DARE TO BIRD

Great Gray Owlet aka Puffball - Photo: Melissa Hafting We had a great trip to Kamloops this past weekend. Kalin joined us from Kelowna, newbie Nick from Pender Island and the rest Bridget and Ian from Metro Vancouver. Sadly, Isaac from Kamloops was away from the city this weekend and couldn't join us. He was having a great time in Wells Gray Park though!.  The main reason we had initially booked this trip was to be a photography trip at Lac Le Jeune. We had planned to go by boat and photograph Common Loons and their chicks riding on the backs of their parents but sadly River Otters had predated all nests and chicks at the lake. So I arranged to do a Kamloops birding day instead. It turned out to be a fantastic alternative. We started off in the boreal forest where I hoped to find an American Three-toed Woodpecker nest I knew about but sadly (for us) they had fledged. We then went to Goose Lake where we found a Horned Grebe in breeding plumage and many other good birds...

The 2019 report on the state of Canada’s Birds just came out and things are especially looking dire for shorebirds, grassland and aerial insectivore species. Grassland species have declined by 57%, shorebirds by 40% and aerial insectivores have declined by 59%. You can read the full report put out by Environment and Climate Change Canada, Nature Canada, Bird Studies Canada and Ducks Unlimited Canada  HERE We really need to strive to make these individual changes mentioned in the report to help conserve these declining bird populations.

I had to go to Alberta for some business so figured I would take a couple of days to see the birds we don’t get in BC.I did one day in the south near Brooks and one day in the north near Cold Lake and Lac La Biche. I started out in the south and went to Tilley where I surprisingly quickly found gorgeous Chestnut-collared Longspurs. Such a contrast to my long hours of searching in Colorado. This one even popped up for some photos for me.  The fields I walked in were provincial publicly accessible land. Male Chestnut-collared Longspur in Tilley, AB - Photos: Melissa Hafting The McCowan’s Longspurs I found nearby were casually feeding in the middle of the dirt road and this one male let me crawl right up to him! Such stunning birds I have never photographed well. If you see my Colorado photo of this species it is a vast improvement!!! Male McCowan's Longspur in Tilley, AB - Photos: Melissa Hafting Next,I walked into a field and found some beautiful Marbled G...