Tombstone Mountain -Day 3

We got up bright and early to visit a few birding sites recommended by the Naturalists at the interpretive centre.  The first stop was an area known for Smith's and Lapland longspurs.  Although Merlin picked them up we had no luck finding them.

On the other hand we had no trouble finding this willow ptarmigan who was wandering about next to our parked truck. 

 

Bird of the Day!

And the white-crowned sparrows were all over the place.

Next was Two Moose Lake for waterfowl.  Lots of ducks, horned grebe and a pair of tundra swans with 6 Cygnet.

Not a single Moose though, never-ending two.

Heading back to camp we stopped by another pond to look for more waterfowl.

Can you spot the exciting something?

  

I looked out of the truck down toward the pond and spotted something exciting.

Can you spot it now?

How about now?

GRIZZLY!

We watched it for about 15 minutes digging around and making a big hole.  

Every once in a while it would look up to see what we were up to. (Just standing by the truck watching.)

Then finally it ran off into the willows.

We got back into the truck and drove on only to see him cross the road in front of us and again disappear into the brush.

Definitely the highlight of our trip.

Later in the day we drove south to the Grizzly Lake Trail where hawk owls had been seen.

We walked up the trail till we came to a nesting box, presumably for the owls, but found no hawk owls.

No more grizzly either.

Whiskey Jack in the Campsite