Spring Trip 2012 – Manning Park part 2

We spent 3 days at Manning Park, the weather cooperated, a little on the cool side, but pleasant enough to sit outside during the day as long as you were dressed for it.

Here is the whole family enjoying the great outdoors – including the 16 year old Shih Tzu!

it wasn’t long though, until we had company….

This pair of Common Raven moved in and appeared to adopt us as their own!!!

even attempting to come right inside…

and trying to share our dogs dinner – as you can tell she is used to birds!

Not to be out done…the Gray Jay’s joined us too…

Shy they aren’t!!!

a Gold-crowned Kinglet even joined in the fun…running around right at my feet gathering up our dogs fur as fast as she was loosing it!  I was so shocked didn’t have time to focus the camera properly – hence the fuzzy shot!

Of course one of the things we look for when we are traveling are the wild flowers…this early in the season with the snow barely having melted in spots, one really had to look – but they were there…

The Utah Honeysuckle was just coming into bloom in the sunniest areas – but there were enough of them that the Rufous Hummingbirds had arrived – this being a favorite early food source.  (wasn’t able to get a hummingbird picture here)

Spring Gold was just starting to flower, again in the sunniest locations.  The creeping phlox wasn’t quite in bloom yet..

I found these Pussy Willows most attractive though….

as did the Chipmunks!  By the time our 3 day visit was over, chipmunks had pretty much eaten every pussy willow off of the bushes!  and I think that is probably enough for this posting….we’ll cover the rest of the ‘critters’ and birds in part 3

Spring trip 2012 – Manning Park part 1

Long before the May long weekend, we made reservations at Coldspring Campground in Manning Provincial Park, but with the long cool spring and the snow pack, we didn’t know until just the night before whether we would actually be able to stay there.  We must say that Manning Park was excellent about sharing information with us and had actually telephoned the evening before to say that they had checked and our site was free of snow and we were ‘good to go’…So, it being 7 long months since our last trip we were out of here bright and early in the morning.

So eager were we that we arrived in the park at 10 in the morning – with the campground not opening until noon, we headed to Lightning Lakes…

where the lakes were still frozen, although thawing out around the edges.

There were several pairs of Barrow’s Goldeneyes going through their preliminary mating rituals.  The female of this particular pair was unique in that she had a white ring around each eye – it didn’t appear to be a disease or an injury.

The Columbian Ground Squirrels were out in force…

Here is another one…

Gray Jay’s of course – happy to see some people – I guess there had been a lull between the time when the place was full of cross country skiers and now…

the bare areas were alive with American Robins, and surprisingly, Yellow-rump Warblers…running around on the ground with the robins..

Dark-eyed Junco are to be expected…

What wasn’t expected was an American Pipit!!  Seemed to only be the one and it was sticking to the lake shore.  As noon approached we headed back to the campground….

and settled into our spot which turned out to be absolutely perfect – yes, that is a little bit of snow there in the corner.

but nothing like what was still down in the ‘dog leg’ (which of course wasn’t open) and the first corner in the campground where snow was still as deep as the picnic tables were high.  After settling in I went exploring….and you’ll see the results in Part 2

Thanksgiving at Tunkwa 2011

In real time I am sitting here watching the snow pile up outside….so seems like the ideal time to go back to last Thanksgiving and post some random pictures we took at Tunkwa. 

I think this pretty much summed up Tunkwa in mid October – this view was out of the back door of the camper…

We woke to frost one morning….at least we weren’t  tenting like some people!

and I love this picture of the bluff with fall colour….do you think it is time for them to remove the rest of the dead trees and let the live ones take over?….can’t decide…we’re so used to seeing dead trees here!

the end of a hot dry summer is evident in this picture…

and at the Aspen grove….

Mountain Bluebirds were still there – they are like us – they arrive about Easter time and leave about Thanksgiving….unlike us they get to stay there the whole time in between!

Yellow-rump Warblers were still there too – they arrive a little later than the bluebirds

still some shorebirds around ….like this Wilson’s Snipe

and these which I’m pretty sure were young Long-billed Dowitcher – they showed up the morning we were leaving…when the weather had turned and it was raining…

Muskrats are there year round…

and the chipmunks were very busy….got some adorable pictures of the little guys…

stretching to get grass seed heads – see that grass is good for something other than getting stuck between dog’s toes…

Love this picture….

and this one where they seem to be sharing a kiss…

So that will bring our camping year to a close….but not to worry….spring is coming (although you’d never know it today!) and we’ll be back on the road soon!

Back to the Dempster 2011 – the final installment

Today we’ll bring this trip to a close.  We finished it as we end most trips….with a few days to recoup at our favorite spot….Tunkwa Lake Provincial Park…

the heat continued…up into the low 30’s during the day, but thankfully cooled off in the evening once the sun had set…  Due partly to the heat and partly to a medical situation that had been escalating throughout this trip didn’t do much but stick pretty close to the campsite….so will just show a few misc. pictures taken during that time….

the juniper bushes were a constant beehive of activity….here a Hairy Woodpecker…

and here a Yellow-rump Warbler, of which there were lots…also some young White-crowned Sparrows and Lincoln Sparrows.

Ruby-crowned Kinglets were about in large numbers as well…

I thought this might be something rare and exciting, but turns out it was a young Red-tail Hawk…

In the animal department, there were a few Chipmunk around…

this Yellow-bellied Marmot was the only one I saw – unusual to be up in a tree…

a muskrat in the water….

a few Fall Asters were still in flower, attracting various insects…

saw a few dragonflies…

but mostly we just looked forward to the moon rising and the air cooling off….

as this trip drew to a conclusion.

We would be back to Tunkwa in a few weeks time to finish off the camping season, as we always do, with Thanksgiving at Tunkwa.