Okanagan Vacation 2 - The Marathon
June 16th, 2011
No, not a literal marathon--well, there was a race going on in town (a Half Ironman), but that's not what I'm referring to. This was a birding marathon. I had booked a tour for our first full day with Great Horned Owl Eco-Tours. It was just me, Mike and the guide (Greg Byron). We spent twelve hours in all travelling to various avian hot spots around the Okanagan Valley, including riverbanks, arid regions, farmland, marshes and mountains. This trip netted me 15 lifers (new species) in all. Many of them I re-found on my own later in the trip, but a few--such as the rare, locally endangered Yellow-Breasted Chat--I probably could not have seen without help.
Two of the high points of my vacation occurred during this tour. One was watching a Northern Harrier and a Bald Eagle, perched on a field edge two fenceposts away from each other. Northern Harrier is a big raptor--it stands over a foot and a half tall--but next to the eagle, it looked tiny. Clearly it felt itself tiny, and felt more than a little defensive, because it repeatedly flew over to the eagle and took potshots at it. The eagle snapped at it when it got too close but otherwise seemed unfazed--very much the same sort of reaction I've seen in crows harassed by angry blackbirds. It was the harrier who gave up first and abandoned his post.
The other high point was finding two male/female pairs of Ruddy Ducks on a mountain pond. The Ruddy Duck is one of the strangest-looking ducks in North America, a bird that makes you wonder what Mother Nature was smoking when she came up with the color combination of brick red and electric blue. It's rare in Ottawa, findable, usually, in only a few specialized locations, such as the Moodie Drive quarry pond. When you do go there, they're usually so far away you have to use a spotting scope to see them.
But the ones we found were swimming close to shore and showed almost no fear of us. They even engaged in courtship displays while we watched: the males lifting their stiff, spiky tails, bobbing their heads and bills, making strange, bubbly sounds, and paddling furiously across the water.
I didn't bring a camera with me on the tour. But the very next day, Mike and I drove back to the pond, and this time I was armed and ready. They were still there!
1680x1050 wallpaper
Tail up in display:
Okanagan Vacation 1 - Arrival
June 15th, 2011
First of all, any good things you've heard about Westjet are true. All four flights went off without a delay, without a hitch.
I got my first lifer of the trip at Calgary International Airport, if you'll believe it--a Black-Billed Magpie flew by as we sat at the gate. I'm generally into corvids (I like their intelligence and adaptability), and magpies looked beautiful in the pictures I'd seen, so I was looking forward to them. I only glimpsed my first, but was struck by how it reminded me of a dragonfly. The two North American magpies are among our only three species of birds with tails longer than their bodies (the third is the Scissor-Tailed Flycatcher.)
My first, slightly disappointing discovery about south Okanagan birds is how many of the common species back home were also common species there. My second discovery is how many of the common species are close counterparts to common eastern ones. Often the name itself gives it away, as in Eastern Bluebird and Western Bluebird, Eastern Wood-Pewee and Western Wood-Pewee, etc. There are many, many such pairs. The birds of greatest interest to me were those with no close analogue back home--of whom magpies were the chief!
Lifer #2 was my first of many California Quail--an adorable topknotted ground bird that's a common site in rural and suburban areas throughout the south Okanagan. One ran across the road on our way to our first B&B.
We shortly thereafter arrived at Elm Tree Farm...and my jaw dropped. I expected it to be nice, but I didn't realize just how nice it would be. I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone visiting the area. Having reserved two bedrooms, we had basically a whole cottage to ourself, complete with a full kitchen and two bathrooms. The place was ultra-clean, ultra-comfortable, and surprisingly well-soundproofed. (Actually, maybe not so surprising given that it was originally built as a practice area for the owners' sons' garage band!) Tom was really friendly and an awesome cook. Our final breakfast was frittatas with the proverbial kitchen sink thrown in, laden with cheese, and big enough to fill a casserole dish each. They were to die for.
A wooded stream flowed by right outside our windows. Red-Winged Blackbirds nested abundantly in the reeds, several Bullock's Orioles (close cousins to our Baltimore Orioles) had built their hanging nests in the waterside trees, and a large Wood Duck family called the stream itself home.
