productive in terms of things to photograph!

Back to the Dempster 2011 – Part 17

2012-02-08T15:06:00.001-08:00

Left Moose Creek Territorial Campground in the morning…

saw a large flock of Sandhill Cranes heading south as we neared Pelly Crossing. Once we reached Carmack’s we had to make the decision of exploring new territory by taking highway #4 to Ross River and then south to Watson Lake, or going back to Whitehorse. We had heard conflicting reports on highway #4…some said it was a great road, comparable to or better than the Dempster, while others said it was awful…unfortunately our choice had been made in the morning by the dogs eyes being worse, and the regulator for the propane tanks acting up off and on all night…Whitehorse it would be.

We later heard from a ‘local’ in Watson Lake that the road from Ross River to Watson Lake was in deplorable condition - the worst he had ever seen – so I guess we made the right decision.

Stopped at the Tatchun Creek campground for lunch. We had stayed here during our 2009 trip. Were sitting having lunch in the sun when we spotted these Common Mergansers on the creek….

there appeared to be a couple of females with probably a blended family of this years young, not quite ready to fly…

you don’t often get this close to Common Mergansers so I’m posting a few pictures – the sun was in the wrong place for really good shots…but the group of them were determined to swim up river which meant going right past us – very cautiously!

here is another look…

and another as they hugged the safety of the far shore as soon as they could reach it…

only other item of note here were these Shaggy Mane Mushrooms….

It was a long day but we reached Whitehorse late in the afternoon and headed to the nearest vet clinic. They were booked solid but said they could see us in the morning….so headed out to Wolf Creek Territorial Campground which is just a few kilometers east of the city…

In the evening took a walk that over looks the Yukon River… (Ernie took the above picture earlier in the afternoon)

This shot shows it is a long way down to the river…

this is looking back the other way towards Whitehorse…

Only really notable item was this Hairy Woodpecker. Notice how crisp and white it is compared to the ones we are used to here on the coast. Ours are less ‘crisp’ with the white having a yellowish cast.

We would spend the night listening to the ‘tick’ of the propane tanks regulator then next day headed back into Whitehorse to the vet…got the dogs eyes checked and medication for them. Fraser Way RV was almost right next to the vet clinic so we stopped in and the regulator obliged by acting up when the technician came to take a look. They very graciously fit us in and installed a new regulator. Then onto Super Store to stock up on groceries. That pretty much used up the entire day – so back to Wolf Creek where we would spend another night before continuing on.

Back to the Dempster 2011 – Part 16

2012-02-07T14:22:00.001-08:00

We would leave Dawson City that morning, after doing some shopping…and start heading south…

stopped at Gravel Lake for lunch. I spent a futile 15 min. or so chasing a Common Yellowthroat through the bushes – I had been surprised to see them this far north…although after checking my ‘Sibleys’ I found that they do belong even further north during breeding season.

there were a pair of Moose at the far end of the lake – too bad they were so far away as these ones definitely had a good set of antlers…

Pulled into Moose Creek Campground in the early afternoon. It was sunny and warm. We had stopped at this campground on our trip in 2009 – at that time it was very beautiful with flowering lupines' and wild roses – but had also been very buggy. No bugs this time.

Gray Jays were here to greet us…

we took a path that circled back and around…that would be ‘Moose Creek’ down there

back in ‘mushroom’ country – I think these are ‘Blackening Russela’ growing among the bog cranberry

here is a ground level shot…

there were quite a few young Swainson’s Thrush in the campground..

I amused myself trying to get some decent pictures of them

Ernie went for a walk and found this Red Squirrel eating a mushroom…

but his most exciting find was this White-tailed Ptarmigan….of course by the time he got back and told me about it and I got to the spot – it was long gone!

I had to be content with taking this picture behind our campsite.

Back to the Dempster 2011 – Part 15

2012-02-02T14:50:00.001-08:00

On this morning, the 29th of August 2011, we would reluctantly leave Tombstone Territorial Park..

after a cool night, it promised to be a nice day. We stopped at the Beaver Pond as it looks from the highway..

there is the Beaver Lodge….

and Ernie wanted a nice close picture to show the skim of ice that had formed overnight.

We then traveled back to the Klondike Highway and headed back to Dawson City. This ‘Cross Fox’ was walking along the side of the road. I gather there are ‘Red Foxes’ (we had seen lots of those on our previous trip but none this trip) and ‘Arctic Foxes’ which is what we saw this trip at Ogilvie Lookout…when these two species ‘cross’ – you apparently get this ‘Cross Fox’..

we pulled over and watched it but it just wasn’t terribly co-operative for pictures..

the first order of business upon arriving at Dawson City was visiting a car wash!

Next we stopped at the river front park to give the dogs a walk as we were heading to the Prospector RV park and we knew from past experience there wasn’t much space between units so Shantz would have to be on a very short tie out. It was also getting very warm – mid twenties….

That is looking down river on the Yukon River as it flows past Dawson City..

Ernie later went back and took some more pictures…this would be looking up river…

this paddle wheeler does tours on the river, something that would be interesting to do if you weren’t tied down with dogs – it was just too hot to leave them shut up in the truck.

These were actually taken the next morning when it had cooled and was showering…these are some of the stores that line the river front street – we did some early Christmas Shopping in that Outfitter store..

there is another section…and the ‘town square’ I guess…

and one more. Staying at the RV park had been a necessity in order to have internet and do some laundry…

You recall the mini minor/travel trailer combination that had been at the Arctic Circle (and was later at Tombstone with us)…that was the ‘small’ – this was the extreme opposite! This is about the biggest RV we have ever seen…mind you they had 7 children so I guess it was needed…

So we will pick this up again the next day when we start the homeward journey…’home’ being still a couple of weeks away.

Back to the Dempster 2011 – Part 15b

2012-02-01T14:30:00.001-08:00

Today I’ll finish up our last day at Tombstone Territorial park, and hence on the Dempster highway, with miscellaneous pictures taken that day, which would have been August 28th, 2011

Here is another Mountain, or Alpine Harebell picture – this one taken by Ernie – his little old Panasonic camera does take great macro shots!

This is the start of the Klondike trail…you can branch off and do a loop which is what I’m going to do, or you can walk about as far as you want to back up into the mountains…

all the bushes were absolutely alive with birds…but photographing them was another thing! Here was an Orange-crowned Warbler on the left and a Boreal Chickadee on the right…

Shantz was still with us…blending into the fall colours very nicely…

while April preferred to blend into the bed – we’re still dealing with eye issues here…

Speaking of blending in….here is another of those Orange-crowned Warblers…

this one, a pretty obvious ‘Ruby crowned Kinglet’ – you can even see the ‘ruby’

another Orange-crowned Warbler – there were lots!!!

a slate coloured Dark-eyed Junco – not being terribly co-operative…in fact none of the birds were terribly co-operative…too busy preparing to migrate I imagine…

a Wilson Warbler here…

and up over the ridge – another type of ‘bird’ entirely! – Yup they have those things up here too.

back to the real birds – Yellow-rump Warblers…

and another attempt at a Boreal Chickadee…

Evening…and Ernie is preparing to head out for a walk with Shantz…

not much later a little shower moved in…

next a down pour!

ending with a rainbow! And of course they got soaked.

