Spring Trip 2010 – Some ‘catch up’ Photos

Well folks, I’m back in business!  My desktop computer is once more working and all my pictures have been recovered…..seems I did save them to my external hard drive after all….just couldn’t figure out how to retrieve them…now thanks to Ben (son of a friend) I have it all back and all working fine.  Back to Windows XP – NO MORE VISTA! as that seemed to be the root of the problems

So…before I continue on with the story, I’m just going to go back and post a few pictures from the DSLR camera, that weren’t available when I did the actual postings….

This is one of the Least Flycatchers that were seen constantly (at least until it snowed), in the vicinity of the campsite in the Center block of Cypress Hills….

and here is one of the Swainson’s Thrush seen there ~ yes Bill, we saw Swainson’s Thrush everywhere!  there are more to come….

and there is one of, what I am sure, are Pink Sided Junco…….they were the only kind of Junco we saw there….

And there is Ernie and Shantz going for a walk on the beautiful sunny day….the day before the snow struck!

 

 

 

This Prairie Crocus picture was taken along the above walk….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and these little Spring Beauty’s grew alongside the paved path that I featured before….

 

 and now we’re back to snow……just a reminder….this was the what we woke up to on the morning of May 23 rd….

The amount on the picnic table sort of says it all!!!!

 

So we’ll say good bye to the snow – again – and this poor bewildered Robin….

and now we’re in the little community campground at Grassy Lake, Alberta….this is a Common Grackle…

and that is a bunch more of them on the fence that divided the campground from the adjacent field…

this was looking south from the campground….that ‘white’ isn’t snow, it was a flock of Gulls – don’t know what kind….

 

and I’m going to toss in this Townsend’s Solitaire….also at the same place…..

So that is it for now.  It might take me a day or two to get the next batch of pictures ready….I’ve had to start from scratch – again – on this computer….and that is very time consuming!!!  But we’ll be heading to Writing On Stone….real soon!

Spring Trip 2010 – Day 27 – Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park – Part 2

Our next destination this day was the Conglomerate Cliffs….

The road to the cliffs went off to the right, just after the information sign….it wasn’t much of road and I was beginning to wonder as it seemed to go on for quite a while….

But it did eventually lead us to this point….

Here is the sign we found there…..

and here is the view…note the snow still down in there in some areas….

This view shows a bit more of the cliffs themselves….I think we are looking northward or possibly north west here…

 

looking more eastward now….

eastward again..

a ground level shot….we’ll get to the wildflowers in a minute….

Ernie and Shantz taking in the view….

Ernie took this close up of the conglomerate rock that forms these cliffs….it doesn’t look all that stable to me!

It wasn’t just the view that made this place so interesting….it was the array of wildflowers as well, especially on the east facing hillsides where I guess the sun warmed things up the quickest….

this hillside was actually quite steep and covered in pine needles as well as dried grass so we were risky life and limb in getting these wildflower close ups…

 

This is apparently ‘Blackish Locoweed’….

and these are Cut-leaf Daisies….we saw these in the Yukon and they grow in hot dry areas in B.C. as well….the white petals are very short lived so you usually just see the yellow ‘buttons’

Here is some of that Musineon which we first saw back at Chin Lake in Alberta…

This is Smooth Blue Beardtongue….just in bud….we’ll see it in flower later on in this trip….

Here is some Field Chickweed along with the Beardtongue…

Some more of that Owl Clover, seen back at Chin Lake and Dinosaur Provincial park….

and yup!  Prairie Crocus!

Here is some Early Cinquefoil…..there was lots of ‘yellow’ with the Cinquefoil, Musineom and Dandelions…

Early Locoweed as well…

there is another Beardtongue on the hillside…this might give a bit of an idea of the angle of the hill…

and there is a cluster of Prairie Crocus….there were lots of these clusters spread throughout the entire grassy plateau….

I have to throw this picture that Ernie took in as well….his camera (Panasonic) actually seems to take better wildflower pictures than any of them!

There weren’t a lot of birds in the area of the cliffs….but I did spot this Townsend’s Solitaire…

there were also Chipping Sparrows (picture) and Savannah Sparrows (not pictured) and Junco (also not pictured)

and robins….where aren’t there robins????  So after a break for lunch….we’ll continue on with this days explorations.

Spring Trip 2010 – Day 22 - Makwa Lake Provincial Park, Sask.

By the time the morning of May 13th dawned we had had enough of Crane Lake, so were up and on the road by 9 am….headed to the town of Cold Lake, in search of a bank machine to replenish our depleted supply of cash.  It was a short trip but one word of caution….if you are relying on your G.P.S. to take you to the town of Cold Lake, and what you really want is to find banks and stores….don’t turn left when it says too…turn right…..turning left takes you into, I guess, what could be called ‘touristy’ old town right on the lake….all the major businesses are now out along the highway south of town….it didn’t help that the main road was also torn up and being re-constructed!  However, after finding our way there, finding an A.T.M., a grocery store and even an OPEN visitor’s center….we were finally ready to make it into Saskatchewan, the first of our actual ‘destinations’…..only about 2 weeks later than planned and at the opposite end of the province.

