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).