Tomorrow we’ll be heading to Dawson City and then starting south…

Back to the Dempster 2011 – Part 15a

2012-01-31T16:06:00.001-08:00

Seems like getting this trip posted is taking almost as long as the trip itself! Here goes some more…we would spend this day at the Tombstone Territorial Campground…

In the morning we walked the trail from the campground to the new visitor’s center…

this is quite a remarkable ‘off the grid’ building…this sign explains some of it’s features…

from the south end of the parking lot at the visitor center there is a very easy ‘Beaver Pond Trail’ – Ernie had done it the night before, but this morning I got to come along…

the entrance to the trail cautions that there is a ‘bear in area’….

and not too much further along – you find the ‘bear’ – this is a Willow sculpture by a Yukon artist and is very lifelike, and life size…

there were some very pretty areas along the trail….

and more great explanatory signage…

and here is the Beaver Pond…

and another Willow sculpture – this time it is a Beaver lodge…

the viewing platform at the pond has ‘beaver tracks’ leading from the pond to the ‘lodge’…

this picture sort of displays the whole area…

one area along the trail sported this ‘Cotton grass’

and the track theme continued with Caribou here….

and here some little tiny guy’s…possibly Lemming?

heading back, there is the visitor center in the distance.

and I’ll just finish this section with this picture that Ernie took of a little Inukshuk someone built on one of the posts at the visitor center….

Back to the Dempster 2011 – Part 14b

2012-01-28T13:30:00.001-08:00

Another one of those days around here in real time…keeps snowing but then changes its mind to rain…and back to snow…so back to the Dempster where it was a picture perfect day!

The colour is really starting to show up – I bet a week later it would have been spectacular…

although you can’t get much more spectacular than this! Just one of the many little lakes along the route.

and now we are back on Tundra with the Tombstone Mountains in the distance…

another road side lake or pond

Chapman Lake…

and now back in Tombstone park.

Two Moose Lake – and still no moose – quite a few tourists though and lot’s of moose tracks…

still at Two Moose Lake….you can see the road is pretty darn good here…

further along we pulled into an old gravel pit where we had stopped before…there had been Willow Ptarmigan here on our previous trip and we had yet to see one this trip…

but then, suddenly one appeared on the road….

and then another….this one a male…

this leads to the question of ‘why did the chicken cross the road?’

well in this case it was because most of the family was on the other side! Here a young one…

some of the family…

moving off into the tundra

and disappearing in the vegetation….

I’m throwing this in…it was flowering in the parking area. I think it is a kind of sorrel but haven’t been able to ID it yet…

Now back to the look out just before the campground…the tundra is really starting to change colour now…I knew we were too early!!!!

We arrived at the campground mid-afternoon and were lucky to get a spot…we would spend the next day here so will save campground area photos for another posting.

Back to the Dempster 2011 – Part 14 a

2012-01-26T15:34:00.001-08:00

This would be one of the better days of our trip…but before we start on it, I’m just going to pop back to the day before….it seems when I was organizing photos…I didn’t do a very good job and I want to show a few things I missed…

We’ll start with this one back at the Arctic Circle…just because…

Then I want to show this…this is the Blackstone River and Elephant Rock is in this picture…you can see how easy it is to miss!

now we have zoomed in on the rock formation (this was 20x optical zoom)

and for an even closer look…Ernie was using a Nikon with a 36x optical zoom…

This is another of Ernie’s pictures… So, back to the day at hand…we woke up and got ready to leave. Just as we were about to pull out, a pick up truck pulled in and parked right across our campsite drive…we wondered what on earth was going on – had a slight guilt as we hadn’t paid either night we’d stayed at Engineer Creek Campground, and neither had anyone else, because there were no self register envelopes left…but no, the person asked us which way we were headed and when we said, ‘back to Tombstone’ she said that there were a Grizzly sow and cub feeding right at the side of the road just down from the campground, the way we were headed. We thanked her for the heads up ….

and sure enough…there they were..mom on the left… Since you don’t get to be this close to Grizzly’s very often…the rest of this post is going to be pictures of these two…

here is a closer picture of the cub…these are taken from inside the truck…

Mom moved off here and this demonstrates how they just blend in with the habitat…

Really, would you know she was there if you hadn’t watched her walk there?

the cub continued to feed quite close to the truck…

Mom settled up on the hillside and proceeded to have a good scratch..

the cub is now getting a little too close!

Mom is keeping a very close eye on the situation….and these things, for all their size, can move very fast…

Mom decides that enough is enough and she starts up the hillside…

and junior decides he better follow mom. This made for a great start to the day…which we’ll continue next post…

Back to the Dempster 2011 – Part 13

2012-01-25T14:50:00.001-08:00

Today would be the day we would travel as far north as we intended to go this trip…

We got up to sunshine….and Shantz alerted us to what Ernie is photographing…

a Grizzly bear out on the tundra beside where we were camped….how close had it been to us? Not sure i want to know!

there was one other sign of life before we left – a young White Crowned Sparrow…

We got packed up and pulled out and headed north…hadn’t gone very far when another Grizzly was spotted up on the hillside….

We are now heading towards the Richardson Mountains…

Pulled over at the side of the road…we’d seen lots of birds flying up out of the tundra in this area…

a Richardson, or Arctic Ground Squirrel co-operated for a picture….

alas the birds did not….obviously they were grouping ready to migrate and were very ‘spooky’. The scenery stayed still – very ‘golden’ and very different looking than in the spring or early summer.

further along we pulled into another large parking area where another ground squirrel was even more co-operative.

Won’t hurt to throw in another picture – this particular type of ground squirrel is only found in these northern climes.

and here is another look at the golden and red tundra…

Finally one of those elusive birds – an American Pipit I think….I really don’t know what else was there

and now the Yukon/N.W.T. border – this would be our turn around point this trip. After coming all this way we probably should have continued on but the dog was still having eye issues….

at this point there were numbers of persons out picking berries. The entire First Nations people from Fort McPherson had taken the day off to pick cloud berries. The women were picking and the men were patrolling with rifles….the reason – Grizzlies…like I’ve said many times, Grizzlies can appear out of now where on the tundra. Also, Caribou had started moving through this area and the grizzlies follow the caribou.

So at 11:30 am on August 25 (gee 5 months exactly from today), we turned around and started the long trek back towards home. This is Wright Pass….just opposite the parking area at the border…

there is the highway….

that hill out on the tundra is a ‘Pingo’ a structure formed by ice heaving up…

We hadn’t gone very far when movement on the tundra caught my eye – a Wolf! It was far off and moving quickly but did manage to get a picture of it…only the second time I’ve ever seen a wolf in the wild and the first time up here along the Dempster.

and now, back at the Arctic Circle….we’ll be back – one way or another!

a few more shots are called for….

August 25, 2011 at the Arctic Circle.

and now back at Ogilvie Ridge…we’ll be down there in those mountains soon…

and into the Ogilvie's – notice the aspens have changed colour in just the last day…

a stop at the Blackstone River….

and there, notice the rock formation – we missed this our first trip, and on our trip north – if it hadn’t been for having lunch at Eagle Plains with our 14 time visitors from California…we might never have noticed ‘Elephant’ or as I prefer “mammoth’ rock….

some of the other rock formations along the highway are harder to miss…

a different perspective….

ended the day back at Engineer’s Creek Territorial Campground….oh yuck! We have to get in that?

Now, even though we have started back, there is still a very long way to go…with lots left to see…tomorrow we’ll be traveling back to Tombstone….

Back to the Dempster 2011 – Part 12b

2012-01-24T13:30:00.001-08:00

In real time it is such a miserable cold, wet day that escaping back to the tundra is welcome!

