Okanagan Vacation 15 - Departure
July 2nd, 2011
There was a beautiful sunrise on our way to the airport.
Photo by Michael Britton, wallpaper available
This concludes my photo tour of the Okanagan! The permanent gallery for all my
best pictures from this trip is
here. This
does not include photos taken by my husband, which are stored
here instead.
Triplist: 98 bird species including 40 lifers, plus 4 species heard only. Details below the cut.
(
In here )
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Okanagan Vacation 14 - Chute Lake
July 1st, 2011
Our final outing took us up to Chute Lake resort, where I was pleased to find
a well-patronized set of bird feeders. One of the patrons was a
Steller's
Jay. The feeders themselves were hidden behind greenery, but I could catch
him on camera as he perched on the lodge waiting his turn.
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The woods along Chute Lake Road had been severely burned by forest fire in
2003. This was to thank for one of my lifers of the trip--a bird which,
believe it or not, considers burned woods to be ideal habitat!
Olive-Sided
Flycatchers like open areas with abundant dead trees. They use the dead
trees as hunting perches, and the openness of the habitat means they can
easily see the flying insects on which they prey.
There are a number of "fire follower" species, a few of whom would even go
extinct if humans successfully suppressed all forest fires (and didn't do
planned burns.) The
Kirtland's
Warbler requires stands of young Jack Pine for nesting. Jack Pine cones
open and release their seeds only when the resin that seals them shut is
melted by intense heat--say, heat from a forest fire. Without fire, the
Kirtland's Warbler's habitat disappears. There are only a few thousand of them
left in the world.
There's a story behind this robin. You could call her "the
Varied Thrush that
wasn't." Varied Thrush is a unique species of western Canada that looks
somewhat like a robin with a dark band across the breast. So when Mike said
he'd seen a robin with a breast band, I perked up instantly.
But when I saw the bird for myself, what I saw was indubitably a robin...she
had the calls of a robin, the eye ring of a robin (as opposed to the Varied
Thrush's orange eye stripe), and the tameness of a robin. She blithely
disregarded us as she flew back and forth building her nest on a low pine
branch. I was forced to conclude that the dark breast band which had gotten me
so excited was either an aberration or (as occurs to me now) it was mud--she
had simply dirtied herself up in the process of nest-building.
The
Oregon Juncos
foraging below the resort feeders were somewhat more amenable to the camera
than the ones on Mount Kobau had been.
There was a hummingbird feeder at the resort as well, and it was thanks to
that I got my 40th and final lifer of the trip: an eensy-weensy
Rufous
Hummingbird.
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Okanagan Vacation 13 - Lake Vaseux
June 30th, 2011
I'd been told, by someone who had been out west, that
Black-Billed
Magpies were going to be "dirt birds"--i.e., common as dirt. They weren't,
at least not in early June. I had an especially hard time finding one who was
willing to sit still for the camera. On our trip to Lake Vaseux, though, I
finally found the motherload: a farmyard with a whole flock of magpies in it!
It was interesting watching their response to pishing--a measured, intelligent
response, rather than the Pavlovian-bell reaction of your typical songbird. No
visible reaction at first, then magpies hopped into view on various prominent
lookout posts. As I kept on pishing but no raptor or other danger appeared,
they brushed it off and went back about their business.
We originally planned a trip to Lake Vaseux because our tour guide had
suggested that we might find Bighorn Sheep there. We were not disappointed. We
spotted a group of females and lambs up on a ledge. They were quite a distance
away, but still seemed to find our attention disconcerting. They watched us
pointedly, then moved away higher up the ledge and out of view.
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Okanagan Vacation 12 - Behind Brin de Soleil
June 29th, 2011
On my second walk behind Brin de Soleil, I noticed these beautiful red and
yellow wildflowers in bloom. "Blanketflowers", I think they're
called--gaillardia aristata. Showy cultivars of this species are popular in
gardens.
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I also discovered a
Pygmy Nuthatch at the
nest. She was flying back and forth, carrying insects in her bill and poking
her head into a hole that looked no bigger around than a quarter--hard to
believe there was a nest of baby birds in there!
She wouldn't actually go to the nest with me close by, though. She just
perched on the tree, chirping indignantly. I snapped a few pictures and left
her alone.
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Okanagan Vacation 11 - Max Lake
June 28th, 2011
A couple photos from our trip to
Max
Lake:
Western Tanager
Ornate Tiger Moth
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Okanagan Vacation 10 - Apex Mountain (beasties)
June 27th, 2011
Another point of interest up Apex Mountain was the colony of
Yellow-Bellied
Marmots. We ran into them in a few places. Like woodchucks, but svelter
and cuter. We confused them with
these
guys at first, until we noted the marmots' larger size and facial
markings.
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Okanagan Vacation 9 - Apex Mountain (birds)
June 26th, 2011
Our next trip was up another snow-capped mountain. We had heard there was a
chairlift up there that operated even in summer. We figured it would at least
be a fun ride and might be a way to see some truly alpine birds. Alas, our
information was apparently out of date.
