Tunkwa Lake - May 2009 - Part 2

Saturday, May 9th dawned bright and clear and frosty! The day was so full that I'm having to break it down into a couple of postings.
Sunrise.....no I wasn't up. I opened the camper door, shot the photo and crawled back into my warm bed!

Shantz and Ernie, on the other hand, got up and went for an early walk - it was Ernie who took the above photo.

After their early morning walk, they both came back to bed until we all got up at a more civilized hour. There had been concern about how Shantz would cope with the camper stairs - not a problem! Didn't even hesitate....all the more surprising since we don't actually have any stairs where we live so it isn't like she is used to them.

While I sat outside having my morning coffee, this American Kestral sat in the top of a pine tree (dead of course) just across the road.

We witnessed the above scenario a number of times. Bald Eagle after Osprey....usually the Osprey had a fish. There is a pair of Bald Eagle that have nested at Tunkwa every year, and the pair was back on their territory again although not yet sitting on the nest.

Remember those Sagebrush Buttercups we saw along the Nicola River last month? well they are just now in flower at Tunkwa.

Close up of Tunkwa's Sagebrush Buttercups.....the moisture on them is melting frost.

Yellowbells were also in flower in the same general area. This is where I searched in vain for the Killdeer nest.

Close up of the Yellowbells. There will be a whole succession of native grassland type wildflowers now until late June. Depending on the amount of moisture received and how quickly or slowly the really hot weather arrives, the show can be spectacular.

After a relaxing breakfast, it was time to go for a walk.

This is the 'spit' I mentioned in part 1....Tunkwa is one of the very few places where you can camp right on a lakeshore with your boat pulled up right at your campsite. We have stayed on that spit as early as mid-April when the lake is still frozen and we like it in late June or early July when there are lots of youngsters being fed. Many ducks, grebes and even the loons will come into the little bay in the foreground so you can sit in a lawn chair, camera in hand and enjoy endless entertainment.

For many years now there has been a very light colored Red Neck Grebe seen at Tunkwa. We didn't get there at all last year, and hadn't seen it the year before, but had for a number of years previously. I was thrilled to spot this Grebe there, this year. I'm not sure if it is the same one or not....it seems to me that the back has a bit more pigment, but then the lighting wasn't great. Compare with this.....

The above photo was taken in 2006.

This is the pair seen this year. Always before the 'odd couple' nested in the exact same spot, on the end of the spit, facing the campground. This pair were seen swimming on the other side of the spit, on the main lake side. There was another pair of 'normal' Red Neck Grebe busy nest building in the same area, in fact Tunkwa boasts quite a population of Red Neck Grebe each year.

This female Yellowheaded Blackbird was busy in the same general area.

while this male was on a further shore.....the numbers of Yellowheaded Blackbirds didn't seem to be quite up to normal amounts yet, they were probably still just arriving.

Brewer's Blackbirds were plentiful, flying about in small flocks all along the shoreline.

As you follow the main road in the campsite towards the lake, you come to a sign that invites you to 'take a walk'.....and the choices of where to walk are so many and varied..... this morning we elected to walk over to Leighton Lake.

This Savannah Sparrow was spotted along the shore....the entire area is perfect Savannah Sparrow territory

This is just one small section of the shoreline of Leighton Lake. This lake is at a slightly lower elevation than Tunkwa and although deeper, isn't normally quite as affected by wind.

The only reason I'm posting this picture is because it is rather unusual....there were 12 Eared Grebe, 1 Horned Grebe and 3 Surf Scoters all swimming together out on Leighton. I've seen both types of Grebe there before but have never seen Surf Scoters there. The fact they were all together makes me wonder if they were all migrating northwards together....I have no idea if that is the case or not.

On the way back I stopped at a clump of dead pine trees that were absolutely alive with Yellow Rump Warblers....in fact the entire area was alive with Yellow Rump Warblers....there had to be hundreds, the bird in the above photo is a male.......

and this shot is of a female...........