We left the Arctic circle and continued on, heading to a spot where we had stayed on our previous trip. This is the view from the camping spot which is really just the remains of a gravel pit, it is well off the highway but with the highway visible so you don’t feel completely isolated.

set up now and enjoying the view…there is the Dempster in the distance…

In the evening Ernie walked along the highway and took this shot looking back at the camping site – I would never attempt this as we’d seen first hand, the previous trip, how a Grizzly Bear can just appear out of no where ….Ernie and Shantz made it without incidence this time…

I stayed much closer to the campsite, with one eye on the surroundings at all times – and will now post a bunch of pictures of the vegetation on the tundra as this is one of the things I find so fascinating…the variety of plant life…. This is Potentilla and you find this hardy shrub all over the place…even up here north of 60…

a profusion of colour…there is Bear Berry, Blue Berry, Cloud Berry, Cranberry, Labrador Tea etc. etc. etc.

another shot…that is Cloud Berry in the lower right hand corner…

this is looking directly down on the tapestry….

a more distant shot of the general terrain…

Ernie took this picture which shows the profusion of Blue Berries – of course it is this wealth of berries that draws the bears…that and the Caribou that we had heard were near the Yukon/N.W.T. border which wasn’t all that far off. Two legged hunters were also attracted to the area, in fact we had a visit from a couple of hunters who thought we were friends they were going to met up with…

I’m going to continue on with foliage pictures – after all this is what we travelled all this way to see and may very well never see again… The bright red is the Bear Berry, the green is the Bog or Creeping Cranberry…

more Bear Berry…also some spent Fireweed.

Bear Berry and Cranberry…

Crow Berry, Blue Berry, and a Cloudberry leaf right in the middle…

Something had been digging here….good reason to be concerned and keeping an ‘eye open’…

There were Mushrooms here too, although not in the numbers there had been in the southern part of Yukon…

and here is a final shot of the colourful tundra. The next day we would reach the most northern point of this particular trip, and start the return journey…

Back to the Dempster 2011 – Part 12a

2012-01-23T15:05:00.001-08:00

It has taken me a while to get to this next entry…partly because I had over a hundred pictures to edit and go through, but mainly because in real time, Yukon weather seems to have come to my neck of the woods and we’ve been dealing with lots of snow and sub zero temperatures…the system now seems to be moving back up north where it belongs so I’m able to start getting caught up…so here goes…

We would get up to sunshine so pulled out of Engineer Creek Campground and headed north…this is just a general scene of the terrain….little trees, most only a few feet high

We did come across a White-tailed Ptarmigan on the road…the only one we saw and the best picture we managed.

another scene…with Ogilvie Mountains and the Blackstone River….

another look at some of the mountain features…

climbed up onto Ogilvie Ridge where we stopped…you can see the highway ahead….

View of the back side of the ridge…

You are literally ‘on top of the world’ at this spot…

Here we are looking back the way we’ve come – that is the Blackstone River down there…

It was Shantz who spotted this Fox up on the hillside…

Ernie actually captured the best picture of it because he was closer and madly trying to catch my attention…by the time he did, the fox had realized we were there and was moving off…

and looking ahead although the highway doesn’t go over this way at all ….

the fall colours were starting to show up here…

we hadn’t realized it while we were parked, but as soon as we pulled onto the highway a big flock of Sandhill Cranes started taking off ….heading south.

now headed to Eagle Plains…spotted this bear up on the hillside…

but we were paying too much attention to the road at this point because it was mud…very deep mud…the truck got put in 4 wheel drive and still it slipped and slide up the hill…

and finally Eagle Plains was reached. This is it. We are at the fuel pump…the motel and restaurant are in the distance (we had lunch in the restaurant with another couple we had first met up with back at Boya Lake)…there is also an RV park just past the Motel/restaurant. This is the first ‘civilization’ you come to and the last you’ll find until you reach Fort McPherson in the N.W.T. We learned that an extremely heavy rainfall during the night was the reason for the condition of the highway.

Next stop – the Arctic Circle – our second time in this location (the friends we’d had lunch with took the picture – we took theirs – their 14th time here!!!)

There you have it – the tundra at the Arctic Circle on the Dempster Highway on August 25, 2011.

some detail – the red is Bear Berry…

here are some Blue Berries and Crowberries..

more Bear Berry…

and I’m putting this in for everyone who thinks driving the Dempster just isn’t possible without some rugged equipment. This set up was coming back from having been in Inuvik. Obviously they are from Switzerland and they had had the set up shipped over to the east coast of the states, had travelled across Canada, visiting all the north…were heading next to do the west coast of North America and then headed for South American. They said the only time they encountered problems was if it was really muddy because the mini was so low to the ground.

And I’m going to break off here because we’ll be going a bit further down the road and staying in a spot we stayed in before…and there are just too many pictures to put them all in this one posting….

Back to the Dempster 2011 – Part 11 (I think)

2012-01-18T15:13:00.001-08:00

I’m going to try to take my mind off of all the things that are going wrong in real time as we are, caught in a bit of a deep freeze – something we aren’t really used to or completely prepared for down here by the 49th parallel.

Back in August we woke up to sunny skies at Tombstone Territorial Campground..

Temperatures had been cool over night to the point that there was ice on the picnic table…

left the campsite and headed up the hill …stopped at the lookout – this is the way we are headed – that is the North Klondike River down there…

that is looking back at the campground…nestled down in the middle there..

and note the dusting of snow on the mountain tops – it was the 24th of August.

This stretch of road across the tundra is one of the most scenic of the entire route, at least it had been during our spring trip – it had also been alive with wildlife…this trip, this female Moose was the only wildlife seen…

We stopped at various points along the way. This is Chapman Lake and is the northern end of Tombstone Territorial Park. You can see the foliage is starting to get it’s fall colour…also, the sun hadn’t lasted for very long…

a close up of some of the Tundra Plants…Bear Berry mainly…also Crow Berry…

Here is another look – Ernie off there in the distance – actually he is on the road..

Found these little mauve flowers which I think are Bitter Fleabane..

Two Moose Lake was another stop…in fact I think you get to Two Moose Lake before you get to Chapman Lake…at least it was still sunny at Two Moose Lake!

There were quite a few ducks on it…Bufflehead and Scaup…no moose…

another look at Two Moose Lake…

Continued on into the Ogilvie Mountains….this is looking back the way we had come…

The road ahead…

all that is left of the Yellow-mountain Avens this time of the year..

there are some pretty interesting rock formations along this route…

more rocks…this is where we saw Dahl Sheep the spring trip – none this trip.

arrived at Engineer Creek Territorial campground – what a muddy mess!

selected a site that wasn’t too bad for mud…notice the aspens are quite yellow here…this is a tiny campground and was pretty much filled up come night time.

that mountain behind the campground is called Sapper Hill…

This is Engineers Creek and that water is the recommended drinking source!!! there is no other supply of water at this campground.

This is the Dempster Highway by Engineers Creek campground. It is really the only place to go for a walk although a little scary….you’ll see I had reason to be nervous when we are on our return trip!

I should know what these are but right now I can’t think…just thought they made a neat ‘fall’ picture…

and here is a last look at the area around the campground…the only birds seen were a Gray Jay and an Orange Crowned Warbler…

Back to the Dempster 2011 – Part 10

2012-01-13T19:09:00.001-08:00

This would be the 23rd day of August. We woke up to rain, but it stopped shortly after getting up. We had decided that now we were here, we would just stay put for the day and enjoy – by the way, this time of year we encountered no bugs of any sort.

I mean who wouldn’t want to just soak in scenery like this!

there is a very easy trail that winds around in the area behind the campground and that is where I headed – that is the Dempster Highway there, cutting across the landscape..

One of the first finds was this Mountain Harebell. I’d only ever seen these little flowers once, years before, when we hiked up into the alpine meadows at Mt. Edith Cavell in Jasper National Park.

The pen is for size comparison.

and there is the usual tapestry of plant life on the ground…a couple of types of fungi, lichen, bog cranberry, Bear Berry, Crow Berry and on and on its goes…

Here is a close up of Crowberry….you can see where it got it’s name…the berries are black as crows..

a branch of the trail goes along side the Klondike River…it is more forested here…there were Twin Flowers still in flower – these are a spring flower down home.

