Salmon Arm

Fall is the time to visit Salmon Arm if you are a birder. And as I am delusional in that direction we booked into the Travelodge in Salmon Arm for a Friday and Saturday night stay. The main birding targets in Salmon Arm included fall waders migrating south and the few breeding Clark’s Grebe in amongst the hundreds of breeding Western Grebe.

Pec Sandpiper

A local birder Geoff Styles had kindly offered a Saturday morning of his time to introduce me to the local birding hot spots. The main spots, particularly for the targets listed above include the main pier, Peter Jannink Nature Park and Christmas Island. All of these sites were excellent for waders, waterfowl and the occasional bush birds. I should also mention these sites were mentioned to me by another Salmon Arm birder, Ted Hilary, via email. Sadly Ted could not join us this morning due to prior arrangements.

I met Geoff at the pier at 7-30am. Barn Swallows, Cedar Waxwings, Starlings, House Finch, Feral Doves, Yellow-rumped Warbler and most impressively a Western Tanager were seen before leaving the car park. I met Geoff at the assigned time as he confidently marched up to me, extended his hand and said, “You must be Ken”. I either had that ‘Australian-look-about-me’ or he was not used to seeing others with bins and telescopes at 7-30am.

Salmon Arm Spit

Franklin's Gull - back left

The first bird that he pointed out was a local rarity of Franklin’s Gull, hiding not so successfully within a flock of Ring-billed. Waders were next on the menu. May I say that for a Canadian birder Salmon Arm is an excellent place to learn your waders. There is a pleasing variety of species and, if you’re patient, many of the birds will come close to the pier allowing excellent views. We saw Greater and Lesser Yellow Legs, Spotted, Least, Semipalmated, Western and Pectoral Sandpipers, Long billed Dowitcher, Wilson’s Snipe and Killdeer. Very sadly no Baird’s Sandpipers nor Solitary Sandpipers were seen [despite another birding group recording Solitary at the same place on the same morning!]

Spotted Sandpiper

Geoff’s patient analysis of the large Western Grebe Flock with his excellent Swarovski scope yielded very pleasing views of a Clark’s Grebe! A quality bird for sure and especially one for BC!! And me!!!

Pier at Salmon Arm

Waterfowl were plentiful. Common and Hooded Mergansers, Canada Goose [the Solitary Sandpiper group also recorded Cackling Goose – another cause for plentiful profanity], Mallard, Green-winged, Gadwall, Shoveller, Wigeon were the main waterfowl. Gulls? mostly Ring-billed although small numbers of California and Herring plus the pre-mentioned Franklins. Six Pelicans graced our side of the lake, a situation Geoff described as uncommon as was Double-crested Cormorant. Osprey were heard all day and other raptors appeared via Coopers Hawk, Bald Eagle, Merlin and a Peregrine Falcon did an impressive fly by. Coot and Great Blue Heron, the latter quite conspicuously scattered around the bay, rounded out the species seen near the water.

Bush birds included the common Common Yellowthroat and Song Sparrows. Savanna, Lincoln’s and White-crowned Sparrows were seen as were Warbling Vireos, Nashville Warbler, Grey Catbird and BC Chickadees. All up we recorded about 65 species for our Saturday morning together – certainly not too untidy given that we had done all our birding in a rectangular area about 2kilometres long and about 100 metres or so wide.

Geoff had had some interesting travels in Asia and had lived and taught in both South Korea and China. Certainly his recollections of birding in Korea sound as if a tour there some time in the future could be in the offing. It seems the only real problem is to work out what season to go!

I returned in the afternoon of Saturday and again Sunday morning for an hour or so however I did not see any new birds for my Salmon arm list. However I did enjoy spending some time watching the waders that were there and, in particular seeing nice sized flocks of Western Sandpiper, Pectoral Sandpiper and Long-billed Dowitcher well.

The family enjoyed their time in Salmon Arm too, for the most part; swimming in the Motel Pool, relaxing watching TV and reading, shopping and browsing down town. WE all went to the cinema on Saturday night to see ‘Brave’.

Matthew taking to trees

I left Salmon Arm having gained a good understanding of its potential yet a little disappointed as I’m keenly aware of how its recent birds sadly evacuated before I arrived or remained invisible during my visit. Recently Salmon Arm has had Bairds Sandpiper, Upland Sandpiper, Black Turnstone, Hudsonian Godwit, American Golden Plover, Solitary Sandpiper, Cackling Goose[?], Lapland Longspur to name a few. As often is the case with birding ‘I should have been here yesterday……..’