Photo by Michael Britton
Back from the Okanagan
June 13th, 2011
We're back, and had a wonderful time on our vacation. Travel went without a hitch, B&B's were both excellent, we spent large swaths of our days exploring and nature-watching, and my triplist is, well, epic.
I have many photos to sort through. Eventually I'll be posting a full pictorial account of our adventures. But for now,
My 10 favorite things in the south Okanagan:
- Driving up snow-capped mountains. Driving up all the way to the snow on
Mount Kobau, where the landscape is dominated by immensely tall firs and
spruces, and the haunting song of the Hermit Thrush filters down from the
treetops.
- Watching the courtship shenanigans of Ruddy Ducks.
- The way the Mule Deer bound across the slopes, so light-footed, you'd think
someone had filled them with helium.
- The western corvids (crow relatives). Seeing my first magpie, my first Clark's
Nutcracker, my first Steller's Jay. Above all the magpies, the gorgeous,
intelligent, dragonfly-shaped magpies.
- Eating centimeter-thick bacon and a cheese-laden frittata big enough to fill a
casserole dish at the splendiferous Elm Tree Farm B&B.
- The breathtaking vista of lush orchards, vineyards, mountains and lake from Brin de Soleil B&B.
- A nearly 2-foot-tall Northern Harrier looking as small as a sparrow--because
he was perched beside a Bald Eagle! The fight that ensued between David and
Goliath.
- The oh-my-god-cute California Quail. Stalking one through the farmyard at ETF.
Catching it by surprise.
- Watching and listening to the courtship of Common Nighthawks whirling high
above us in the mountains. I had read that courting nighthawks do aerial
dives, creating a whooshing sound with their wings. I didn't realize that the
sound is like a tiny sports car zooming down a tiny highway two inches away
from your ear.
- The warm, trusting and generous locals.
Vacation ho
June 3rd, 2011
On Saturday my husband and I are off to the south Okanagan. We return on the 12th. There I'll be, of course, birding my little heart out, lifelisting all sorts of western birds that I've never had the opportunity to see before. (I'm particularly looking forward to magpies.) There will also be hiking, canoeing, swimming, dining, and, for Michael at least, wine-tasting.
I was originally planning a long, detailed post about this vacation and what we expect to do and see. But time's run out, so I'll just have to tell you all about it upon our return!
Encounter
June 2nd, 2011
I was on trail 24 of Stony Swamp when a coyote walked right out on the path. He crossed over and disappeared into the woods.
...after pausing to give me a long, speculative, slightly unsettling look!
Liftoff
June 1st, 2011
1680x1050 wallpaper
1680x1050 wallpaper
All For Show
May 31st, 2011
I was near the parking lot at Jack Pine Trail when I encountered this beautiful and fierce-looking insect:
Keep in mind I don't have a macro lens. This isn't a magnification of some tiny mite. It was over an inch long. It was creeping on an old, lichen-encrusted stump and adjacent rock, and I went crazy trying to get a good, sharp and well-lit photo, firing the shutter repeatedly everytime it went into a patch of sunlight.
When it left the stump and flew towards me, I stood stock-still, because honestly, who wants to tangle with something that looks like that? I regret it now because my subject then flew off while I wasn't looking.
Come to find out (thanks to Christine Hanrahan, a local expert) it's a harmless cranefly! Genus ctenophora, likely ctenophora dorsalis, a wasp mimic. That long, pointed, upcurved tail, by which I feared getting stung, was nothing but an ovipositor. Which means it was a female, and given where she was and how she was behaving, I likely caught her in the process of laying eggs, or at least, searching for a place to lay eggs.
I never got quite the shot I wanted, so I hope to cross paths with this species again someday.
Common Yellowthroat at Jack Pine Trail
May 30th, 2011
The Common Yellowthroat is a common breeding warbler in Ottawa's marshes and met meadows. Its habit of skulking in deep brush and tall cattails makes it difficult to observe. However, yellowthroats get quite curious about intruders into their territory, and are responsive to pishing. You can sometimes get good views as they hop around trying to figure out what you are and what you're up to.
Chestnut-Sided Warbler
May 11th, 2011
The striking Chestnut-Sided Warbler is a bird of young growth--old abandoned farmland, for instance, and other scrubby habitats. This one was in the fields south of the airport.
Spring Oriole
May 8th, 2011
Baltimore Orioles and Gray Catbirds are back.
1680x1050 wallpaper
|