Tunkwa Thanksgiving – Part three

Thanksgiving morning dawned clear and cold, just like the day before, in fact the temperature had dropped even lower over night to minus 18 Celsius

Hoarfrost again covered the trees…..

This pine tree (dead) was just behind our camper ~

this close up shows how thick the frost is ~ at least an half inch!

Nothing can get me up and outside faster than a bunch of birds, and this morning there were birds all over the place!  Those juvenile White crowned Sparrows were everywhere.  While I was trying to get a picture of them, I spotted this Hairy Woodpecker (that white ‘blob’ is a hoarfrost flake)

A number of times I had spotted a ‘rarity’ with the juvenile White crowns……this is a juvenile American Tree Sparrow.  After seeing both species up in the Yukon and N.W.T. I’m not surprised that some of the youngsters banded together as they headed south.  American Tree Sparrow are one of the most frequently seen birds up there and White Crowned Sparrows were seen as far north as Inuvik.

Here is another, better view of the little guy – the identifying black spot in the middle of the chest is just becoming noticeable – and no, that isn’t snow – it’s more of those hoarfrost flakes.

There had been Chickadees out there in the morning as well, but it wasn’t until we bundled up and headed out for another walk that I got a picture of this Black capped Chickadee.  Never did manage a decent shot of the Mountain Chickadee that were also there. This guy was hanging out by the little bridge across the spillway – which was bone dry.

Not a great picture, but just after taking the Chickadee picture, this hawk, I think a Coopers, flew from this perch and grabbed something down in the grass.

So this mornings walk took us across the grasslands and up onto the knoll you see when you look across the lake.  I don’t do ‘up’ very good anymore, so while I caught my breath, I took this shot looking back across the lake to the campground.

This is the view looking west from the back of the knoll….there are a couple of ‘arms’ that both dead end and not quite visible is another smaller lake that is towards the left of the middle of this picture.  This area is always alive with birds during nesting season.

We wandered down to the ‘arm’ nearest in the picture just above this one, and spotted a small flock of Mountain Bluebirds……yes, Bill, there were still Mountain Bluebirds there, in fact as the day went on we found LOTS of them!  They are one of the earliest species to arrive and obviously one of the last to leave!

from there we wandered along the ridge at the back of that dried up marsh.  From this angle you can see there is a bit of water (frozen) left.  Lets hope they get lots of snow this winter so this marsh fills with water again.

had to do a wide circle  over to that aspen grove, in order to skirt the marsh, then back across the grasslands.  On the way we spotted this male Downy Woodpecker.

back at the campsite I amused myself taking pictures of this very obliging little Chipmunk.  There had been Chipmunks all over the place but this one was the most co-operative!

after lunch I went for another bit of a wander and found the place was lousy with Mountain Bluebirds!  They were everywhere! on the ground, on picnic tables, in the trees…..maybe they were flocking up in preparation for heading south….all I know is there were lots.

and while I was wandering around chasing bluebirds, I spotted something different – Western Meadowlarks!  We never used to see Western Meadowlarks here back in the days it was forested – thanks to the pine beetle, these grassland birds are moving in, although I imagine they’d be heading south pretty quick.  Like the bluebirds they seem to arrive early and leave late.

after an enjoyable day we sat down to a Turkey dinner with all the trimmings – giving thanks that there are places like Tunkwa to go to and that 25 years after the original diagnosis and with almost 3 years of ‘palliative’ care under my belt, I’m still here and able to enjoy them!

The day ended with another less than spectacular sunset!

Temperatures over night dipped even lower – to minus 20c this morning there wasn’t the fog we had seen the last two mornings so there wasn’t much in the way of hoar frost either.  One last walk before packing up……

the ice on the lake is getting thicker and covering more of the surface…

it now holds a 55 lb dog with no problem!

there are still some American Coots and Mallards paddling around at the edge of the ice…

and then something I’ve never seen here before!  a deer was standing at the top of the bluff at the edge of the campground….a fitting end to a perfect weekend!

Tunkwa Thanksgiving – Part two

I should have started part one with this picture!…..

This is the INSIDE of our double glazed windows when we woke up in the morning….that is after the furnace running almost constantly all night and breaking the ice that froze the pull down blind to the window pane!  But water and holding tanks weren’t frozen and that is the main thing!

