Tunkwa P.P. – Easter 2010 – April 3

Woke up Easter morning to high thin cloud, sunshine and no wind!  While we were having breakfast we watched a small flock of Swans land out on the ice in the middle of the lake…

I quickly took a picture from the window of the camper although needn’t have rushed as they settled down and stayed there the entire day, only taking off about 6 in the evening.

When breakfast was finished we set off for a walk around the side of the lake…as we approached the lake we saw a dark object on the shore, head off across the ice to the little island off shore…

Unfortunately by the time I got a camera out and ready it was already across the ice, but it was an Otter!  the first one we had ever seen there.  It actually crossed the little island and continued on across the ice to the far shore.  We had to go around…

down through the little dip where these geese were standing on ice that had reformed during the night…

past the slough…that I think is actually called something like ‘bluff lake’ – looking much better with blue skies behind it, but also freshly frozen over….

and over and up the little mountain where I stopped to take this picture looking back over to the campground…there was also an interesting crack in the ice here…in fact the ice was really creaking and groaning this day where it hadn’t the days before…

the whole south facing hillside was covered in Sagebrush Buttercups…

closer look at some of the buttercups…

and down the other side and then we spotted – yes! a Mountain Bluebird!

and then a pair (male on left, female on right).  Mountain Bluebirds were still here when we were last here at Thanksgiving (go back in archives) and here they were again. 

Off we went again, along the back of the little mountain, and the back of the slough, over to the aspen grove….on the way we had to transverse what will hopefully be a future aspen grove but from the looks of these poor aspens….

where every tip was chewed off – they were having a hard time of it.  The amount of deer droppings in the area explained who was doing the pruning!

and here we found another pair of Mountain Bluebirds…this is the male…

soon this aspen bird nursery will be alive because Mountain Bluebirds are one of the species that will be making their nests in cavities in these trees.

From here we circled back to the campground and lunch.  After lunch I took April out for a little private meander (about all she is capable of these days) and while I had her out I could hear all sorts of bird activity up in the back corner of the park, so later set out on my own…

That big mass of Robins was up there…..

they’re probably hard to see in this picture, but the ground was hopping!

this guy seemed rather curious as to what I was doing!

this was just one of the many Northern Flickers in the area as well – this one is a female.

and if you wonder what they were all doing – well look at the size of the worm this guy is pulling out of the now soft, un-frozen ground!

I learned a long time ago that one of the best ways to see birds is to just pick a likely spot and then sit and wait and see what shows up….this little ‘pond’ back in the forest was a definite ‘likely spot’…

this male Downy Woodpecker was one of the first to appear….another one almost landed in my lap before he realized I wasn’t another stump!

a steady stream of Robins came for baths…

another female Flicker joined the crowd…

and then a female Hairy Woodpecker arrived as well…

It was getting on by then so figured I should (reluctantly) head back to the camper….

on the way I got stopped by some Mountain Chickadees.  There were also some Golden Crowned Kinglets in the same spot, but didn’t manage any pictures, nor could I get a picture of the Marmot that dove into his culvert when he saw me approaching – not to worry – I’d get pictures the next day!

Tunkwa P.P. – Easter 2010 – April 3

We weren’t exactly sure what we would wake up to, I fully expected it to be ‘white’ but no, we woke up to gray skies but you could see blue sky off in the distance, so after a leisurely breakfast we decided to take off for a walk.  Since the temperature was hovering around 0 and the wind was still howling, we decided to head over to Leighton Lake as it is lower and more sheltered…

Shantz was just eager to be going anywhere!

Leighton was pretty much like Tunkwa, still frozen over but with some open water along the edges…and of course there were Canada Geese there as well.

You can see from Ernie’s bundled appearance that it was a bit chilly in the wind!  The area around Leighton is a mix of forest and open grasslands, so we decided to follow a ‘cow path’ up into the trees, away from the open area of the lake.  This whole area is free range for cattle so there are well worn cow paths winding all over…it is impossible to get lost….the path will come out somewhere..

and this one brought us to June Lake.  This little ‘lake’ isn’t much more than a glorified mud puddle – in fact that is exactly what it is, a watering hole for cattle – one of which had met it’s demise as you can see from the partial remains…

Shantz was quite delighted with the part she found!

While she munched on her prize I amused myself taking pictures of a Northern Flicker that was feeding in the grass.  That huge flock of Robins was in this area too, I counted 126 as they flew from one lot of trees to another.

