Spring Trip 2010 - Day 5 - Kettle River Provincial Park

We don't know if it was all the fresh air and exercise of the day before, or the fact that we were just starting to settle into this relaxin' vacation thing.....but this day, Monday, April 26th, none of us - even the dogs - woke up until 9:30 in the morning!
Due to the fact that the next leg of this journey would be a fairly long one, but also due to the fact that it was another beautiful day in the weather department - we elected to spend one more day here at Kettle River. This despite the fact that we were out of bread, on the second of our two tanks of propane, and our water supply was so low we had added the contents of the 'emergency' jug to the tank. During the course of the day they did turn the water on in the park for a few hours so we were able to add a few more jugs.....

The rest of the day we spent much like the day before.....wandering and taking pictures.
Yesterday I said that the Sagebrush Buttercups were pretty much the only actual flowers out. Well that wasn't quite accurate. The Wild Blue Clematis were also in flower....

as was the Jacob's Ladder.

I've been mentioning the pair of Canada Geese that kept flying up and down the river. This particular morning, one of the pair landed on the top of this snag and kept up a ruckus while the partner continued the flying up and down the river....

We set out, all together (well except for April who doesn't 'do' walks anymore), along this riverside path.....from the point where that tree leans out over the river, to the bridge, there was a lot of bird activity.....

American Robins......

Nashville Warblers.......

Yellow-rump Warblers - of course! This one being a female.

Red-breasted Nuthatch......

and Mountain Chickadee (just love these evil looking little fellows!) We even got 'hummed' by a Hummingbird but couldn't spot it well enough to see what type.

Here is the bridge.....this picture being taken from the east side, looking back at the campground. The day use area is on the left beside the river...

it is a wide smooth level path.....great for biking....ATV's are NOT allowed! Thank Goodness although there are plenty of side roads running adjacent to the path where they do are allowed so on the weekend there was a constant hum as they went about their environmentally destructive activities....

We're getting towards the end of the park property now, looking southwards towards Rock Creek.

Ernie and Shantz crossing the boundary line....there was the option of branching off onto those side roads at this point....which we did for a short way before crossing back onto park property

This is looking back toward the campground, the bridge being out of sight around a bend in the river.

I've thrown this picture in only because it shows a pair of Wood Ducks. I was amazed to see Wood Ducks here. I always associate them with quiet woodland ponds, not fairly large rivers. They were in a quiet back eddy, but still.....

Common Merganser, which is what this pair are, do nest in rivers, so not unexpected.

As we were crossing the bridge, heading back to the campground, one of the Violet Green Swallows co-operated very nicely for picture taking.....this is a female...

since you don't get such co-operation very often - you get two pictures of her.

This Song Sparrow doesn't have a punk hair cut, the wind had picked up a bit and was blowing the feathers on the top of it's head.

More Yellow-rump Warblers pictures....they are just so colourful and co-operative...not to mention plentiful!

this is the last Yellow-rump Warbler picture for a little while - promise!

and those Nashville Warblers - we won't be seeing them anymore on this trip....so you get a couple more....

the final Nashville Warbler picture....

When the park is very quiet with only a few sites occupied, if you listen, it is amazing what you hear. With all the nuthatches, flickers, sapsuckers, chickadees and woodpeckers in the place, there was 'tapping' coming from all sorts of places.....

I followed one soft tapping sound to this tree.....

there I found a pair of Red-breasted Nuthatch busy excavating a nesting cavity.....

they would work away inside, then come to the entrance with a mouth full of 'bits'......

here is another look at one of the birds with it's mouthful...

and then 'Phfft'....spit it all out and go back to work inside!

I returned several times over the course of a few hours and they were still working away. Thus ends another day, with the resolve that tomorrow we will be up bright and early and on the road!

Bird List: Mountain Chickadee - 11; Canada Goose - 3 (a 3rd joined in which really created havoc!); Stellers Jay - 1; Red-breasted Nuthatch - at least 10; Northern Flicker - 6; Common Merganser - 8; Mallard - 2; Song Sparrow - 2; Robins - 10; White Crowned Sparrows - 2; Nashville Warblers - 3; Lincoln Sparrow - 1; Yellow Rump Warblers - at least a dozen; Violet Green Swallows - at least 16; Hummingbird - 1 but don't know type; Spotted Towhee - 2; Bald Eagle - 1; White-breasted Nuthatch - 2; Mourning Dove - at least 2; Raven - 3; Tree Swallows - 6; Ruffed Grouse - at least 1 drumming; Junco - 1; Ruby Crowned Kinglet - 2; Black Capped Chickadee - 4; Red-Nap Sapsucker - 2; Wood Duck - 2.