These are ‘Gem-studded Puffballs’ – I think the ones back at Kiniskan might have been the same type since my book says they turn brown with age.

Bear Berry – complete with ‘berry’

We wandered over to the new Visitor’s Center…we’ll explore this completely ‘off the grid’ and very green building more on our return…

In the afternoon Ernie went on an interpretive walk with one of the park rangers …there are walks daily at Tombstone, also all sorts of other activities.. This is the Klondike River

think Ernie was most impressed with this old hitch that was laying in the bush…a relic of by gone days.

While Ernie was on his walk I amused myself with looking for birds…here a Song Sparrow – this is the Aleutian variety..

there is another look..

lots of White Crowned Sparrows – this one a juvenile..

Warblers, including Wilson’s

and Orange Crowned…also Yellow-rumps but didn’t get a picture worth keeping of them..

Shantz had been left behind too so pouted under the bushes…

Bees were busy in the Fireweed

back from the walk…

we made April come out for a while too…

While Ernie took Shantz for her evening walk, I did the dishes. This pot was a bit much so I put it out for Shantz to do a prelim clean up….she never got a chance….the Gray Jays descended

there was nothing left by the time Shantz got back…

and thus ended another day in paradise.

Back to the Dempster 2011 – Part 9

2012-01-12T14:04:00.001-08:00

Today will be the day when we finally reach the Dempster highway, but not without a few trials and tribulations on the way! We left Five Mile Lake and headed back to the Klondike Highway and northwards once again. At Twin Lakes, our old dog, April, had developed an eye problem. I had medication with me, but wasn’t sure if it was the right medication or if I had enough of it to last for a while so the plan was to go past the turnoff for the Dempster, to Dawson City to see if we could find a vet (unlikely) or a pharmacist.

First we stopped at the rest area on Duck Lake…

This lake is noted for being a waterfowl staging area. We noticed way off in the distance, a pair of Trumpeter Swans with a young one…

zooming way in on them, that youngster seems awfully small for this late in the season – August 22 it was. I hope it got big enough in time to migrate south…they don’t arrive down home at their wintering grounds in the Fraser Valley until late October or early November, so hopefully he grew. In fact there is a pair with one youngster hanging about where we do our daily walks…could it possibly be the same one?

Back to reality…we headed to Dawson City where there was road work and the person behind us advised us that one of our rear tires was low…so not wanting to take chances we searched out a tire store that was very obliging and checked the tire which only needed more air…there was, of course, no vet and not even a pharmacy…so Ernie, ever the optimist, and me, concerned but hoping he is right and the dogs eyes will be ‘fine’…

headed back and turned onto the Dempster Highway. It had been raining so the road was a bit muddy but not a problem..

New, very impressive signs had been erected at the entrance to Tombstone Park since our last visit.

and finally we were approaching the start of the Tombstone Mountains…and look – fall colour!

Arrived at the campground and were surprised to find it almost full with only a couple of spots left! Fortunately, one of the spots was one I considered to be one of the best and we pulled in.

If you are a lover of the alpine don’t you just want to be there!!!

the view out of the back door of the camper…

and from the little hill behind the campsite looking at the camper and the campground itself..sites are well spaced in here so you never feel you are right on top of somebody else. There was, in fact a school class staying here which explained, at least some of the sites being taken. We learned that school, in the Yukon, lets out in May and resumes in August – this is due to the excessive day light which makes sleeping and therefore learning, difficult during June.

after settling in Ernie headed out with Shantz for a walk…that is the campground road leading to the entrance…

and the other way…this way leads to a trail head where you can walk about as far as you want to go…

and this is what happens when you are on that trail and a Snowshoe Hare runs right across the trail under a husky nose….

Her ladyship would spend the rest of the trip on a 6 foot lead.

I stayed around the campsite amusing myself with what I could find…this Fireweed – the territorial flower of Yukon…

and a Northern Bumblebee on the Fireweed…

fall colour! This is actually a type of Birch…possibly Scrub, Dwarf, or Alaska – take your pick!

only in the north do you find signs like this! This posted on the wood shed. Fire wood is available free of charge in all Yukon campgrounds …all campgrounds are self register and the fee is only $12.00. They also all have screened in kitchen shelters, complete with fire burning stoves…water, pit toilets and garbage pickup.

I had hoped to get pictures of Cloudberries this trip. This poor pitiful little guy is the only one I got and he is only one seed…they are normally in group like a Salmon berry. Cloud berries, when ripe are golden yellow, this one is only on it’s way to ripening…

and we’ll leave with this nice evening shot of the Tombstone Mountains in the distance….we will be spending tomorrow here too, so more pictures to come.

Back to the Dempster 2011 – Part 8b

2012-01-11T14:32:00.001-08:00

So let’s return to Five Mile Lake…

the second day dawned bright and promising and trails beckoned….

before we started…want to point out a few of the birds that were there…including American Robin (only a couple)

Gray Jays…but these guys acted different from other Gray Jays we’ve encountered…they just never sat still! They would come gliding in, completely silent and move from branch to branch and trunk to trunk…I think I took a dozen pictures and this is the only one where the bird was still enough for the picture to turn out..

and then the squirrels..noticed this guy collecting large mouthfuls of nesting material…

I dropped a tissue and he quickly ran over and inspected it…

shoved it in his mouth….

and ran up to insert it in this squirrel nest…apparently these guys don’t really hibernate but spend the winter in these ‘nests’, venturing out on days when the weather is appropriate.

we set off along the lakeshore trail, headed for the end of the lake where the day use area was…

along the way…

mushrooms and lichens..

I think, after searching on the internet…this is British Soldier Lichen…

and then there was this – the pen is for size comparison. I think it is a Hawk wing Mushroom but it looks like something out of science fiction or Harry Potter!

There is another one that Ernie found…

part way along the trail, or leading off from the main trail…was this ‘lake behind the lake’ – apparently a Sandhill Crane nesting site in season…in fact I imagine the place is alive during breeding season!

we reached the far end just as a big mixed flock of little migrants had landed and were feeding in the willows…here a Black-capped Chickadee…

more of those young Juncos…

and lots and lots of these Orange crowned Warblers! They look different from what we see down south on the coast because these are the ‘Taiga’ variant rather than the ‘Pacific’

the bushes were full of them…some of them looking pretty scruffy!

so one more look at some of the ‘fall colour’ ground cover…the bright red is ‘Bear Berry’ and we’ll be seeing more of this in days to come…

Back to the Dempster 2011 – Part 8a

2012-01-10T15:33:00.001-08:00

Am going to have to break this one into two parts due to the sheer volume of pictures I have! Mind you we spent 2 days at this next spot so guess that accounts for all the pictures…. Woke up at Twin Lakes to find the day pretty much like it had been…cloudy…our neighbour (the campground had filled up in the evening) informed us a black bear had been in our campsite in the morning….we were totally oblivious – some nature watchers we are!

Set out, headed north on the Klondike Highway, and as we got further north the weather improved. First stop was at Five Finger Rapids…

We’ve been here before, but this time we elected to go down the steps…..

Ernie and Shantz continued on the trail…getting closer to the river…

but even they didn’t go all the way to the viewing platform…

the problem with going down…is you have to go back up…fortunately there wasn’t anyone else there to see me crawl my way back up…

and these signs, located at various landings…gave an excuse to pause for breath..

here is another one…one thing you have to say about the Yukon is they have excellent signage at tourist attractions…

by the time Ernie and Shantz made their way back, a bus full of tourists from B.C.’s Okanagan had arrived…Shantz proved to be the main attraction!

That is what you are supposed to be admiring!