Tunkwa Lake - May 2009 - Part 1

When your family lives on one side of a body of water, and you live on the other, you can either try to pretend that day's like Mother's Day don't exist, or aren't important - or you can make them special in your own way. Tunkwa Lake Provincial Park, is without a doubt, my favorite place to be, so this past weekend,being Mother's Day, that is where we headed. The trip would also give us another trial run with the new RV'ing set up. With the exception of a few more articles of clothing and a few more cans of food, we were loaded up with everything we will be taking with us when we head north in 11 days and counting!

As Provincial Parks go, Tunkwa hasn't been a park for very long. For many, many, years it was an unregulated recreational area, and like so many of those places, bore the scars. Fortunately it was taken over by the provincial government in the 1990's. If you have never been to Tunkwa, and you are suddenly prompted to go, you could be forgiven for thinking "Is she insane?!"....all there is, is a bunch of dead trees and wide open grassy areas. In fact the first time my husband took me there, we drove in on a hot dusty day and I took one look at the RV's parked out in the open on scorched brown grass and said "Not on your life!" - or words to that effect....and that was back before the pine beetle devastated the area. At that time, my husband neglected to show me that most of the campground, back in those days, was set in nice pine forest. I'm not sure what made me relent and give it a second chance, but I did....and now there is nowhere else I'd rather be.

Since then, the pine beetle has done its thing and for safety reasons most of the dead trees within the campground have been removed, then of course, just like in a subdivision that leaves a few token trees, the first strong wind takes care of those ones. And wind there is at Tunkwa. The elevation is high, the countryside is flat, the weather can be extreme, evenings are usually cool, a blessing considering that in summer at least it can get very hot with virtually no shade.

There are actually two main, man made lakes, Tunkwa and Leighton, and many more smaller lakes and ponds within the park itself. There are also two campgrounds. The one on Leighton allows ATV's and dirt bikes while the one at Tunkwa is for the quieter set that enjoy the outdoors on foot. Both lakes and campgrounds are primarily known for fishing.

So Friday May 8th, as soon as he got off work, this is where we headed. There are a number of ways to get there from here, but our favorite is up the Coquilla (a good test for the new truck which flew up the snowshed hill in spectacular fashion, unlike the old truck and trailer set up that was more of a 'I think I can....I think I can....' ), to Merritt, out #8 to Lower Nicola and then up Mammet Lake Road (#97C) straight to the park.

I took the above photo on highway 97c to show that the hillsides, for just a short while, were covered in the gorgeous native wildflower - Balsam Root. Once 97C joins 97D at Logan Lake, it is about 17 km to the park. Once you've negotiated the rather wash boardy road into the campground, the dilemma is where do you stay? on the spit (which I'll show you later) or 'up back'? When and where depends on the time of year, how busy it is, etc. etc. We opted for 'up back' this time.

Here we are, set up in one of our favorite spots.........

I like it because there is this marshy area right beside the campsite and there is also more vegetation by this site than near most of them. As I already mentioned, Tunkwa is at a high elevation, in fact the ice had just come off the lake the week previously and as you can see, none of the vegetation, like the Aspen trees or the wild roses, were showing even a hint of green yet.

Canada Geese were flying and roaming all over the campground area, you can see that even the grass is just barely starting to grow.

There were also Killdeer running all over the place, creating quite a ruckus, something they continued to do throughout the night. Between Killdeer calling and Coyotes yipping.....it was anything but quiet! Perhaps the fact that there was a full moon had something to do with it.

This Killdeer was doing it's best to fake injury and lure me away. There were a pair spending a lot of time in a certain area across from us. The next day I looked and looked but couldn't find any nest, although I did find several depressions in the soil so perhaps they were still just thinking about nesting and not actually down to business yet.

An evening view from our campsite, looking sort of south west - one thing about the pine beetle, you now have a view of the lake from every single site in the place!

Alberta Trip 2008 - Crimson Lake - June 10

June 10th we resumed our journey, heading due west on highway 12 until we came to the town of Rocky Mountain House. I'm not sure what I expected there, a place that looked sort of like Jasper I guess, what I didn't expect was a modern strip mall type place. I guess there was some history there somewhere, but certainly not on the main thoroughfare.

