Salmon Arm

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……..’

Megs and Tom in tall trees

The sunday trip, had as a highlight, some tree top adventures for most of us.....

Kid's playground at Zipline place near Revelstoke

Millie finally took to the trees........

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Skaia?

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Today we decided to pursue a little sub-alpine stroll that Gary had long boasted about and, as it turned out, with good reason. The Skaia walk involved a drive to the south , crossing Arrow Lakes at Faucier and then driving about fifteen minutes or so towards the Monashee before a left turn up into the mountains via logging roads. The logging road was generally good and we crept slowly upwards in elevation, passing the occasional fat cows that had clearly been making the most of the season’s growth. We parked a ‘car park’, a flattened grassless section where clearly some of the cattle had been gathered previously. My first act was to stand in a large relatively cow pat that Gary had carefully warned my children about.

Anyways soon the cows and their products were forgotten as we strolled aimlessly towards a ridge. The habitat was sub-alpine meadows and between the occasional Fir and Spruce trees a garden of flowers grew. Many of the annuals were on-the way-out and many flowers had moulted some of their petals and here and there their stems had begun to droop due to the summer’s heat. Occasionally though we found a slight depression where the moisture had been allowed to gather longer and here the colours of summer were still bright, advertising the past full summer bloom. The weather was cloudy and the air just cool as we slowly made our way upwards, chatting and, of course, picking out the odd bird. Savanna, White-crowned, Chipping Sparrows had, with Dark-eyed Juncos, started to gather and, particularly on our walk back, several trees held large flocks, particularly the white crowned. A generous flock of Pipits flew around the small perched lakes at the ridge’s top, a site we had selected as reasonable for a picnic. Sadly the first lake had evaporated over the last week and the larger lake was devoid of birds – a Baird’s Sandpiper recorded a week earlier. Clark’s Nutcrackers, Grey Jays, and Boreal Chickadees further reminded us that we ere high in the mountains. The view was, perhaps expectedly, breathtaking. A sea of mountain tops surrounded us extending to the horizon in all directions and despite the fact that it was now September last years snow occasionally had lingered in high valleys shaded by even high peaks to the south.  

The meadows extended over a vast distance and one could easily imagine the sight of a Grizzly lumbering across the land. WE had to imagine seeing no such thing however we did see evidence, albeit from perhaps last year, of the bear’s visit. The meadow rang with the squeals of Chipmunks and Ground Squirrels and we found a few older attempts to remove these squirrels which must have been the work of a hungry bear.

Our visit was interrupted by the darkening of clouds and so our pace back towards the vehicles was forcibly quickened. And before we could get there it started to spit and then drizzle such that we had a slight dampening.

view north from Burton Bridge

A quick visit to the Burton Flats before returning...........

Burton Flats

Another great day….

Nakusp - the birding continues

Today it was an opportunity to have a bird around Nakusp, visiting many of the favourite places that, of course, have been ignored throughout the summer.

Gary picked me up at a civilized 8am and we visited the streets of Nakusp, the boat ramp, Kauskanax Bridge, Spicers, the waterfront, Brouse loop and, finally down to the Burton Flats. Travelling home we had 59 spp and as little annoys more than a-non-round-number we had to make a diversion such that the 60 spp could be reached. Bird 60 for the day was a perched Red-tailed Hawk at the Crescent Bay Road.

The spp for the day included

Idaho Peak

One of the down sides with traveling around the states, sorry provinces, of BC and Alberta throughout the Summer is that you miss some of the summer highlights in your local area. It has been a serious and understandable lament, particularly from a birding perspective that you can't be everywhere at the same time.

One of the sites that had been independently recommended to me in the Kootenay area a number of times by a number of people was Idaho Peak. This was described as an easy alpine walk, achievable by even small children. And so it turned out.

We drove up quite early thus to avoid the expected weekend traffic as the road to the car park near the high trail head was narrow and clearly unable to allow two way traffic. According to plan we encountered no vehicles on the way up however by the time we returned to our car the car park was full and the road trip down involved some interesting reversing to allow traffic to pass.

The walk was good, easy as expected despite the fact that it was obviously an uphill climb. The air was cool and clearly it had frosted overnight recently as there was still frozen rain or hail by the track in places. Raptor migration had started at this elevation - above 2000 metres. Several Sharp-shinned Hawks were flying around as was an immature REd-tailed Hawk and, more distant, a Golden Eagle.

The view featured mountains in all directions and some great views down to Slocan Lake and the lakeside settlements of Silverton and New Denver.  
Idaho Peak is described on a tourist website to the Kootenays as 

"No matter what age or physical condition you are, the drive and a quick potter about at the top should not be missed. An easy hike to some of the best views and wildflowers in BC.

From the north car park, it is about 2 km to the peak. After 300 m, the trail descends a bit into a bowl, then there is a steady uphill to the fire lookout at the peak. The gradient is moderate, with a short steeper section where stairs are provided. You should get to the top in about 45 minutes.

At the top, the views are amazing. New Denver and Slocan Lake is below you, and mountain peaks are all around. The main peaks are New Denver Glacier to the west, Kokanee Glarier to the SE, and Mt. cooper to the NE. An interpretation sign names all the peaks.

There are lots of wildflowers in season, mainly June to September."