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!

Weekly What Bird Wednesday

This weeks bird is in a photo I took a few weeks ago at Oak Hammock Marsh. Can you guess what it is?

Leave your guess in the comments

There were multiple birds on last weeks. Some of the birds were Trumpeter Swan, Red-Winged Blackbird, American Coot, Ruddy Duck, Eared Grebe, and possibly a few more. Good job Ethan and Neil who guessed most of them!


Other What Bird Wednesday posts:
Bird Boy's
JG's
Cat's and the Birds

Kenora Camping

Several days ago we went to Kenora for camping and my mom also sold flowers at a market there.

William is currently in Alberta for a friend's graduation so he took our DLSR and I was stuck with our point and shoot. I was actually surprised to find out it can take pretty decent photos.

We borrowed two canoes from friends and strapped them onto our tent trailer and head out. Our plan was to do a bunch of canoeing.

We arrived there late and it was after midnight by the time we set up the trailer.

The next morning near the farmer's market we saw these deer leisurely crossing the road. There was a line up of cars behind them on the bridge but they didn't seem to mind, they walked along in the center of the lake at a slow pace. 

A mother deer and two fawns taking a stroll

The giant white tent-dome is where the farmer's market took place.

View over lake of the woods

 Later that day we went for a pleasant canoe near the campground. We found our way into a peaceful little cove (I named it Stillwater Cove because of the absolutely still water) with some tall cliffs (named them Juniper Cliffs).

Stillwater Cove

 There were several turtles basking on this rock.

Painted Turtles

 We found a Great Blue Heron along the shore among the reeds.

Great Blue Heron 

Great Blue Heron

 The next day we planned to go for a longer canoe. We started at 12 and began canoeing down the Winnipeg River which is right by Lake of the Woods. Along the river we found this nest with some young Bald Eagles!

Bald eagle Nest

We spotted a very cool tunnel through the rock. There is a railway going over it so we figured they made it when the constructed the railway.

We paddled through the tunnel and on the other side it led to Mink Bay, a small bay now only connected to the river by this outlet.

Tunnel to Mink Bay (me in the back of the canoe)

This is what we saw as we emerged from the tunnel: 

More paddling and we stopped for lunch at this lovely little point. It is just a tiny peninsula, surrounded by lake, bushes and cliffs.

One of our beached canoes

 There was some very cool rocks there, such as this one.

We canoed for the rest of the day and in the whole trip we paddled a total of 26 km.
Here's a picture of me and Matthew (my twin brother beneath a cliff. I'm in the back of the canoe.

Matthew (left) and I (right)

 The next morning a Bald Eagle landed in a tree very near to our campsite so I was able to snap some nice shots.

Bald Eagle

Bald Eagle

Bald Eagle

Bald Eagle taking off

It was a very fun and pleasant trip and we saw some great wildlife. I am very much looking forward to more canoeing. 

I've made a map so you can get a feeling for where we were canoeing:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1-Qg1GBe_-U7fc4LMGtL7KCTpxhI&usp=sharing

My Birdathon (part one)

So finally I went through the pictures and edited them, so here comes a post.

If you would like to donate to my Birdathon go HERE. Thanks to everyone who has already donated!

I woke up at 6:30, and Christian Artuso came at 8:00. Christian came along and he was a tremendous help. We started out by going around our yard. We found some baby Long-eared Owls in the nest (by the way the owlets are branching now). We got about 30 just in our the area around our property.

Long-eared Owlets

 We then hopped in the vehicle and headed to Birds Hill Park, a provincial park near us. First we stopped at the Red River Floodway to check if there were any birds. There was this beauty right along the edge of the water, a Caspian Tern. I've biked to the floodway often but have never seen terns there, so it was quite a treat.

We saw quite a few common birds as we drove along to the park.
We stopped as we got in the park and took a listen. We got some nice views of a female redstart as it flitted about it's nest by the side of the road.

female American Redstart

 Some highlights from the park were Indigo Bunting, Alder Flycatcher, and Rose-breasted Grosbeak.

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

The plan was to head out east to the boreal forests to find some warblers that breed there. So we hit the road and headed to the boreal forest

Red-tailed Hawk

 One of the target birds was Golden-winged Warbler. With frequent stopping of the vehicle and listening we were finally successful as we saw one flitting about.
This is a very special and beautiful bird. Thanks to Christian who helped us find it.

Golden-winged Warbler

It flew back and forth across the road and with persistence we got some nice photos, and this bird does deserve some photos.

Golden-winged Warbler

Golden-winged Warbler

Golden-winged Warbler

We also saw this Chestnut sided Warbler.

Chestnut-sided Warbler

It was a bit strange to see a hummingbird on a wire, such a cute tiny thing.

Ruby-throated Hummingbird

We got a nice view of an old, collapsed barn and I thought it made for a nice photo.

View of the road. We were seeing a lot of this. :)

Stay tuned for the next post!

Feathers on Friday

Here's a photo Will took the other day.

Great-crested Flycatcher

Other FoF posts:

Bird Boy
Prairie Birder
The Cats and the Birds

Long-eared Owlet

Went out this morning and found one of the owlets near the nest, didn't see the other ones. I didn't look to long because the mosquitoes were horrendous and I didn't want to disturb them too much.

Here's a photo:

Weekly What Bird Wednesday

Here's another beauty from our birdathon. Can you name at least one of the birds in this image?

Last weeks bird was a Golden-winged Warbler as Prairie Birder guessed correctly. I'll be trying to get a birdathon post out soon.

Other What Bird Wednesday posts:
Bird Boy's
JG's
Cat's and the Birds

Feathers on Friday

These Sandhill Cranes gave us excellent photo opportunities on our Birdathon.

Here is another small preview of the Birdathon.

Sandhill Cranes

Other FoF posts:

Bird Boy
Prairie Birder
The Cats and the Birds

Great Canadian Birdathon Results

The Great Canadian Birdathon is a fundraiser to raise funds for Bird Conservation. Participants bird over a 24 hour period in May to try and see as many bird species as they can. This is my second birdathon, along with my brother, last year we got 95 species of birds and this year we exceeded it with 127 species! Thanks to Christian Artuso who helped us out.
We got lots of great photos, again thanks to Christian and his awesome camera..
127 species is the most birds we've ever seen in a day, and we saw some really awesome birds and 6 lifers. Thank you Christian.

If you would like to donate to my Birdathon go HERE. Thanks to everyone who has already donated!

Here is a sample photo:

Yellow-Headed Blackbird at Oak-Hammock Marsh

Weekly What Bird Wednesday

Our Birdathon was a great success, thanks to Christian Artuso who helped us out... 127 species total! Big thanks to everyone who has donated so far, making the second part of the birdathon a success as well, and if you would still like to donate you can go to my page HERE. Thanks!

We got tonnes of great photos on the birdathon and before I post a flurry of good photos I'll post a bad one here, showing one of the beauties we saw on the Birdathon. See if you can guess it before I make a post about the birdathon.

Leave your guess in the comments!

Other What Bird Wednesday posts:
Bird Boy's
JG's
Cat's and the Birds


Last time's bird was a young Cooper's Hawk in the nest.