I think we had lunch there at a fast food outlet and then headed to Crimson Lake Provincial Park. Now on every trip you don't expect to be enchanted by every place you stop at - especially when traveling in new territory. We had been lucky this trip but from the moment we turned towards the park entrance I got 'bad vibes'. I don't know if it was the weather, dull and rainy, or the fact that it was another place where they told you where you would stay, or the fact we had to negotiate huge mud puddles to get into the appointed site, or the fact that we had been staying in wonderful open country, and this was dense, wet, closed in forest.....what ever it was I had the distinct impression they really rather wished we hadn't bothered to stop and if it wasn't for the fact that we'd already paid and it was getting on...we probably wouldn't have.

I would post a picture of the lake...I assume there was a lake....but I never saw it. You certainly couldn't see it from the campground. We walked to one area but there were just a bunch of private cabins....another area presumably led to a beach but dogs weren't allowed - so scratch that idea!

I know people who say Crimson Lake is one of their very favorite places to stay - to each their own I guess! We did find some trails in the woods, one of which led to this boardwalk through a muskeg sort of habitat.

These Shooting Stars were in flower along side the boardwalk.

and this was a rather interesting habitat of all Aspen trees. Sort of like a surreal painting.

The only really saving grace for the whole episode was the spotting of this Sandhill Crane family in a marshy field just before you came to the park entrance.

The only other Sandhill Crane family I'd seen, up to this point, was at Chan Lake in the N.W.T. These ones seemed quite unperturbed by us and this was obviously their home as they were there when we arrived, and also the next morning when we left.

One more look at the Sandhill Cranes.

Alberta Trip 2008 - Rochon Sands - June 9

There comes a time in every trip when it is time to start heading back home, and this was the day we made that decision. Gooseberry Lake is definitely somewhere we will return to. I'm thinking mid May just after the park opens would be ideal, but it won't be this year. So before we hooked up took one last walk down towards the shoreline to get a few more shots of those Avocet. and just one more......

This Savannah Sparrow was singing it's heart out in the grasses nearby......

and then it was time to hit the road. South on 41 to Consort, and then west on #12. We decided on this route, sort of half way between Edmonton and Calgary and that would bring us out at Rocky Mountain House, a place we had never been before - of course that would be a day or two off. This was a nice drive through nice country.

We spotted this Wilson's Phalarope in a pond beside the road.

and in another marshy area, this Willet. The destination for the night was Rochon Sands Provincial Park and we arrived there mid afternoon to find a lovely campground and park with only a few other campers, although obviously this is a popular park in season.

This is a view from the path that runs between the campground and the lake. Yes, there is a lake out there past all the reeds and yes, it's pretty flat around there!

It was pretty windy that afternoon as you can tell from the waves out on the lake itself. I mainly took the above photo as it gives a good illustration of the differences between two very similar duck species. In the middle, at the bottom of the picture is a male Canvasback Duck and to the right of the picture are two male Redhead ducks...similar colouration, but different shape and size.

This Great Blue Heron was fishing in the reeds. Out here on the west coast we are used to seeing Heron, but they aren't seen as frequently in Alberta.

There were a number of Clay-coloured Sparrow in the riparian habitat that divided the campground from the path along the lake.

This shows the campsite beside us - we were one over - there was a wide lawn area with a washrooms and the path to access the lake area. All very well maintained.

this was the next campsite, after you past the large lawn area. You can see there was a bit of flooding (it was only June 9th), in fact some parts of the path around the lake were under water slightly. There were a pair of Green Wing Teal eyeing the flooded area at this site.

Out on the lake there was another of those rocks, covered with Double Crested Cormorant, Gulls and Pelican.

Yellowheaded Blackbirds were in the reeds - the first we had seen this trip.

and more Pelican. I walked over to a boat launch where there was a bit of a jetty....I walked out on the jetty and these guys were busy fishing in the area beside me. Note the pair of Lesser Scaup ducks....the female is sitting on a nest.

another view of the Scaups and the Pelicans. The wind was really blowing, hence the ruffled feathers!

There was more of that wonderful Silver Berry shrub growing here - the Swallowtail Butterflies were enjoying it as much as I was!