Following #55 east we had no sooner crossed the provincial border when we spotted….

this pond at the side of the road….absolutely full of …

Franklin Gull!  Aha!  maybe Saskatchewan was the Mecca for bird watchers we had been led to believe it was!

closer look at the gulls….this was, however, the only scene like this we encountered….although admittedly we never did get to any of the ‘birding hot spots’….

Our 2nd impression of Saskatchewan….the roads were in deplorable condition!  This was a highway….and it doesn’t look nearly as bad as it really was with dips and dives and patches and crumbling edges….  We’d only ever visited Saskatchewan once before, probably about 15 years earlier and that had just been a quick through and through….but we had driven this highway and we don’t remember it being like this….

Since time was running short, trip wise, we decided we didn’t have time to head to the center of the province, but would turn south on the first major secondary north south route and hit all the parks along that route until we got down to the southern part of the province…..which is why, when we came to #26 we turned south on it…

If #55 was bad…#26 was worse….we pulled over at this only wide spot we found to give the dogs a break and to use our ‘facilities’ since none had been forth coming along the route, this is looking back the way we had come….we realize that this area of the province isn’t that populated….but really, the Dempster highway in the N.W.T. might be gravel, but it was smoother and in better condition than this!

Our destination for this day was Makwa Lake Provincial Park and we really didn’t know what to expect….what we didn’t expect was what we found….a whole tourist destination with stores, golf course etc. etc. built around the park.  We also discovered, if this and other parks we ended up at were an example, that Saskatchewan Parks have a very sensible policy…..their parks are ‘OPEN’ year round although not all of the campgrounds within the park, and it seems each park has a number of campgrounds, are, but they ALL have at least one area where camping all year is allowed and they have a sensible, reasonable rate of $11 per for that ‘Off Season’ camping…..AND the water was even turned on!!!!

Not all is rosy though….the concept of ‘graded, level’ campsites doesn’t seem to have caught on and it took a while to find a site that was, first of all big enough (some would barely hold a tiny car with a tent), not sloped the ‘wrong’ way, and with branches high enough up to allow us entry – yes our unit is high, but a lot of units are high these days….however, we finally found one that would do and set up camp….where I had the fun of putting everything inside back where it belonged after the roller coaster ride over the highways…

So with everything back in place and it being a beautiful warm, but not over bearingly hot day, we set out to walk one of the many well marked trails….

the trail started out past this hillside covered in Birch trees.  This park is at the southern edge of the boreal forest….which was good because I was really getting tired of ‘boreal forest’ – it wasn’t the habitat I had come to see this trip…

Trail continuing on over one of the wet lands…..  The latitude here is about half way between Lac la Biche and Edmonton (Elk Island), but ‘spring’ here, was more advanced than anywhere we’d been since B.C.’s Okanagan…..

part of one of the extensive wetlands….

Wild Strawberries were in flower everywhere…

and these Early Blue Violets…

further along the trail, we were back in ‘boreal’ forest…..with it’s ground cover of crisp lichen….

There were Swainson’s Thrush here and these, Red-breasted Nuthatch….

and here, like there had been at Crane Lake….scattered Prairie Crocus…

the trail finally emerged at these wetlands….where we could have continued on but opted to head back to camp for supper….

the trail moved down and through the wetlands where Marsh Marigolds were just coming into full bloom…

Back at camp….Shantz curled up in one of our camp chairs ~ you wouldn’t believe how many people do a double take at this…but Shantz is positive this is where dogs belong….either that or she doesn’t consider herself to be a dog…

 

after supper Ernie and Shantz took off for a walk in one direction, where he took this picture of an over view of one of the wet lands….

well I set out in another direction, following a trail along the lake edge.  Makwa Lake appears to be a very large but with a convoluted shoreline lake, this area was just one small arm…

the trail I was on passed through another small wet area where more Marsh Marigolds were in flower….

I wanted to show this sign….which is much in evidence at all the Saskatchewan Parks….I really like that 24 hour quiet time…..I wonder how much it is enforced? 

The day ended with this spectacular sunset – picture courtesy of Ernie (I know it says Kathy on here….I just have the computer set up that way)…..I think, by the time sun was setting, that I was already in bed.

Bird List: Red breasted Nuthatch – 4; Black Cap Chickadee – 1; Yellow Belled Sapsucker – 4; Swainson’s Thrush – 5; Ring neck Duck – 4; Green Wing Teal – 2; Canada Goose – 1; Mallard – 4; Yellow rump Warbler – 10; Spotted Sandpiper – 1; Robin – 1; Crow – 1; Veery – 1 *this was a ‘lifer’ for me, unfortunately, no picture; Osprey – 1; Song Sparrow – 1; Ruby Crowned Kinglet – 1; Raven – 1; Ruffed Grouse – 1; Common Loon – 2; Snipe – 1.