Tunkwa Lake PP July 1, 2010

The July 1st, or Canada Day long weekend we headed to our favorite ‘home away from home’ – Tunkwa Lake Provincial Park.

as you can see, even though it was a long weekend it wasn’t terribly busy and we actually managed to grab the same campsite we’d had back at Easter…

Looking the other direction from our campsite and it was even quieter!  The only long weekend we won’t consider going to Tunkwa for is the May long weekend….I’m afraid that weekend has turned into a zoo!

The spot we were in was very ‘birdy’…primarily lots of these Savannah Sparrows…

Down in the little bay between the bluff and the spit, there were duck families….these ones being Barrow’s Goldeneye…

and here a Mallard family.

Wild Roses were just coming into full flower.

We set out on a walk, headed over to the north end of the lake….there was a Killdeer family in the area, with young ones and boy did the parents set up a ruckus every time anyone walked past!

a lot of American Coot with young in this area as well…

Pairs of Lesser Scaup…the males already loosing their brilliant breeding plumage, even though they haven’t yet had their families.  These ducks are late nesters…..as you’ll see when we are back here in a month or so.

Wildflowers were everywhere!  Here, these Alumroot growing on the cliff above Leighton Lake.

Looking towards Leighton, the blue are Small flowered Penstemon..

Here is a close up of that particular wildflower.

Goats beard, Alum Root and Grasses….

Everything was very green! 

As we walked along the trail on the north side of the lake we spotted this Common Loon with a youngster…always a good sign!

Another shot that shows just how ‘green’ the whole place was.

Death Camas were one of he prominent wildflowers in this area.

and Savannah Sparrows the prominent species of bird.

As usual, it was a good year for young Canada Geese….

These youngsters long past the ‘cute’ stage and into the gangly ‘adolescent’ stage…

As we walked back the sky was full of Common Nighthawks….

Back at the campsite I managed to get some pictures of the Least Flycatchers that must have been nesting in the bushy area beside us.

The weather was improving as we went for an evening walk…

Canada Geese in the evening sunshine…

Spring Trip 2010 – Day 34 – Writing on Stone – part 1

When you spend the entire day, doing what you like doing best, wandering and taking pictures, that results in a  lot of pictures to go through….which is why it has taken me a few days to get back to this and why I’ve had to break it into parts….  So let’s get busy!

Tuesday, May 25th got up to cloudy, but dry skies…. 

 

Started the day with a walk out on the river bank behind the campsite….there is the visitor center up there on the hill…

walked along the shoreline….there was a Spotted Sandpiper in this area, but never managed a decent picture…

up on the rocks, we had some more of those ‘sentinel geese’ (remember the ones at Dinosaur Provincial Park?)

here is another pair, coming in for a landing on the river…  My perceptions of what constitutes ‘goose habitat’ certainly changed on this trip!

Back in the campground, that female Downy Woodpecker continued to work on all the trees in the vicinity ~ maybe there was more than one, but I never saw more than one at one time.

Chipping and Clay coloured sparrows were back and busy in all areas where dandelions had gone to seed…although this isn’t a very clear picture, I put it in just so you could get an idea of the quantity of them….at times it looked like the ground was hopping.

Black billed Magpie were around…..and as we set out for our big walk of the day, along the approx. 2 km trail that winds up and over and through the rock formations….

caught sight of one of those American Redstarts again….this one a male, and no more co-operative for picture taking then they’d been the evening before!

as we start out….look at what is up on that ledge….another Canada Goose!

here is a closer look…..

This view, taken from one of the high points on the trail….the Milk River down there and another ‘sentinel goose’.

there are several spots along the trail where you drop down right beside the Milk River.  A popular canoe trip is from the town of Milk River, approximately 40 km away, and then paddle back to the campground.  A group had actually set off from the campground that morning, to do just that.  It is a trip I’d love to do but requires being part of a group as someone has to bring the vehicle(s) back to the campground after launching the canoes (and babysit dogs)….being part of a group isn’t something we seem to be able to do!

back up in the rocks, here is a higher view of the Milk River…you can see the skies are breaking up and the sun is starting to shine….

and there, upon top of one of the rock formations…is another Canada Goose….this one on a nest!

There she is….and believe me the top of that rock, although lower than the surrounding ones, was still a long long way down to the ground….it would be something to see how the goslings get down to earth…being ‘light as a feather’ I guess they just sort of float!

here is one of the many interesting rock formations you encounter along this trail….this one a bit of a ‘bridge’

of course there are also wildflowers growing along the trail….this little yellow flower has the rather ungainly name of ‘Spatulate Bladderpod’ and is only found in this extreme southern section of the province (at least according to my ‘Plants of Alberta’ book.

and this, which looks sort of like a white for-get-me-not, is Macoun’s Cryptanthe.  Surely these plants have common names but my reference book doesn’t list them..

a bird I’d been watching for on this walk….was a Rock Wren….and here is a little guy singing his heart out.  These birds nest in holes in the sandstone formations….we watched a pair carrying nesting material.  When we had been here previously, it was about a month later and we had watched them carrying food into their nests…

back to the wildflowers….here is Hooker’s Townsendia….remember we saw this wildflower at Dinosaur Provincial Park as well, although this plant is much pinker than the ones I saw there.

here is one of the really high sections of the trail…..this is looking westwards….

and here we are, pretty much looking eastwards now, the campground is situated in the area that the river is about to bend around.

there is one of those Rock Wren with a mouthful of nesting material…

and before we take a break….wanted to throw in this picture of a Spotted Towhee.  There were a lot of Spotted Towhee, both in the campground itself and in a bushy area down close to the river.  I’ve seen them here before, but I’m always surprised to see them, as to me, they belong back home in our west coast forests ~ I guess that is because they winter with us, although many remain with us all year.

