Weekend in Creston

Cassin's Finch - female

This weekend in Creston, a few hundred kilometres to the south east, began in Nakusp. The front-yard immediately yielded some cool FOY birds; specifically Orange-crowned Warbler and a speccy male Western Tanager. [A few days earlier I scored another FOY a Cassin’s Finch female.]

Any birding trip was going to have to do very well to beat such an excellent beginning.

Megs and Matt enroute

Beaver habitat between New Denver and Kaslo

The drive down there was –yawn – spectacular. We made a brief stop near a boat jetty and compound and here we saw – briefly as it turned out – a FOY Rock Wren. Nearby was a huge group of coot plus a couple of Common Loon further out in the lake. A small gang of migrants yielded the expected Yellow-rumps and Savanna Sparrows plus yet another FOY a Nashville Warbler.

Duck Lake was the first wetland in Creston Valley and here  we got a FOY mammal – Musk Rat. Adjacent were good numbers of swallows; Tree and Rough winged mainly but with smaller numbers of Barn and Violet-green. A little further were Cliff Swallows eagerly grabbing mud for nesting. A Coyote ran past but at quite a distance. Savanna, Song and White-crowned accounted for the sparrows. The water yielded Canada Goose complete with goslings. Ospreys hunting. Red necked Grebe nesting. Bufflehead, Shoveller, Mallard, Wigeon, Ring-necked, Common Merganser and Pintail were the main waterfowl. Bald Eagle and Red tailed Hawks also did fly bys.

Painted Turtles and American Wood Duck were seen in the more sheltered waterways.

Gary, Marie and Millie

The following morning we were joined by Gary and Marie who had completed an early morning sprint from Nakusp to join us for the Creston Valley Wetland stroll. We arrived, fresh from a Subway breakfast and a twelve km drive from town,to hit the car park seconds before they did. Great Blue Heron and Red-tailed Hawk were the first species seen, the latter, a dark phase bird, decorating a large tree at the car park’s entrance.

Out-of-focus Garter Snake

Painted Turtle

A small frog was caught; probably Pacific Tree Frog. Herps continued with a Common Garter Snake. The birds, save a few common species on the water and the abundant Tree Swallows, were inconspicuous. Our timing seemed to have been poor – the main waterfowl migration seemingly passed and the  passerines, save a very few Ruby crowned Kinglets and a couple of yellow-rumps, invisible. Song Sparrows and Red-winged Blackbirds were abundant and Gary got onto a Lincoln which I was too lazy and / or slow to get onto. The highlight for me was probably hearing two recently returned marshland residents, Sora and Virginia Rail; the former sounding [vaguely] like its name and the latter sounding like a stuttering frog.

Creston Wetlands

More Creston Wetlands

We did however get to plus 50 spp for the day with a little effort so that was a reasonable yard stick. Species number 50 was the magpie.

Leaving the area I go onto a late? Rough legged Hawk. The drive from Creston to Castlegar too was scenic and quite good for mammals. Mule Deer, Bighorn and Yellow-bellied Marmot were seen while the road side signs warning of Caribou were the only clue they were resident.

Butterfly -

We stopped at the Castlegar Super 8 motel and here they had a waterslide and a good breakfast. It was worth the few extra bucks to stay here as the kids had a heap of fun. I  had fun too and it was great to see Millie quickly change from, “I’ll go on it when I’m 5” to her running up by herself and giving a confident thumbs up as the admiring parents looked on.

Late afternoon we returned to Nakusp in time to miss reported Geese – White-fronted and Snow – apparently one of each. Travelling out with Gary we did see FOY Brown-headed Cowbirds in the company of RW and Brewer’s Blackbirds and Starlings. A few Mountain Bluebirds, YR Warblers and Savanna Sparrows were seen in the Brouse - Crescent Bay area.