  When she’d finally got all the flavour from her find, we skirted the back of June Lake and headed through the forest, (following another ‘cow path’ although this one was mainly still snow covered).  As we walked this path, which was in fairly heavy forest, Shantz became more and more excited…we’ve learned to trust her when she starts sniffing the air and dancing on tippy toes….even though I figured she wouldn’t act like this if it was a cougar or a bear…I was still getting rather nervous and looking to all sides as we walked….however, what she found was…

a pair of wild horses!!!  There is a fairly large herd of wild horses that lives in the area but this is the first time we’ve got this close to any of them while walking….

they were very spooky and took off as soon as they realized we were there – if we hadn’t had Shantz on a strong lead we would probably have never seen her again because she really wanted to take off right after them!

with that excitement over with, we continued on and came out at the aspen grove – as we knew it would, since we’ve done this walk before.

It was still quiet around this ‘bird nursery’ but it won’t be for long! 

Having left April back in the camper we figured it was time to be heading back, so skirted the slough area…

but not before noticing that there was a Bald Eagle sitting on the nest already.  This nest is located up on the hillside between the slough and Tunkwa Lake.

then just to prove that winter really is over and it is spring – the first Sagebrush Buttercup was spotted.

When we got back to the camper and looked at the time we were a bit shocked to realize that 3 hours had gone by!  Fortunately April remembered about being ‘abandoned’ in the camper and was still curled up on the seat where we had left her.

Later in the afternoon, the sun made it’s way out and I took off for a walk by myself.  Back over to look at Leighton…

looking a lot prettier with sunshine and blue skies!

then across the grasslands to the slough, where I spooked a small flock of Swans…

then I just wandered along the shoreline taking pictures, after all you don’t get a chance to take pictures of a frozen lake very often….at least I don’t!

While I was wandering, thinking I was all by myself, a young couple with a very young baby came around the side of the little mountain and continued on – they are that small dot in the middle of this picture.  I’m not sure where they came from, but where ever it was, it was a long way and despite my layers of clothing – it was cold!  I couldn’t imagine taking a baby out in that, even though they had it tucked in under the mom’s jacket!  It did prove that we aren’t the only crazy people who think being out in these conditions is fun!

 

Trip to Southern Alberta 2008 – to Chain Lakes

After our brush with winter (in August), the next day, which was August 27th, dawned nice and sunny so we decided to drive back along the main highway, so we could stop at all the spots we had passed on our way in, such as Kananaski’s center.

I know I took pictures….but where they are I do not know….so these ones will have to suffice…

This was somewhere along the highway….there was a rest stop in the area, I do remember that.

I think this might have been the view the rest stop was there for….the whole drive is absolutely spectacular but the town center was not dog friendly and since the sun was shining we couldn’t leave them in the vehicle for long, so didn’t really explore that area at all.

This was another spot where there was a trail that lead to Grizzly Creek….

and this is the creek itself, not all that remarkable, but a nice walk into it.  I think you could hike further if you wished, but by this time it was getting late in the day and we were thinking supper.   I do remember there were a number of Ruffed Grouse in the parking area when we returned to the truck….

The next morning, we once more woke to this…

that isn’t a black and white picture folks! it just looks that way….which is why we decided it was time to move on, so hooked up the trailer, said our goodbyes to our friends who were busy getting their campsite ready to close and proceeded south and then east on highway 40 which took us higher and higher, above tree line…very spectacular scenery but I think I was too worried about the ability of our truck to be towing in this high elevation, than I was about taking pictures.  Then suddenly we were dropping down into the foothills.  Highway 40 became #541 and then joined highway 22 at Longview.  We were now back into pretty flat country and proceeded the short distance to Chain Lakes Provincial Park.

this is a lovely park, nestled in ‘cattle country’.  When we were there part of the campsite was closed as they were upgrading the sites to have power – this is one of the things we love about Alberta parks, the fact that you have your choice of powered or non-powered sites.  We elected for non-powered this time as we only planned to spend the night.  The Labour Day long weekend was fast approaching and we watched a steady stream of vehicles come in a ‘save’ sites – something you can’t do in B.C. (well you can reserve them – for a fee)

a walk revealed this lake which I assume was one of a ‘chain’.  There was a large picnic area, playground and even a concession in this location.

Here is another look at part of the large campground.

This was a very ‘birdie’ area!  We made a mental note to try to return here early one spring – I imagine sometime in May would be ideal!  As it was, we watched the numerous White Crowned Sparrows…

that were lining up to take turn bathing where water was dripping from a tap….

there were large numbers of juveniles, like this fellow, attesting to a successful breeding season, although given the time of year, they could have all been migrating through as well.

I also recall there being quite a few Warblers, Black billed Magpies, a Downy Woodpecker

and this young Yellow shafted Northern Flicker…the list went on and on….