Spring Trip 2010 - Day 4 - Kettle River Provincial Park

Sunday, April 25th we woke to clear sunny skies, although the temperature was a chilly 3 degrees when we got up, it quickly warmed to a perfect 'tee - shirt and jeans' type day.
First objective of the day was to try and get pictures of the Ruby Crowned Kinglets that were bouncing around in the bushes next to the campsite. An exercise in futility if you've ever tried! This was the best I got.

Ernie and Shantz took off for one of their long walks.......


Ernie took this picture of a Townsends Solitaire......

which he saw just as they started up the precarious trail to climb the hillside opposite the campground. You can just make out a bridge in the middle of the picture. This bridge, which is from the days of the Kettle River Railroad...is now a foot/bike path from the campground to the areas on the east side of the river......

I'm not sure where he was perched when he took this picture, looking back down on the river and at the campground....no wonder he didn't suggest I come....heights and me just don't get along!

this is a 'zoomed' in shot from the same spot - you can just make out the roof of our camper in there amongst the trees.

Meanwhile, after getting April settled in for the morning (April is the elderly/blind Shih Tzu), I wandered down to the path along the river to see what I could see......

Chipmunks of course!

and Red Squirrels watching me watching them.....

and one of those Ground Squirrels (Columbian)....expressing his displeasure at my presence....

These Sagebrush Buttercups were about the only actual 'flower'...growing right on the edge of the bank. I found them interesting because of the number of petals some of the flowers had....most Sagebrush Buttercups only have 5 petals although guide books do say they can have as many as the 8 which some of these have.

The Wild Currents were in bloom as well.....and then I spotted, on those big Ponderosa Pines in the background of the above picture.....

White-breasted Nuthatch! This is only the 3rd time I have ever seen these birds. The 1st time was at Monck Provincial Park just outside of Merritt B.C., and the 2nd time was right here on these same trees a few years prior.

Since these are the best pictures I've ever managed of these guys....you get to see a few of them.

As Nuthatches go, the White Breasted is quite a big bird, it also does not make itself known as readily as the Red-breasted. There were 3 of them and they spent a while going over these trees before flying up into the tops of some others, not to be seen again.

While I was enthralled with the White-breasted Nuthatch, there were more of these Nashville Warblers going over the bushes in the same area as well.

The hillside wanderers returned in time for lunch, and then we set out together to walk the path along the river on the south side of that bridge.

The area over here is open, Ponderosa Pine country. That bridge is in the middle of the picture. There is a group campsite in this area and also a nice day use area right at the edge of the river, between this point and the bridge.

This gives a clearer indication of the general terrain. This is generally a very 'birdy' area, but perhaps it was a bit early in the season as it was quit quiet this day.

There were a few Sagebrush Buttercups in flower amongst the carpet of pine needles....

and it wasn't too early in the season for those Yellow-rumped Warblers....there were dozens of them flying back and forth across the river.

I'm not really a 'bug' person, but I find anything to do with nature interesting (well except for things that don't have legs).....just before supper that day I wandered down to see what I could see and these....

large black beetles caught my eye. They were almost a blue-black. There were 4 or 5 of them and they were only interested in the Sagebrush Buttercups. I'm not sure if they were picking the petals off of them - it almost looked like that....

I've tossed another picture in so if there is any 'bug' person out there, perhaps you could let us know what they were......

As evening fell.....

One of the Red-naped Sapsuckers that had been active all day, finally flew to a spot where I could get a picture....of course it was really to dark for taking pictures.....

it was also too dark when I took this of one of the Ruffed Grouse that had been busy 'drumming' all day and most of the night! The Grouse and the pair of Canada Geese that kept flying up and down the river didn't seem to understand 'quiet hours'! Not that I minded...if I can't have Loons calling I might as well have these guys.


Bird List for the day: Canada Goose - 2; Black Cap Chickadee - 2; Ruffed Grouse - at least 2; Red-breasted Nuthatch - lots!; Raven - 1; Robins - 9; Red-nap Sapsucker - 3; Mountain Chickadee - at least 8; Northern Flicker - 6; Mallard - 2; Song Sparrow - 3; Yellow Rump Warbler - at least 3 dozen; White Breasted Nuthatch - 3; Nashville Warbler - 2; Junco - 1; Mourning Dove - at least 2; Black Chin Hummer - 1*I'm pretty sure it was a Black Chin, it was a male, it come to our feeder momentarily, it was not a Rufous or a Calliope; Townsends Solitaire -1; Violet Green Swallow - at least 18; Tree Swallow - at least a dozen; Bald Eagle - 1; Purple Finch -1; Northern Rough Wing Swallow - at least 6; Common Merganser - 2.