The ski village, though, was a gold mine of
Clark's
Nutcrackers, a species I'd been seeking since my arrival. Clark's
Nutcracker is one of the west's truly unique birds, with no close cousin in
the east (though it does have one in Eurasia.) It's a corvid (crow relative)
of the Rocky Mountains specialized for eating pine seeds. Like a squirrel, it
caches large amounts of food in fall and uses these caches to survive the
harsh winters. Clark's Nutcrackers form long-lasting pair bonds and males
contribute equally to childrearing, even brooding eggs in the nest.
The village was teeming with them. They were backyard birds there, clearly
comfortable around humans and human habitation.
"Corvids" was the theme of the trip, in fact. We saw lots of
Gray Jays. Gray Jays occur
coast to coast in Canada's mountainous and boreal regions. (The nearest place
to find them in our area is Algonquin Park.) They're big fluffy gray and white
birds, quite tame, even known to feed from the hand--sort of like overgrown
chickadees!
A
Steller's
Jay made a brief appearance amidst one flock of Gray Jays.
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Okanagan Vacation 8 - Behind Brin de Soleil
June 24th, 2011
There was a hiking trail behind Brin de Soleil, winding up and along the
slope. The owners pointed it out to me. It went through private property,
technically, but property used only to graze cattle and only at certain times
of the year. Guests at the B&B were welcome to use it--they had even cut a
hole in the barbed wire fence so you could get through.
It was beautiful up there, the view even more panoramic than from the front
yard, and I saw some great birds, including two lifers. My first
MacGillivray's
Warbler occurred here. MacGillivray's is a shy, skulking warbler (like its
close relative, our own
Mourning
Warbler)--but this one had the single best response to pishing that I've
ever seen. He had been laying low in the underbrush and not making a sound. As
soon as I pished just a little, he hopped around in the bushes for the next
five minutes, chirping constantly, giving me excellent views of himself.
On the way back from one walk, on a post just outside Brin de Soleil, I
finally found a California Quail who was willing to sit still for the camera!
I inched towards him, photographing as I went. He didn't flush into the grass
until I was about ten feet away. Result: a wallpaper-quality shot.
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I also got my first photograph of a magpie on that walk.
Mule Deer were a common sight, as they were elsewhere in the Okanagan. We saw
the familiar White-Tailed Deer too, but Mule Deer were the majority, instantly
recognizable by their oversized ears.
I was fascinated by the way Mule Deer moved. They would trot along the slope
with this incredibly gay, light-footed, bounding gait. Like they were
weightless. Or like something out of a Walt Disney movie, or Pepé Le
Pew chasing Penelope Pussycat. Back home I learned that this seemingly
cheerful gait is actually a form of
stotting--a way of
demonstrating ones fitness to a potential predator (in this case, me.). Mule
Deer do it, White-Tailed Deer don't. It's as if the animal is saying, "look at
this. Look how confident I am. Look how easily I move. I'm not even bothering
to break into a proper run. You should hunt someone else 'cause you're not
gonna catch me."
Here's some video to
show you what I'm talking about. In this case it's juveniles stotting for the
fun of it. Watch them from about 15 seconds in.
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Okanagan Vacation 7 - Arrival at Brin de Soleil
June 23rd, 2011
Our second B&B,
Brin de
Soleil, was also wonderful. The owners were very friendly and went above
and beyond to make our stay comfortable. It was actually built on the side of
the mountain--the driveway was so steep it required a switchback! So we got a
gorgeous panoramic view of the Okanagan valley every time we went out in the
front yard.
Photo by Michael Britton, wallpaper available.
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Okanagan Vacation 6 - Mount Kobau
June 22nd, 2011
Columbian Ground Squirrels
We did a lot of driving in the mountains this trip. Mount Kobau was the first
serious expedition. Our original plan was to go to the top. Some unusual birds
nest at the very peaks of tall mountains in the Canadian Rockies--birds
adapted to live and forage in treeless alpine tundra, such as the
Gray-Crowned
Rosy Finch. But when we got as high up as we could drive, we found that
the 1km hiking trail to the top was unnavigable without winter boots--possibly
even snowshoes! So there our trip ended.
Sagebrush, sub-alpine conifers and patches of snow near the peak of Mount
Kobau. Photo by Michael Britton, wallpaper available.
It was a peak moment for me. Literally (well, almost) and figuratively. Tall,
majestic, primeval-looking conifers dominated the landscape. The air was cool.
A little rivulet of a stream trickled along, and
Oregon Juncos watched
us from the rocks. I felt still and peaceful and like I'd come to one of the
most untouched places on earth. From above, from the very treetops, trickled
the
haunting
song of the Hermit Thrush.
Photo by Michael Britton
Yes, sagebrush and snow. In the same landscape. In June. Who knew?
I tried to photograph the juncos, but they did not wish to be photographed.
The stars of the day ended up being a colony of
Columbian Ground
Squirrels we ran into on our way up the mountain. They seemed to have a
home in a big blackened brushpile, likely remnants of the forest fire that
swept through the Okanagan in 2003. They retreated to the brushpile when we
approached--but couldn't resist poking their heads back out to see what we
were up to.
Eventually they decided that we were mostly harmless.
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