Took this picture while I was waiting for them to get back…those are the ‘bluest’ Blue Flax I have ever seen!

continuing one we reached the edge of the Beringa…the area of the continent that wasn’t covered in ice during the last ice age….reached Stewart Crossing in the afternoon and decided to take a side trip to Mayo…

it was drizzling a bit again…but we stopped at this area that is a moose calving ground in spring. There is apparently quite an extensive trail system here but it didn’t appear to be very well kept up and besides, it was getting late…

further yet there was a pull out with this view of the Stewart River…

and accompanying signage…when we reached the intersection where we had a choice of going to the town site, or the campsite, we elected on the campsite…

and found Five Mile Lake Territorial Park, on Five Mile Lake…there was a day use area at one end and at the other, an absolutely lovely little campground…

we quickly chose a lovely site that backed onto the lake. Several other sites were occupied and more people came in for the night, but for the rest of the afternoon and most of the next day, we pretty much had the place to ourselves…and what a place!

there is the lake….

here are some of the Ground Dogwood in full ‘berry’…

there is another one …

a mushroom of some sort and more of that Bastard Toadflax – notice how it is getting redder as we get further north?

and Bog Cranberry….

out on the lake, a couple of young Red-necked Grebes….no sign of the parents…they have no doubt headed south.

think these little guys are Bleeding Mycena

and Red Squirrels….

this interesting looking Birch Tree trunk was in our campsite…I figure it is nature’s modern art!

and I’ll close for now with this one I have to call ‘the last rose of summer’…tomorrow we’ll continue on exploring this wonderful little place!

Back to the Dempster 2011 – Part 7

2012-01-09T15:07:00.001-08:00

Whitehorse is a lovely city. In my opinion, just the right size. It has lots of attractions and time should definitely be spent there enjoying the city. When we had arrived it had been nice and sunny and would have been a good time for taking pictures, but we had chores to do…when we got up the next morning..it was raining…so after topping up the propane tanks, we were headed out of town, to the Klondike highway, and hence, north wards.

our first stop was at Fox Lake. There is a nice campground here on the shores of this very large lake. If you had a boat it would no doubt be a wonderful place to stay. There wasn’t much in the way of walking trails though for those ‘boat-less’ people. The rain had stopped at this stage…

this just shows a few of the lakeside campsites…most were up in the trees…also shows the Yarrow in flower…

There was an adult Herring Gull here…a little late in the season…most had already headed south.

our destination for that day was Twin Lakes Territorial Park. We had stayed here on our first trip and liked it…and yes, we stayed in the same spot, or at least the site beside it. The weather hadn’t improved much but it was dry when we got there and as it was early in the day still we went for a wander to see what we could find…

some pink Indian Paintbrush…actually called ‘Small-flowered Paintbrush’

some ‘Arctic Asters’ – a bit bedraggled and past their prime…

some fall colour courtesy of a wild rose bush…

and more fungi – this being an Orange Birch Bolete

this guy in Kinnikinnik….

These, possibly Aspen Bolete carpeting the ground…

these little guys…

and these, growing in the lichen…

there were birds too…including a number of very tame Dark-billed Magpie – I still have trouble associating these birds with the Yukon…

a flock of Yellow-rump Warblers…these being the myrtle variety…

and lots of very young Dark-eyed Junco…most of the slate variety…

these guys were so young they were still being fed by the parents…and remember we are now well past the middle of August! Presumably this is normal for this species since we saw youngsters like this all over…perhaps they were a second hatch…

If I recall, the weather went downhill from there and it rained the rest of the afternoon and all night. This is April saying ‘where is supper?’ – doesn’t matter that she’s already eaten and this is our supper that is being prepared!

Back to the Dempster 2011 – Part 6

2012-01-08T14:33:00.001-08:00

OK, in real time (January 8th, 2012) I am dealing with a bit more stress than I can handle…so thought I’d better escape back to the trip…

This leg of the trip would take us to Whitehorse. Since it is a pretty easy drive from Teslin to Whitehorse, we weren’t in a great rush to leave…

So wandered down to the lake in the morning, and over to the bird banding station…

The ‘banders’ were busy at work. By the way they have a blog as well…I can’t remember the exact name but googling Teslin Bird Banding would no doubt take you to it…if I ever remember how I will add it to my list of blogs I follow…

This is one of the assistants photographing a Warbler before she let it go…

the mist nets were out and catching birds…

Here an Alder Flycatcher…the birds are very carefully untangled and popped into little cloth drawstring bags, then taken back to be weighed and measured and banded before being released..

They did comment on the numbers of Black-capped Chickadees that they were catching…said they weren’t sure where they were all coming from…and this trend seems to have held down south as we have a lot of Chickadees this year… Reluctantly we left the banding station and headed west along the Alaska Highway…

Pulled into another territorial campground – this one on Squanga Lake. This proved to be quite the hot spot for not only birds…

Boreal Chickadee…

Yellow-rump Warbler…

AND Rusty Blackbird! There had been a pair of them right down at the lakes edge…but they flew almost as soon as I realized they were there…

I’ve really cropped this one. This is a bird whose numbers are declining and is a rare sighting…

Also want to point out this. This is a bat box and Yukon seems to be way ahead of us in promoting their population of bats. Judging by the droppings this box was being well used…and bats, of course, eat mosquitoes!

What was just as exciting here were the mushrooms….

this one, I think is a ‘Rosy Russula’

here is something different again…growing amongst the Bastard Toadflax and Labrador Tea..

and something else again…. Tore ourselves away from the mushrooms and continued on, bypassing the turn off to Atlin this time but taking the longer route….

Stopping at the Tagish River for lunch…this is looking north at the highway bridge with the community of Tagish on the far shore…

and this is looking south…you can see the sky is clearing and the weather is improving…

This is one of the signs in the park and campground that is located here…

after lunch we continued on…are now just about approaching the junction where you can turn left and head to Alaska, or right and head to Whitehorse….a Grizzley Bear was up on this hillside – the first ‘wild animal’ other than a squirrel, that we’d seen…unfortunately, no picture.

Turned right, headed for Whitehorse and stopped at the Carcross Desert…

then continued on past Emerald Lake…..eventually arriving in Whitehorse where we elected to stay in a private RV park as it was time to do some laundry and find some WiFi so we could contact people back home. Paid for a site, then headed into town to do a good grocery shopping as this would be the last place where you can really stock up….then back to the RV park to do the ‘chores’.

Back to the Dempster 2011 – Part 5

2012-01-06T14:50:00.001-08:00

This would be the day when we finally made it into Yukon. Until you’ve driven it, you really have no concept of how big this province is…especially when you have started from the very bottom corner!

Before we made it to the border…Ernie had to drive in and investigate French Creek Recreation Site (and no, not the French Creek on Vancouver Island!)…it was a nice enough spot…

Was pleased to see that the foliage of the High Bush Cranberries was starting to turn…I was still sure we were about 2 weeks too early…

Reached the Alaska Highway, there is a rustic RV park complete with dump station, restaurant and fuel at the junction of the Stewart Cassiar and Alaska Highway, so we made use of all but the restaurant and then headed west…this is just a scene from along the highway….our destination some where up ahead.

Stopped at Rancheria Falls to make some lunch and go for a walk….

This Rec. site, miles from any major center, has the most incredible board walk system through the boreal forest…that is Ernie and Shantz up ahead..

The falls themselves aren’t all that spectacular…

here is another section of the river…

what was spectacular were the fungi pushing up all over. I think these are a type of ‘Bolete’ Mushroom…they were 4 or 5 inches across. The habitat here, and all along this part of the highway, is boreal forest, with small, closely spaced trees but virtually no undergrowth…just lichen and plants such as Kinnikinnick and, at this time of the year, hundreds and hundreds of these mushrooms!

heading back to the parking lot…a family of Spruce Grouse were on the path (Ernie took this of me taking pictures of the birds)

there is one of the many pictures I took!