Tunkwa Lake Provincial Park – July 1st to 4th 2010

Wandering Willie – this is for you – before getting on with the spring trip postings….thought I’d post some of the pictures from our long weekend trip to Tunkwa Lake….they won’t be in any particular order….but I will put all the bird ones at the end so anyone who really couldn’t care less about the birds won’t have to suffer through them….

The best way to describe Tunkwa that weekend was ‘green’ – I don’t know that I’ve ever seen Tunkwa so ‘green’  especially by July!

The level of the water in the lake was also the highest I’ve seen it for a long time….in fact all of the lakes along the route (up Mamet Lake Road) were full to the brim and even over flowing….which is a very good thing because for too many years they have been getting dryer and dryer….

The pond at the top of the spillway down into Leighton….

Canada Geese in the spillway pond….

Green over at Leighton too….when I get to the pictures from my other camera there will be some more of the area behind Leighton.

The cool wet weather that led to all the ‘green’ has also produced an incredible array of wildflowers….some of which I don’t ever recall seeing here before….of course the landscape here is changing constantly as it reverts back to grasslands from forest….courtesy of the pine beetle… the above picture was taken from the top row of the campground…

Got down to ground level to get these pictures….I think these yellow daisies must be ‘Meadow Arnica’ and I really don’t recall seeing them here before….maybe I’ve just never been at the right time for them to be in flower, because there are sure lots of them now!.

The area up along the back fence was all wildflowers as well….more of the Arnica, the cream colored ‘Death Camas’, Goats beard, Field Chickweed, and Larkspur to name just a few…

Wild Roses are really liking this more ‘open’ Tunkwa and were just coming into full flower….of course their perfume is heavenly!

 

Here is a wild rose close up….

Here is a view of the campground over at Leighton, through wildflowers that I don’t know the name of and have yet to look up…   Leighton was very busy over that weekend, while Tunkwa was just pleasantly occupied but not over run…

String of Canada Geese on the lake….most of them ‘teenagers’ and all the geese seemed to be in their flightless molt stage so being quiet and staying out of trouble until they can fly again….

Here is just some more ‘green’ – very, very, ‘green’ – that is now probably changing, we were there from the 1st to the 4th and it was pretty much sweatshirts and fleece weather, but by the 6th summer decided to arrive in British Columbia with a vengeance, so now, with temperatures no doubt in the mid to high 30’s the area will be drying out and turning it’s usual golden colour pretty quickly!

Looking at the bluff and the spit – the spit appears deserted but it wasn’t…by evening of the 1st it was pretty well occupied ~ but the surprising thing was that several of them left again on the 3rd which was a Saturday…

I’m told the Marmot population increased dramatically with this years crop of youngsters…if you look at the base of this pit toilet there are 2 youngsters, a 3rd had dived underneath…

This pair were taking it easy down on the bluff….

Now we’ll get into bird pictures…

Savannah Sparrows were everywhere, lot’s of youngsters as well.  We happened to be camped by one of the few groves of green trees left and there was constant bird activity in there….my favorite site was occupied and they stayed the whole weekend, in fact appeared to be there for even longer….so we settled for the same site we had stayed at, at Easter….

Lot’s of Killdeer constantly carrying on trying to lead everyone away from either nests or youngsters – this pair were set up down at the turn around by the spill way.  I caught sight of fledglings a number of times but they always ‘obeyed’ mom and hid in the reeds…

From the racket coming from the reeds there were obviously lots of nests with young Yellow headed Blackbirds in them….saw quite a few females, like this one, busy packing food….

Speaking of packing food to kids….this Savannah Sparrow has a mouthful…

There were a number of families of Barrow’s Goldeneye’s on both Tunkwa and Leighton…these little guys were in the inlet between the bluff and the spit….

This male Barrow’s Goldeneye was on Leighton….he still retains some of his breeding colour but it was going fast….

While I was taking pictures of the Goldeneye…an Osprey landed in this dead pine over the spillway from Tunkwa to Leighton….there was lots of water coming down and fish were obviously attracted to the area because this Osprey perched here quite often….unfortunately this picture really emphasis’s the difference between the vibrant ‘green’ and the poor dead pines….those of us who love the place have learned to look past the ‘dead’…

 

There is a close up of that Osprey on his perch…

had to throw in a picture of a couple of the Canada Geese, they are just so photogenic…

There were a number of Mallard families too, these ones are pretty young and were down by the boat launch…

this female was in the same spot….obviously hoping for a handout…

  

I was standing on the bluff looking down when I took this picture….there is a female Barrow’s Goldeneye on the right (in fact I think the ‘mom’ of those babies) and the guy standing is a male Lesser Scaup.  Scaup were the most numerous species of duck we saw.  These guys totally confuse me.  This male is no longer in breeding colour…..yet they were still all ‘paired up’ and I’ve never seen Scaup ducklings here until late July or early August…

Not a bird….but the end of this entry….we never really got a sunset that trip….this was the best that happened and it was on the Saturday night….Sunday morning we woke up to rain and that was what it was doing when we left.