Spring Trip 2010 – the last day – Manning Park

Sometime during the night, back at Kettle River, it started to rain, and the rain continued into the morning.  Whether that or all the walking done the day before, we all slept in….really slept in…so didn’t get anywhere near the early start we had planned on.

back on the road and headed west, stopped at a different look out on Anarchist hill to get a view of the highway as it descends into the town of Osoyoos…

here is another look, for all you ‘flat landers’.  Stopped in Osoyoos for the last fuel up of the trip, then carried on to Keremeos where we stopped for my favorite Saskatoon Berry honey, then a late lunch in Princeton and on to Manning Park….

It was now mid afternoon, we were less than 2 hours from home, but since the weather was the best we’d encountered that day i.e. dry, and since Manning Park, and especially Cold Spring Campground in Manning are one of our favorite spots…we decided to pull in and spend one more night, that way we’d get home early in the morning (well not too early ~ knowing us), and we’d have the rest of the day to unpack and get back to life at home instead of on the road. And, of course, there was lots to see….

the ground was a carpet of wildflowers.  This campground used to be very forested….but the pine beetle took care of that…so now there are wide expanses of open areas and the native plants have taken them over nicely…

Here is some Creeping Phlox with some ‘Spring Gold’ ~ a variety of Desert Parsley, in the background.

That Creeping Phlox comes in a variety of shades from white to quite a deep mauve.

Wild Strawberries….

This Shrub, which is called ‘Utah Honeysuckle’ was in full flower, smelled wonderful and was full of Hummingbirds!  Not that I could get a picture of one.

Here is a close up of the individual flower….Manning is interesting in that the plants that grow there are a curious mix of those found on the coast and some, like this shrub, normally found in the interior of the province.

Here is some more of that ‘Spring Gold’

We had no sooner parked the truck when we were visited by a pair of Raven…..

this very vocal pair were our constant companions for the duration of the visit….you don’t realize just how big these birds are until they are only a few feet away from you!

We had the campground pretty much to ourselves, at least until late evening when a couple of units pulled in.  There is Ernie and Shantz taking some pictures of something….and the truck at the site…

These yellow violets are ‘Round leaf Yellow Violets’…

and of course, there were Ground Squirrels…our familiar Columbian Ground squirrels….

this one obviously had a den down in the roots of this stump….by the way, the stump gives an indication of the size of some of the trees that were in here prior to the pine beetle invasion…

This little wildflower was new to me…it is ‘Three leaf Anemone’ for obvious reasons – sometimes plant names make perfect sense and other times they make no sense at all!

I’ve mentioned all the trees that were removed from this campground….well it has been replanted…every one of those white plastic things is actually a little greenhouse containing a tree…mainly young Aspens which are quick growing….

I had to take a peek in them and pretty much all of them were thriving….many having already grown well above the protective shelter.

there were other birds here besides the Raven….I was surprised to see Chestnutbacked Chickadees …

on the other hand, I expect to see Dark Eyed Junco here…

and Townsend’s Warblers are usually found in coniferous forests like this…

There is another Ground Squirrel den under this fallen log…

and there is one of those Raven again….

the river, which runs around the back of the campground was quite high with melt water….in fact when we talked to the park attendant, this campground, on the May long weekend, had also been ‘under snow’ ~ although not a foot and a half of it!

This part of the campground is called the ‘dog leg’ and is only open during the busy season.  We will actually stay here come August….

Going to throw in a few more ‘shrub’ pictures….these are Dwarf Blueberries and they were in full flower…

here is a close up of those delicate little pink flowers….

and this is Kinnickinnick….

just for contrast…I thought the colour of these young cones was gorgeous!

and finally, what would be a stop at Manning without a few Gray Jays…..

and so concludes this years big trip.  Forty days on the road…not going exactly as planned but still a pleasure.

This, in real time, now being past the middle of August, we’ve already done a few weekend trips, with a few more planned, and perhaps 10 days or so in late September….so there will be more posts coming.  Next big trip won’t be for almost a year….the plan is to head north again, but this time, to see the fall colors.

Spring Trip 2010 – Day 39 – Kettle River Provincial Park

Sunday, May 30th we woke up to sunshine.  Spent the day just wandering and looking for birds and anything else of interest.  Birds were obviously in the middle of nesting, so quiet and secretive, but even so, by the end of the day we’d complied a pretty good list….so in no greatly organize order, here we go…

Here is a section of the trail that runs along the river….this section would be directly behind the spot we were camped in…

there is a Spotted Sandpiper on that log….there were a number of Spotted Sandpiper all along the river…

here is another section of the trail….this is closer to the bridge…you can see that a section of it has collapsed into the river…

Some more of those ‘Canada Violets’…

and in more forested areas….Early Blue Violets….

also in the more forested areas, this white wild flower is Baneberry ~ this plant will sport bright red berries later in the summer ~ not to be eaten though as they are extremely poisonous!

Growing in the same damp, forested area is this green flower, known as Black Sanicle – don’t ask me why!

Apart from a couple of junco, this area had been very ‘bird less’, hence the flower pictures….and this little guy….a one eared Chipmunk.  If you’ve ever watched these cute little critters interact at times, it isn’t surprising that occasionally someone looses an ear!

another walk took us down to the south side of the bridge…

this picture is looking down the river from the day use picnic site….

found some Red Columbine in flower in the picnic area….

Sometimes this is a very ‘birdy’ area, but not on this particular day.  Did spot this little guy that I think is a ‘Hammond’s Flycatcher’ ~ came to that conclusion after pouring over ‘flycatchers’ in my ‘Sibleys’

some Red-breasted Nuthatch too, this one was looking for creepy crawlies on the undersides of the leaves….no doubt taking them back to a nest of youngsters….

Most of the bird activity was concentrated right around the campground side of the bridge….here a pair of Violet Green Swallows (male on left, female on right) were perched on part of the bridge itself….these swallows nest on the bridge…

this robin obviously had a hungry brood somewhere close by as well….

and here we go, another Swainson’s Thrush….the ones here were acting a bit more like I expect Swainson’s Thrush to behave….sneaking about in the denser parts of the forest….

hard to see, both here and then, is this hummingbird.  I have no idea what kind…I suspect it is a young one….

a flash of red and yellow….again, right by the bridge….led us to spotting this male Western Tanager….

he was heading down to this sheltered back eddy in the river, to have a bath.

a Warbling Vireo in the choke cherry bushes….

and remember that pair of Red breasted Nuthatch we saw nest excavating, when we were here a month or so ago?  well they were now busy feeding fledglings….here is one of them at the nest hole (not the one on the right, the occupied hole is behind the bird…

there was it’s mate, coming home with a mouthful of food…..

Out on the river, if you look really closely at a branch coming up from that log pile….

You’ll see a pair of Belted Kingfisher.  I wish I could have got a better picture because I have never seen a pair of Kingfisher together before.  The male is on the left, while it is the female with the rust coloured ‘belt’ that gives these birds their name, on the right.

another species, busy at it’s nest, was this Mountain Chickadee…in this case, doing a bit of house cleaning….kids' are messy you know! and not house broken.

One final evening walk….

with the shadows lengthening but the sun still shining on the hill across the river….

and one final bird glimpsed….in this case, a Pileated Woodpecker, working away up in one of the massive Poplar trees.

So would this be the last day of our trip?  Would we be home tomorrow?  stay tuned!