Pushing on, we reached the village of Teslin….everyone who drives this way takes this picture…there is a large viewpoint here…maybe one day I’ll actually get to take the picture with blue sky and sunshine!

and on to Teslin Lake Territorial Campsite…and no, this time not in the same spot – but only because the sites we consider ‘prime’ were already taken. Note the yellow tinge to the Aspen – still worrying about that fall colour!

This is one of the reasons for a number of the campsites being taken. The Banding Station operates from, I think, April and May and then again from August to the end of September.

went for a wander….this is the west part of Teslin Lake – it is a good size lake…there was weather in the distance…

the mist nets were rolled up as they are only let down when banding is actually being done…which happens in the morning…

I found a young Blackburnian Warbler…unfortunately not a clear picture, but since it is the only one I have of this species…it is a keeper, at least for now..

A very co-operative Red Squirrel – still the only ‘wildlife’ we’d seen!

not quite so co-operative Ruffed Grouse family…in fact was trying to get pictures of them when I spotted the Squirrel…

this was one of the marshy areas between the lake and the campsite – the campsite is actually up on a hill ….there was 1 Solitary Sandpiper here…

Lots of Juncos around…mainly of the slate variety and lots of young ones like this guy who seems to have mistaken a piece of bark for something that might be edible!

In the evening we went for a walk along the lakeshore…this is looking east, the village of Teslin would be tucked in way back in those hills…

There were several young Spotted Sandpiper on the shore…notice the bugs? Mayflies I think. The Sandpiper were actually leaping up and catching the bugs..

This one was either just taking off or just landing. The parents were long gone, headed back south, but it looked like it would be a little while yet before these guys would be ready to follow…

and a last look of the evening sky in the western direction…the direction we would be heading in the morning.

Back to the Dempster 2011 – Part 4

2012-01-05T14:34:00.001-08:00

When last we left we were at Kiniskan Provincial Park…

woke up that morning to fresh snow on the mountain peaks…this was August 16th. The next stretch, from Kiniskan to Boya Lake goes over it’s highest point – Gnat Pass ….I was looking forward to seeing what this looked like without ice and snow…

and there is the answer…this is looking at the road ahead…and yes that is snow on the back hill

and this is looking back the way we had come…it would have been more worth exploring if it weren’t for the bitter wind that was so strong you could barely stand up in it!

another look at this alpine area…this directly across from the pullout…you’ll note that it was actually sunny!!!

Next stop was Jade City…where we did some early Christmas Shopping…this small community exists because of the Jade mines in the area.

on we go…headed now to Good Hope Lake – this is really to show you people that fear the Stewart Cassiar highway, that it is just a road and a pretty good one at that.

There was a Bald Eagle perched beside the road – not that we haven’t seen one of those before!

and a family of Ring-neck Ducks…the ducklings almost full size…

and finally reached our destination….and yes…staying in the exact spot we had before…but this time it was purely by accident as all the others in the area (although not in the campground) were occupied.

Boya Lake is famous for it’s colour…I don’t normally like the tone Ernie’s Panasonic camera gives to landscapes, but in this case it is the most accurate – that is the colour of the lake!

The Gray Jays were there to greet us as soon as we got parked…

and a very ‘worn’ Boreal Chickadee….not at all co-operative for a picture… This had been a very ‘birdy’ spot when we had been here in late May/early June…with the number of people camped here this time there wasn’t the same opportunity to search for birds…

In the evening Ernie took Shantz for a walk around the end of the lake…

where she found this wonderful treasure which she insisted on carrying all the way back to the campsite…a distance of several kilometers…once she got it home she never paid any more attention to it. The next occupants of the campsite must have wondered about this ancient bone sitting in the middle of it.

The day ended with a rainbow over the lake…and tomorrow, we’ll finally cross the border into Yukon.

Back to the Dempster, 2011 – Part 3 b

2012-01-04T13:33:00.001-08:00

The weather hasn’t gotten any better here in real time, so back to Kiniskan where we woke up to not a bad day…cloudy and showery from time to time but not bad considering…

Ernie and Don headed out fishing….

and this time he actually caught a fish…we won’t say how many Don caught. Our thing is photographing anything to do with nature….theirs is fishing…’nuff said!

back at the campsite April had discovered there was a real ‘house’ here….would somebody please let me in???

Later we set out to go for a walk along the trail that runs beside the lake…Shantz was the one that spotted this Spruce Grouse family right at the entrance to the trail…mom on the right, one of the youngsters on the left…

think this was another of the youngsters….saw 3, there may well have been more…they are very good at hiding..

the trail runs along the lakeshore headed away from the campground…

ending at this open area…

There were quite a few Shorebirds here…including this Least Sandpiper…(Ernie took this picture)

and a Solitary Sandpiper…

some Loons out on the lake but that big raft of them seen the day before was gone…

in my quest for berry pictures….here were some nice ripe Black Currants…

and here was where we first spotted this white flower…it’s name is ‘Northern Grass of Parnassus’ – a rather long name for quite a small flower. The ‘colour’ is ‘Bastard Toadflax’ and we’ll be seeing a lot more of this plant…

another flower here, although past it’s prime was ‘Sitka Burnet’

and the fungi here were these ‘prickly’ puffballs which again…aren’t in the book we bought…they were growing in the gravel right at the edges of the road.

and we’ll end the day with some more birds…these are young Tennessee Warblers… We spent a total of 2 nights at Kiniskan…tomorrow we’ll be moving on…

Back to the Dempster – part 3

2012-01-04T11:04:00.001-08:00

In real time it is such a horrible day that I have to escape somewhere, anywhere, so even though the weather wasn’t great back on August 15th, it was better than it is here on January 4th! Everyone who RV’s has a favorite spot – for those that know us, you know ours is Tunkwa Lake….for our friends in Terrace – it is Kiniskan…so the plan was that we would give them 24 hrs to pack their 5th wheel and then we would meet at Kiniskan Provincial Park, which is the middle one of the 3 campgrounds on the Stewart-Cassiar Highway….since they had a long haul from Terrace we figured they wouldn’t arrive until late so we took our time getting ready to leave, and then, we didn’t think there was any sense going out to Stewart, but we did head out that way to see the Bear Glacier….

We’d forgotten just how far along that road it was….

and there it is…getting smaller and smaller all the time…I remember being here when the ice was almost right beside the road…

at this point we turned around and headed back to the highway…this was another small glacier beside the road….and see…sunshine!

up on the hillside just a hint of fall colour – maybe there is hope after all!

Continued on through Bell Two where we stopped for fuel because in this country you buy fuel when you find it….through Dease Lake until we reached…

the rest area with two names….neither of which I can remember at the moment!

There were some very pushy Ravens here….

Shantz tolerated them until one decided to grab her crust of bread…(Shantz loves bread – don’t ask me why!)

they did give me an opportunity to get the best Raven pictures I’ve ever gotten – not sure what this guy planned to do with this stick…

back on the road and pulled into the campground at Kiniskan….just got backed in….

and our friends pulled in right behind us…that is us in the background..

this was taken the next morning…I was standing in the door of the camper…it shows how close all the campsites in this campground are to the lake…

speaking of the lake…Ernie took this picture just after we pulled in…those were all Common Loons out there…we never saw that many again…

and I’ll continue with Kiniskan a bit later….

Back to the Dempster, 2011 – Part 2

2012-01-03T13:52:00.001-08:00

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.

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…

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…

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

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)

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…

This Downy Woodpecker was really working on this tree trunk…

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

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

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.

