Bobolinks have Arrived

We haven't been out to Mission Road in quite a while, but today we had perfect weather for a walk.

The spring birds were out in force.  We stopped to admire this Bullock's oriole perched on the top of a Juniper tree.

Bird of the Day!

Patti said hello to some cows.

Leo got an extreme closeup of a yellow-rumped warbler.  

Saw our first Western kingbirds of the year (they hadn't arrived in Savona yet when we were there, they usually nest in the campground).

And when we walked back to the car I heard the bobolink's distinctive call off in the distance in the area we usually spot them. No photos, too far off.

A Day at Chilanko Marsh

Yellow-headed Blackbird

 At the latest minute we decided to join the Williams Lake Field Naturalists annual Victoria Day trip to Chilanko Marsh.

The Puntzi Lake area is the coldest part of the Chilcotin and often the cold spot of BC in the winter.  But we lucked out and had a glorious day  after such a cold spring.

None of the leaves were out on the trees yet though.

Sunny morning at Chilanko Marsh

Leo got a great shot of a savannah sparrow,

An action shot of a Marsh wren:

And here's the elusive sora creeping around the reeds.

We stopped for lunch at the dam.

Flock of hungry Naturalists lined up in a row

At the east end of the marsh sits the old homestead, now owned by the Nature Trust,

With its substantial old house,

With a bay window, dormer and dovetail joints

Now falling to ruin.

An advance party came out on Friday and spotted a very rare bird, a snowy plover, only the 39th sighting in BC, and certainly the first in the Cariboo Chilcotin.  

Not a snowy plover (semipalmated sandpiper?)

We checked out the pond where they saw it, but it had moved on.  We'd call them liars, but they have pictures.

To finish off the day, a red-naped sapsucker showed up and refused to position itself where the sun shone on and not behind him.

Most folks were camping out, but we had to drive all the way home (2 hours).  Our drive was improved with the sighting of a brown black bear on the roadside (but no photo).

More Kamloops Parks

 After a strenuous hike, we were ready to hit the big smoke for lunch.  We ate at our favorite Indian restaurant, the Coconut.

Leo had coconut curry

And I had uthappam, 

which is a pancake made from rice and pea flours and chopped vegetables.  It came with lentil stew and 2 chutneys.

After lunch we decided to check out 2 random parks.  The first turned out to be just a small pocket park between houses.

Stairway to Nowhere

We did better with our next attempt, Pineview Valley Park.  It turned out to be a wetland full of birds and provided access to trails leading up into the hills.

Checking for warblers

The death Camas is starting to bloom:

Back at the campsite Leo photographed a merganser

Bird of the Day!

And a magpie

And we witnessed a dramatic, purple sunset.

Hiking around Kamloops

Our 3rd day we drove 20 minutes into Kamloops to check out some parks in the area.  We circumnavigated Kenna Cartwright Park, located just west of Costco as you drive into town.  Leo has run several trail races here before but we found some new trails this time.  We hit the park at the peak of both the Saskatoon and balsamroot blossoming.

Also present, if less conspicuous, were shooting stars:

The trails wound around Mt. Dufferin with great outlooks over the city,

 Then further along the Kamloops Reserve,

the dump and sewage lagoons,

And lastly, the Regional Correction Centre.

They were also working on the oil pipeline right beside the park.  Our tax dollars in action!

Twenty years ago the mountain pine beetle killed off all the mature Ponderosa pine in the park, 

But now the young pine are really filling in the slopes.

Disaster Tourism

 Later that day we drove to Merritt to check out the after effects of the major flood they experienced last fall.  Mainly we wanted to see how our favorite campground on the Nicola River had fared after much of Highway 8 was washed away.

It turned out that the road was intact right to Nkwala recreation site.  Immediately around the corner, though, construction was in progress to rebuild the road.  Dump trucks were coming and going.  Nkwala was closed though we could still access the site.  The upper portion including the outhouses is intact, but the road leading down to the riverside campsites is washed away.

The river ran through the lower section, burying the firepits and washing away the picnic tables, but most of the trees are still standing.

The only firepit we found was in the campsite we camped in last June.

Happier times June 2021

Here's what it looks like now:

And here's the swimming hole where Leo was jumping off the rocks 8 years ago.

The river has rerouted to the other side of the channel.

On a much sadder note the nearest residence is gone.  All that is left is their fence and street number.

We drove through Merritt but not much damage was evident (at the time 50% of the town was flooded).  Eventually we found where the Coldwater River had washed away the municipal RV park and washed out the bridge.  Local houses had damaged items from their basements piled up in their front yards.  We did not take pictures. But here's the Google map below.

The RV park is leveled and half the bridge is gone. There's a fairly steep bank on the river.  The Coldwater must have come up really high!

Birdwalk in Savona

We started off the day by walking the Savona access road that follows along the shore of Kamloops Lake. About halfway along there's 2 old cottonwood snags where Lewis's woodpeckers nest every year.

 

Not a good photo but proof of sighting of the Bird of the Day!

Leo took a better photo in 2019.  We don't get these woodpeckers as far north as Williams Lake.  There have been a few sightings, but not by us.

There were loads of western tanagers in the cottonwood,

But who could tire of western tanagers?

Even if the branches and foliage are sharper than than birds? I also saw Wilson's warblers and an orange crowned warbler in the same tree.

We walked by the Savona pub 

complete with wagon wheel and cattle skull decor,

an ancient lilac tree,

more lilacs in full bloom,

and a blossoming apple tree.

We ended up at the city park and boat launch where we saw horned grebes in their breeding plumage.

On our way back we spotted a golden-crowned sparrow in somebody's yard.

We Got Outta Town!

 It took some doing though.  We were all hooked up and ready to go when we did the last minute taillight check and the left taillight was not functioning.  Leo fiddled with bulbs and ultimately had to drive out to 150 Mile House to purchase a new taillight from Chemo RV.  Three hours later we hit the road for Steelhead Provincial Park on Kamloops Lake in Savona.

We snagged our favorite spot

overlooking the outlet of Kamoops Lake, which comes with its own resident pair of magpies.

Bird of the Day!

They kept us on our toes by jumping around on the roof of our trailer at 5 am every morning.

We were hoping for warmer weather 3 hours south of home, but it was windy and not very sunny for the whole 3 days.  Still warmer than at home and way warmer than Begbie Summit where it was snowing hard when we passed through.

After dinner we walked down to the bridge over the Thompson River where we were interrupted by a loud splash.  Noone was throwing rocks off the bridge so we eventually saw the beaver that slapped its tail swimming in the river.  We beat a retreat so he could swim to shore 7ninterrupted.

Around the campsite We saw 11 species today:magpie,yellow-rumped warblers (Audubon and myrtle), starling, ruby-crowned kinglet, a bald eagle chasing an osprey (quite dramatic and close up!), white-crowned sparrows, American crow, western meadowlark, mallard and common merganser.