After returning from our morning walk, I spent a good part of the day attempting to get pictures of the large numbers of juvenile White Crowned Sparrows that were in the park.  This was the best picture I managed – remember that my good camera had died so am working with a back up!  By the way have changed my font to something I can find a little easier – does anyone know how to ‘lock’ the font so I don’t have to reset every time I insert a picture????

When we walked down to the water, the amount of lake area that was frozen had expanded….this is all ice, clear enough to show the water weeds underneath.  The white isn’t snow, but that hoarfrost from the trees.

all along the edge of the lake there were piles of dead weed that had washed ashore and hundreds of assorted snail shells ~ all proof of how ‘rich’ this lake is and how it supports such a great fish and waterfowl population.

 

Tunkwa lake is in the middle of cattle country ~ you don’t normally see the cattle during the summer months, but during the rest of the year they roam free, everywhere except in the campground itself and fenced areas that are being protected. 

Late in the afternoon, while my husband made supper (he does the cooking when we are away – I know!  I’m spoiled!), I went for a bit of a wander on my own.  The sun was very low in the sky now, making for an interesting picture looking back at the lake.

The low sun intensified the colors of the wild rose bushes (in the foreground) as I took this picture of the frozen bay.

I poked about in the vegetation at the end of the bay, trying to get pictures of the Mountain Chickadees and a Yellow Rump Warbler I saw there ~ neither of which were successful.  I did get a kick out of this little ‘dining table’ ~ obviously a chipmunk had been enjoying a repast of rose hips!

Tossed this in for the dog lovers out there – Shantz was enjoying the afternoon sunshine!

As soon as the sun went down the temperatures started to plummet!  This was the best we could offer in the way of a sunset picture – it looked better through our mirrored tinted windows!

Tunkwa Thanksgiving – Part one

If you have followed this blog for any length of time, you will know that one of our favourite places to go is Tunkwa Lake Provincial park....and that is where we headed this past Thanksgiving long weekend.

Tunkwa is a 3 to 3 1/2 hour drive from our home (although it seems longer when it is dark by 6:30 pm!). That time frame allows for a stop at the MacDonald’s in Hope for a quick supper of a burger and fries, then up the Coquilla Highway to Merritt, and onto the town of Logan Lake.  We pulled into our favourite campsite at 8 pm – the temperature was minus ten (Celsius) under clear skies.

Woke the next morning to a ‘winter wonderland’!

Fog shrouded the lake, blocking out the view of the surrounding hills and all the trees were covered in a layer of hoar frost.  This is the view from our campsite, looking out over the lake.

 

Our frosty campsite (it got to minus 16 overnight!)

 

The road out front with the fog gradually dissipating in the morning sunshine.

 

Isn’t that just beautiful!  as the sun warmed things up (comparatively!), the frost started to fall off of the trees, so it seemed like it was snowing – from a clear blue sky.

After breakfast we bundled up and headed out for a walk.  There are now just a few wisps of fog left on the lake.

Ernie and Shantz on the bluff as we head for our walk.  Shantz, who was born here at Tunkwa and who has been coming here ever since, had to check out every culvert and spot where she knows marmots hang out – problem is – the marmots have all gone to bed for the winter!

Here I’m standing on that bluff, looking down onto the frozen bay and the spit where we like to camp in the spring when there are lots of waterfowl on the lake.  There was no one camping on the spit, although a unit did come in later in the day and spent the night on the tip of it. 

another view of the spit, this time from the end.  You can see the bluff we were standing on.  I know that some years Tunkwa Lake hasn’t frozen until December – this seemed really early (October 10th) for the bay to be this iced over.

We’re starting out across the grasslands now….headed towards that treed hill……

This is Leighton Lake (situated adjacent to and slightly below, Tunkwa Lake), there is a campsite at the far end of this lake and there must have been at least 30 units camped there.  We understand from the campground host that a lot of them were ‘frozen’ up.  It certainly isn’t normal for it to be this cold this early in the season – a cold front had moved down from the Arctic, which caused these record breaking low temperatures.

Climbed the hill and looked down onto what is usually a marshy area – and it was dry!!!  This marsh is usually full of water fowl – we’ve never seen it completely dried up before!

