July 2012 Trip – Tunkwa Lake P.P. – Part one

For the July 1st, Canada Day long weekend, we did as we had done for the May long weekend, taking an extra 5 days off to extend the mini vacation.  This time we started at Tunkwa.

The month of June had been as wet and cool here as elsewhere in the province, resulting in a very green, lush landscape with high water levels for the lake.

With our favorite site taken, we settled for this one, the same spot we had stayed in last Thanksgiving…

Shantz was very happy to have ‘husky television’ as not only were there various water fowl, but also many…

Yellow-bellied Marmots, running here, there and everywhere!

I was happy to be able to sit at the water’s edge were there were Lesser Scaup – the males already out of breeding plumage, but still paired up and no ducklings to be seen…

was also kind of confused by this pair of Red-necked Grebe that were constantly together, seemed to be loosing their breeding plumage but with no young.

these Mallard ducklings were well on their way to maturity…

and there were lots of young American Coot.  In fact youngsters and very busy parents feeding them, was definitely the theme and we’ll continue on in part two.

Spring Trip 2012 – Tunkwa Lake P.P. – Part 5

OK, I’m going to try to finish up our spring time visit to Tunkwa, today in preparation for heading out there again tomorrow…I’ll probably just show some random pictures in no special order…

to show some more of the species frequenting the habitat beside our campsite – White-crowned Sparrow…

Song Sparrow – this one heading for a bath – there seems to be a small spring in this area – another bird attractant

Orange-crowned Warbler….

Rufous Hummingbird – this one a male of course – hiding in the bushes…

and remember I said I’d have a bit more about Ruby-crowned Kinglets – well that is a Ruby-crowned Kinglet nest on the underside of the branch, and to the left is a female Brown Headed Cowbird sneaking over, and yes, into the little kinglet nest.

There were also Chipmunks – busy eating the dried up rose hips – left from last fall….

on the Saturday (May 26th) we did the 4 km loop walk around Leighton Lake – this is the far end of Leighton where the campgrounds are.

Camped at Leighton were some relatives – or at least relatives of Shantz – it is pretty obvious which was is Shantz’ brother (although from a separate litter), his name is ‘Relic’ and the little gray female’s name is Pride and we humans are now all Face book friends….Relic and Pride spend about as much time at Leighton as we do at Tunkwa…

later in the afternoon, back at the campsite, look at the very top of the tallest tree….

that young Bald Eagle spent quite a while up there….

just an evening shot from the end of Tunkwa Lake..

and an Osprey in the late afternoon sunshine…

and one more of the spillway, with the sun now really low in the sky….  the next day, we would have to head for home.

Spring Trip 2012 – Tunkwa Lake P.P. – Part 2

Woke up on the morning of the 24th to see our only neighbour pulling out….not quite believing our good luck we set about enjoying the day.  After a leisurely breakfast we headed out for a walk over to ….

Leighton Lake – notice the nets in the corner there….fisheries had the spillway between Tunkwa and Leighton netted off…

There is now lots and lots of dead fall where ever you get away from the campground itself.  All those pine beetle killed trees are decaying at the bottom and being blown down but have been allowed to stay where they fall with only the immediate trail cleared…the first open spot you come to was alive with Yellow-rump Warblers…as was most of the park!

this gives a slight indication ….the trail is actually the grassy area…and there is another warbler…

in the distance we noticed a lot of swallow activity over the lake – we’d noticed this the previous evening over Tunkwa lake as well…

then we noticed, up ahead, one of those dead pine trees, absolutely alive with Swallows….

there is a close up of just one small section of the tree – mainly a mix of Tree Swallows and Cliff Swallows although I think there were a few Northern Rough-wing among them as well…

it was an amazing sight….any stumps or dead falls in the area were decorated with swallows!

in not quite the same numbers and in not quite the same location, other trees were decorated with Chipping Sparrows..

there is a more detailed look at one of the Chipping Sparrows…

back at Tunkwa lake it was a calm, but cool and over cast morning…

The Yellow-headed Blackbirds were there – it looks to me that some of them weren’t even in full breeding colour yet, or maybe this is just one of last years youngsters and not quite in adult plumage..

There were a number of Bald Eagles around…this fellow in first year plumage, must have been from last year, he was often flying with or near the adults, then other times he was completely on his own….it seems early for a bird from this year to be out on its own, and at one point we saw an adult flying with what appeared to be nesting material – although it seems late for eagles to just be nest building…

of course there were also Osprey and they obviously had youngsters in a nest as they were constantly fishing and then heading off in the same direction…. and I think at this stage I’ll upload this and then continue the day on in part 3…

Spring Trip 2012 – Tunkwa Lake P.P. – Part 1

Everyone who follows this blog knows that Tunkwa Lake Provincial Park is our very favorite place to be and therefore I’d better get our ‘spring trip’ to there finished, because in a few days we will be heading back for the 1st summer trip!  Usually getting to Tunkwa is a pretty straight forward proposition….

This time it was a bit complicated by a ‘for real’ cattle drive!  We had to back up beyond a cattle guard and sit while this herd was moved…a real treat to see ranchers on horseback and working dogs doing their thing!…

Always the next question when you actually reach the campsite is ‘where do we want to stay’ – of course I have favorite sites for different times of the year and different weather situations – my very favorite site had been commandeered now for this, the 3rd year, by the same people who park there for the entire season (something that actually is now being allowed at this park as a trial)….my 2nd favorite site, close to the water but beside one of the few groves of trees left with lots of undergrowth that attracts birds – is one of the favored sites by most park visitors…

but, lo and behold, it was free!  In fact there was only one other unit parked at this end of the campground and they only stayed over night so the next day which would have been May 24th we had the whole end of the campground entirely to ourselves – just the way I like it!!  First thing to notice are all the Lesser Scaup in the little bay!

as we were setting up this Savannah Sparrow was serenading us from a little pine tree – yes those are bugs but they are chrominids, that don’t bite as opposed to mosquitoes that do.

it didn’t take me long to notice a slightly concerned Dark Eyed Junco on the other side of the campsite…

the reason became apparent when I noticed there was a nest under that cluster of dried grasses (I sure hope they made it – I pointed it out to the park attendant so at least he wouldn’t weed whack it but it was very close to the road…)

This shows the area immediately behind the chosen campsite, the same sort of habitat continues down the side to the road…so after setting up it was just a case of wandering around and establishing that every thing you expect to be here at this time of the year is in fact here…

Brewer’s Blackbird – check!  They seemed to be in the midst of nesting and yes, those are more of those chrominids.

Yellow-headed Blackbirds – check!

American Coot – check!

as already mentioned – LOTS of Lesser Scaups…50 to 60 at a time in the little bay..

Barrow’s Goldeneye – here a pair but mainly there were just males so I expect most females were nesting – this is a species that nests in cavities in trees…

Killdeer – as hysterical as ever!

American Robins….most seemed to be in the nesting or feeding young stage…

Up the back where the Great Gray Owls had nested last year, there were only Mountain Chickadee this year.  The park attendant thinks that with all the attention the owls drew last year, they’ve found a less busy place to nest this year.

so that pretty much brings us to the end of the first day.  We had noticed that there didn’t seem to be nearly as many Canada Geese as we’d seen here at this time other years, something the park attendant confirmed, however numbers did seem to increase over the few days we were there..

so we’ll leave today with Ernie and Shantz relaxing in the evening sunshine – for our next trip we’ve bought two more chairs so I’ll get to sit outside as well!