Alberta - Part 2 - Birding with Birdboy

Sorry for taking so long to get this post out, but we've had a busy summer with my brother getting married.

We started out Monday morning for Canmore Alberta, to meet up with Ethan (Birdboy) for some birding. This was the first time I'd seen the Rockies, so I took a few pictures before moving on.

We met up with Ethan at Elevation Place, from there we would walk a nearby trail.

One of my target species was a Rufous Hummingbird, we walked along the trail to get to the place where the hummingbird is often seen. Along the way I added a couple lifers, Violet-green Swallow, Mountain Chickadee. We made it to the area with the Rufous Hummingbird, but it was nowhere to be seen.

On the way back, Ethen stopped by his house to get a ride with his mom, while me and my friends walked back to Elevation Place. While we waited for Ethen to arrive, we stopped for lunch. I had a sandwich in my mouth when I saw Ethen running up to me telling me that there was a Harlequin Duck at a nearby pond. I rushed to get my camera and hopped into his van and drove off. Another lifer.

Harlequin Duck (eclipse plumage)

Harlequin Duck (eclipse plumage)

After taking 50 pictures or so, we drove back to Elevation Place, and from there, to Bow Valley Provincial Park.

I was in a vehicle with my friends, behind Ethan and his mom, we saw them pull over on the side of the road scanning a lake for birds. While Ethan checked out the lake, I checked out the mountains, and I spotted this Bighorn Sheep, a new mammal for me.

Bighorn Sheep

 We arrived at the park and started hiking the trail, it allowed me to get some photographs of the common White-crowned Sparrow.

White-Crowned Sparrow

 Here was something different for me, a Red-shafted Northern Flicker

Northern Flicker (red-shafted)

 The trail offered me three more lifers, Townsend's Warbler, Northern Rough-winged Swallow, and Willow Flycatcher.

 On the walk back I saw an eagle fly over, I was hopeful for a moment that this might be a Golden Eagle, but a quick look dashed those hopes.

Bald Eagle

 We went back to Ethan's house, as his family had kindly invited us for supper. We ate a delicious supper and dessert, and headed back to High River. I missed the Rufous Hummingbird, but there was hope. My friends said they wanted to come back the next day to go swimming, so Ethan and I decided to meet up again for one last chance at the Rufous.

Brown-headed Cowbird

 It once again looked like a no show, we were there for almost ten minutes before Ethen heard the buzzing of the hummingbird. We walked up slowly in and got some decent pictures.

Rufous Hummingbird

Rufous Hummingbird

Rufous Hummingbird

Rufous Hummingbird

 We walked around looking for other birds before we left, but there were no more lifers to be had.

Northern Waterthrush

White-crowned Sparrow

Mountain Chickadee

Mountain Chickadee

 Thank you Ethan for taking me out birding, and helping me add birds to my life list. Thank you to the rest of the Denton family for hosting my friends and I, we had a wonderful time. Thanks to Ethan, I got my lifer count up to 13 on the trip, where it remained all the way home.

Alberta - Part 1 - The Trip and Elbow Falls

A couple weeks ago, I (William) went to High River Alberta for a friend's graduation. I managed to slip in some birding along the way. Most of these pictures were taken while driving, so excuse the blurriness of some pictures.

I got 6 lifers on the trip, and another 7 when I met up with Ethan (Birdboy). I don't think I got many pictures of the lifers on the drive over, it's hard enough to identify them when your whizzing by at 110 km/h.

Swainson's Hawk

 My friends and I started from our house at 5:30 AM. So I wasn't in any condition for birding that early in the morning. I started getting lifers in Saskatchewan, driving along, I managed a Ferruginous Hawk, Mountain Bluebird and Lark Bunting before Regina.

Entering Regina

 I stopped birding for the most part as we passed through Regina, but started again in earnest once out of the city.

 A pair of Shorebirds on two telephone poles alerted my attention, I managed to snap a picture of them. When I saw the short bill, I got excited, it was an Upland Sandpiper

Upland Sandpiper

Moosjaw

 After awhile we passed through what looked like snow, but it we figured it must be salt.

Salt

 While driving by a small pond, I managed to get this picture of a Black-necked Stilt, another lifer

Black-necked Stilt

Pronghorn

Medicine Hat Tipi

 We arrived in Alberta, with my life count for the trip at 5, I kept checking the fence posts for Owls or Falcons, and my persistence paid off, another lifer, Prairie Falcon.

 We arrived in High River, and spent the next few days keeping ourselves busy with the graduation, Calaway Park. And on Saturday we set out for Canmore, to meet up with Ethan for some birding. We were halfway there, when our car started acting up. It was overheating if we were traveling at anything but highway speed, and the way to Canmore was plagued with construction, which meant we'd have to travel way below highway speed. So we rescheduled with Ethan, to meet Monday instead, and we headed to Elbow Falls AB.

Mountains

The water at Elbow Falls was crystal clear

Yellow-rumped Warbler (Audubon's) 

Yellow-rumped Warbler (Audubon's) 

Me (Second from the left) and my friends

My friend and his sister

I didn't get anymore lifers at Elbow Falls, but it was an amazing area, full of awesome landscape, and I had a great time.

Sorry for the amount of pictures in this post, but I decided to put the whole trip in two posts, the next part will be about birding with Ethan. Stay tuned for part 2!