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

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….

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.

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!

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…

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!

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

Back to the Dempster, 2011 – Part 1

2012-01-02T17:14:00.001-08:00

It has taken me a while to post this trip. I had initially decided to do a book on the trip for Christmas presents and I had started one, but wasn’t pleased with it…so decided to just blog it…and I guess you could say, ‘better late than never’!

We started the trip in a convoluted manner…going first to Vancouver Island to visit the children and grandchildren, then headed back over to the mainland, traveling up the sea to sky highway, spending our first night at Nairn Falls Provincial Park just outside of Pemberton.

A nice enough campground I guess, but really we should have pushed on and stayed somewhere along the Duffy Lake Road…

Scene from a viewpoint on the very twisty winding Duffy Lake Road. It was a long haul from Nairn Falls to our next stop, equally uninspiring…the campground at Lac la Hache

This squirrel was about the most exciting thing there…but then it was just somewhere to spend the night…and next day we made it through Prince George and turned west…

arriving at Beaumont Provincial Park on Fraser Lake, in the late afternoon…

now we were starting to feel like we were actually on a holiday…

and finally now there were some birds to see…..like this young Cedar Waxwing ….

This mother was still feeding these youngsters…this was in early August.

another look…..

there were also American Redstarts here….

and here…I think a young male….these birds never hold still…making it very difficult to get decent photographs..it was also very windy that day as the weather was about to change and not for the best!

found a White-throated Sparrow – if it looks a bit weird it is because it has a Saskatoon berry in its beak…there are a lot of Saskatoon bushes in this park and the birds were making full use of the ripe berries!

A young Sapsucker – a Red-napped I think…

and a Red-eyed Vireo…

The aim of this trip was to be a search for fall colours…unfortunately it wasn’t ‘fall’ here, yet, but the plan was that it would be fall by the time we got up on the Dempster highway…here it was at best ‘late summer’…

so we documented the colour we could find…like these Asters at the entrance to our campsite…

and this Northern Goldenrod.

July 1st long weekend at Tunkwa

2011-07-15T14:33:00.001-07:00

As promised, we returned to Tunkwa Lake Provincial Park for the Canada Day long weekend, as I wanted to see if I could find any baby Great Gray Owls….since I’ve done an extensive report on Tunkwa recently, I’m just going to post random pictures and bits and pieces of information, rather than doing a full, day by day, blow by blow, report….and speaking of ‘blow’ the wind was certainly blowing so there was, once again, no chance of getting the inflatable kayak out onto the water!

This was a real surprise! I thought I was aiming the camera at a young Killdeer – not a Least Sandpiper. We are used to seeing all sorts of different shorebirds at Tunkwa in August, when they are migrating through…but this one was seen during breeding season…was it nesting there? I don’t know.

Of the Blackbird species, Red-wings are the least common at Tunkwa….this male obviously had a hungry mouth to feed.

We did pay a visit to the Aspen Grove or ‘bird nursery’ and as usual, it didn’t disappoint…

this male Mountain Bluebird was doing some breeding chores…

as was this Red-naped Sapsucker. Lots of Tree Swallows nesting here and a family of Northern Flickers, fresh from the nest.

of course there were Canada Geese with lots of youngsters…, this batch down on the shores of Leighton Lake by the spillway.

Because it was a long weekend, the campsite was about 85% full, so most of our usual spot selections were occupied…the spot we chose was beside a little pond and it proved to be a good choice – this pair of Lesser Scaups spend a fair bit of time at the pond…

Wildflowers were out in force…this Stonecrop growing right beside our campsite…

I went searching for the Great Gray owl…and found him…

this picture was taken about 8 or 8:30 at night….with the campground being busier now, they (there is a breeding pair with 3 young)…have moved further back…

This year, a new walking trail has been completed…you have always been able to walk a circle walk, from the campground at Tunkwa lake, down to the one at Leighton, and back to Tunkwa…but it used to involve walking along the road on one side of the lake…now there is a path cut between the road and the private cottages, the entire circle trail has now been marked as well…this is where the path comes out at Leighton Lake…that is my dog, not some exotic animal down there in the corner…

We’ll skip back to the owls for a moment…this is the best I managed of one of the babies…they area they were in was a steep hillside, thick with brush and fallen trees – and mosquitoes!!!

There has always been a trio of ‘odd ball’ geese at Tunkwa, although the light coloured one isn’t the one that used to be there…perhaps this is an offspring…this one does have very pale coloration…

Here is the spillway from Tunkwa lake to Leighton….I told you these pictures would jump around…the problem is there are 4 different cameras being downloaded and they are grouped by ‘camera’ not necessarily in the order they were taken…

I had gone down to the spillway area to try and get pictures of all the Cliff Swallows that were gathering mud for nest building…it was then that I spotted these two Wilson’s Phalaropes…

back to wildflowers…there were large patches of this Field Arnica in flower…

the Wild Roses were just coming into bloom…

this was a pretty typical scene…Small flowered Penstemon; Field Chickweed; Mauve Locoweed and clover.

back to that pond beside our campsite…

a Song Sparrow was there constantly – I think there was a nest in one of the bushes…

When the Scaups weren’t there, Mallard were…this one being a female…the male that showed up occasionally tended to be rather camera shy…

There was always a Flycatcher around…I thought it was a Least Flycatcher…but it may be a Willow..

There were untold numbers of Savannah Sparrows…some fledglings like this guy, but I think most were still in the nest as you couldn’t walk more than a few feet without being scolded by a parent…

I was actually surprised to come across several pairs of Lincoln Sparrows – this was one of a pair nesting behind our campsite – unfortunately the off spring they were protecting so vigorously was a cowbird.

and speaking of Cowbirds…here is a baby one that was on the road –

Cowbirds and Brewer’s Blackbirds are certainly two of the most prevalent species there….this being a baby Brewer’s

and just a couple more pictures …Common Loon…this guy was hanging around the base of the spillway…

and an Osprey….you can always expect to see these guys…this one was down at Leighton.

Easter 2011

2011-06-24T14:21:00.001-07:00

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.

Lac la Jeune – May long weekend, 2011

2011-06-23T14:49:00.001-07:00

Since in real time it is another cool, gray, showery day, decided I should do some more ‘catch up’ so back we go to our trip to Lac la Jeune Provincial Park, on the May long weekend.

We hadn’t been to Lac la Jeune for probably at least 12 years. Last time we’d camped there it had still been a forested campground…but that was before the pine beetle and the subsequent ‘clear cutting’ of the park…

We arrived there about 8:30 in the evening and this is what it now looks like. The Aspens are taking over and when they leaf out it would look a lot greener than it did that day. It was barely spring up there at this elevation – at least this year of never ending winter!

Fishing is the primary reason people go to this lake. This picture was taken from the boat launch area..

for those without a boat, this long float has been built so people can get out into the lake to fish, or take pictures or just look for wildlife..

there is a path that runs along the lakeshore, this picture is taken from that path, looking back…these pictures were taken at different times, with different cameras…which is why the weather is better in some than in others!

This one should probably have gone before the above…this is the view from the end of the float…there is a grassy picnic area, and then the lakeshore path starts…(no dogs in the picnic area)

this is pretty much where the path ends…there are private cabins from this area onward.

Several pairs of Barrow’s Goldeneye were along the shoreline….and a number of Common Loons out on the lake..

Some more of those Barrow’s Goldeneye.

The Saturday afternoon was quite pleasant…as I recall a Canuck’s hockey game was on and cheers could be heard throughout the campground whenever a goal was scored….our campsite was up on the back row…this Mule Deer ventured out on the hillside on the opposite side of the road…I put the 36 x optical zoom on my new Nikon Coolpix camera, to good use…

other critters seen from the campsite were Yellow rump Warbler….this one being a female..