Walked around the far end of the dried up marsh, over to the Aspen grove.  I’ve referred to this grove in earlier reports, as a veritable bird nursery – that, of course – is in the spring!  What also surprised me was the fact that the aspen trees were still, basically ‘green’ – normally they have turned brilliant gold by the end of September – but we had, had unseasonably warm weather – prior to this record breaking cold one, so the colors were just starting to change…..

and speaking of birds…..as we were heading back after an hour and half of walking…we spotted this Mountain Bluebird.  This would be the last picture my Digital S.L.R. Camera would take.  Shortly after returning from our Yukon trip, the auto focus stopped working.  Not to worry, I could still use it manually – and that worked for the trip to Vancouver Island that I have yet to post – and until this point of this trip when it suddenly decided it was not going to focus – period!  So now I’ll be shopping for a new camera.  Fortunately my small compact kept working so the rest of this weekend’s posts will be from it.

Manning Park, mid August

 

One of our favourite places to visit is Manning Park.  Just an hour and a half from home puts us in the center of the park. August 15th we headed up to the park with our truck and camper.  The time proved to be perfect for ‘birding’!  The Saskatoon Berries were ripe and the birds were gorging themselves!  I’m going to be uploading pictures in no particular order – so please bear with me as I’m attempting a new ‘system’!

  

Cedar Waxwings were one of the species seen at Cold spring Campground – where we spent the first two nights.  We like this particular campground, which is situated on the main highway, just before you reach the Manning Park Lodge, because there is a lovely ‘Canyon Walk Trail’ that you can access, which you can either walk as a loop, or use to access other trails in the park.

Chipmunk were every where, busy stashing food for the winter.  This little guy was in a rock slide area along the Canyon trail.

 

This shows our campsite at Cold spring.  The area used to be a lot more ‘treed’ until the pine beetle did it’s thing.  They have since cleared out all the dead trees making a very ‘open’ campground, however this has encouraged the growth of bushes like the Saskatoon’s which has benefited the birds.

 

Dark Eyed Junco were another species enjoying the feast – this particular fellow had a lot of white in it’s tail and also had some white on the wings, making me wonder if it was ‘white wing’ hybrid.

Evening Grosbeak, were, by far the most frequently seen bird this trip.  There must have been hundreds of them.

Here a male enjoys the feast!

While here a female indulges.  Females and juveniles can be hard to tell apart, but that wasn’t the case with the fledglings that were still at the begging stage and creating a real fuss.

Here is another male….he’s lost his real brilliant breeding color.

Another species that was seen were Yellow-rump Warblers.  Warblers are insect eaters so weren’t interested in all those berries.  Here is a female.

While here is a very young fledgling!  I thought it surprising to see so many really young birds in mid-August.

When we moved to Mule Deer campground which is at a lower elevation, we found several of these Flycatchers.  I will leave it to some of my more experienced birder friends to identify!

This Ground Squirrel family was living across from our campsite back at Cold spring.  Mom or dad is on top of the log with the youngster at the base. 

At Mule Deer, besides the Saskatoon berries, there were large thickets of Red Osier Dogwood and it was obviously that these were the berry of choice for thrushes.  I’m pretty sure this is a, probably young, Hermit Thrush.  This picture was taken from our camper’s ‘bedroom’ window.

This speckled fellow is a young Dark Eyed Junco.  This guy was at Cold spring, but there were young juncos in both campsites.

Also at both campsites were the Yellow rump Warblers.  Here, at Mule Deer a very young fledgling was following ‘daddy’ around, begging for food.

This is our campsite at Mule Deer.  This campground hasn’t been effected by the pine beetle, most of the coniferous trees are firs, so this campground is still well treed.

This little guy is a Pika.  Remember that trail I mentioned at Cold spring and the rock slide where the Chipmunk was?  Well there were also Pika in that rock slide and I was so thrilled to finally be able to get a picture of one of these elusive little guys!

Back at Mule Deer, Pine Sisken were also gorging themselves on the Saskatoon berries.

There were also a number of these young Red-naped Sapsuckers.

and Western Tanagers!  This is either a female or a juvenile.

All in all it was a very productive couple of days in the birding department.  From Manning Park, we headed home for a day or so and then were off to Vancouver Island.  Hopefully I’ll get that trip and our quest to find shorebirds, updated in the not too distant future!