Chipping Sparrow – you can see the vegetation is just beginning….my bets were that the snow hadn’t melted that long ago..

Mountain Chickadee…

and, every afternoon a flock of a dozen or so Western Tanagers would move through the area.

I watched this American Crow gathering nesting material…

and the day ended with an impressive, although not very scenic, sunset (you can see the road right there behind the campground).

Next day we ventured up the trails to ‘Stake Lake’ – that isn’t Stake Lake, that is Lac la Jeune as seen from the access road…

this is the road that breaks into all sorts of cross country ski trails so you can walk as far as you care to go up in this area…

More birds up here…this Dark Eyed Junco…those bare Aspen trees had been full of Tree Sparrows – looked for Mountain Bluebirds but didn’t see any which seemed strange…

Red-naped Sapsucker and lot’s of Flickers, Townsend’s Solitaire, Robin, Swainson’s Thrush, etc. that we didn’t get pictures of.

and here is Stake Lake….could see a pair of loons in the distance, as well as a number of unidentified ducks..

down closer to the lake there were all sorts of Marsh Wren and various Warblers, especially Common Yellowthroat – none of which were going to co-operate for pictures…

on the return trip, took pictures of the only ‘wildflower’ that was actually in flower…

this Coltsfoot.

and one last look at the lake itself from a hill over looking the road…the dots on the lake, closest to the shore, are a pair of loons, those further out are boats full of patient fishermen.

In the afternoon I took another walk along the lake shore and have to show this serious of photos…

This Yellow rump warbler was on the ground…at first I thought it was sick or injured…but no, look closely and there is a pretty big bug there as well…

here it has one of the bugs wings in it’s mouth…

and finally, the whole darn thing!!

Tunkwa Lake Trip – June 11, 2011 – Part 2

2011-06-16T15:39:00.001-07:00

Ok, so when the rain was over I set out by myself to see if I could find the Great Gray Owl. The evening before, while I had been watching the one in the campground, Ernie had been walking Shantz and had seen one in a forested area behind the park caretakers compound…whether we’d both seen the same owl, or if there was a pair…we’re really not sure…

anyway, with clear skies once again, I set off in the direction of the forested area…

on the way, passed a Chipmunk having a snack…

and one of the many resident Yellow-bellied Marmots..

Finally swinging up to the forested area (you’ll note that this ‘forest’ consists mainly of dead trees – that is because this area was ravished by the pine beetle)….there, though, right ahead and in the middle, I immediately spotted the Great Gray Owl…

He/she watched me arrive, but wasn’t terribly alarmed by my presence. I could hear it’s very low call on occasion and also another, unfamiliar sound which leads me to believe there was a nest somewhere in the immediate area.

after spending a fair bit of time here, just watching, and of course, snapping pictures…I decided I had disturbed the bird enough and headed over towards a little pond up at the back of the campground…

Passed some Savannah Sparrows on the way, including this singing one…

and there is the little pond…there were a number of Canada Geese on it and a few Warblers…

like this male Yellow Rumped….

was just heading back towards the camper when I spotted – right in the middle of the picture – a Great Gray Owl! The same one I’d seen up back? or a different one? I don’t know….

but there it was…intently studying the ground….

more views of it…

and another…

and in flight…

I do know, that when it caught something, like it had here…it didn’t stop and eat it, but headed back in the direction of the forested area….leading me to believe there were some hungry little mouths to feed somewhere back there.

In the evening, the hunting continued…

Posing nicely in the evening sunshine, while thunder rumbled in the distance!

At this point, landing on a pitiful little twig of a pine tree….you can see how the bird was right in the campground, yet one of the most amazing and kind of upsetting things, was that I don’t think anyone but myself and my husband even noticed it. Several people walked within a few feet of it as it went about it’s business…totally oblivious to it’s presence. Kind of sad.

But as I mentioned before, the bird was not concerned with people…for this picture, the bird had actually flown towards where I was standing and landed not 8 feet away from me…

here it is perched on a broken tree….the tail light of our camper is just visible on the other side of those trees…

I was standing in the door of our camper when I took this shot – wide angle, not zoomed at all…

now it is zoomed from the same spot (that is what a Nikon Coolpix with 36x digital zoom can do for you)…

and then the bird flew even closer….Shantz’ was on her tie out which reached to within about 6 feet of where this bird perched…. Absolutely amazing! The plan now is to return to Tunkwa on the July 1st long weekend to see if the bird is still there or if there are some youngsters around.

So just a few more pictures to finish up this very successful trip – Killdeer had been running around in the evening, creating a racket which they continue to do, well after dark.

Before we left on the Sunday morning, we walked over to Bluff Lake…..notice the Cut-leaf Anemone’s in flower….they were just really starting to bloom. There is the Aspen Grove or ‘bird nursery’ way off in the distance, never did get there…

Wouldn’t be a trip to Tunkwa if I didn’t throw in a picture of the many Canada Geese….we saw goslings as well from freshly hatched to much older…all in all, counted over 50 species of birds this trip….the Great Gray Owl, by far the most exciting.

Tunkwa Lake trip – June 11, 2011 – Part 1

2011-06-16T14:24:00.001-07:00

Seems I’ve been very remiss about posting anything to this site lately. We’ve already been for 3 trips (very short trips) this year….and not one report! By rights I should have started at the beginning – which was Easter in the Okanagan, and then the May long weekend at Lac la Jeune ~ but instead I’m going to start with the trip we took to Tunkwa Provincial Park last weekend….

Got away by about 3:30 on the Friday afternoon…

The first matter of interest was this very small brown coloured Black Bear at the side of the Coquilla Highway, just as we pulled out of the Britton Creek rest area…it must have been a cub….

Arrived at Tunkwa about 7 pm….was standing listening to the final minutes of the hockey game and idly gazing up towards the back of the campsite…when I noticed a large bird fly down and land in the grass…grabbed my binoculars and was amazed to see….

a Great Gray Owl!!! They’ll be lots more pictures of this guy to come….

Since it was evening, I’ll just throw in this one right now as an evening silhouette.

Saturday, June 11th we woke to sunny skies so after a leisurely breakfast, set off for a walk…

It was obvious that spring had been as slow to arrive here as it has been anywhere in the southern portion of the province this year. The grass was very green and not all that long….water levels of the lake were the highest we’d ever seen and there were many wet spots and a few flooded campsites…

Lot’s of Killdeer of course…this one I’m pretty sure on a nest while her partner was attempting to get me to follow him in a different direction.

Yellow-headed Blackbirds too – this was the only picture I managed of one…just didn’t get down near the lakeside….

Set out in the direction of Leighton Lake – the wildflowers were really just starting…here the Alum Root was in flower on the cliff side…

In most areas the Cut-leaf Daisies had already turned into their little ‘buttons’, but these ones were still in flower….interesting to see these ones with a pink hue as most are just white.

The Early Blue Violets were still in flower, and the Field Chickweed was in prime condition.

In some areas the Dandelions had finished flowering and gone to seed, but in others, like here, they were in full flower…

Made our way up to June Lake – again, more water in it than we’ve ever seen….

Up here, Shooting Stars combined with the Dandelions to give a colourful display!

More Killdeer up here as this is a favorite nesting spot for them….thought this ‘head on view’ was kind of interesting…

Spotted Sandpiper here as well….

as we had been walking the weather had changed quite dramatically, so instead of doing our usual loop back to the Aspen Grove and around, we decided to retrace our steps and return to the campsite – as it turned out a wise decision as we had just reached the camper when the skies opened and it poured for a couple of hours.

This now seems a good time to end this part of the posting – watch for part two.