And then there were three

Four days ago, on 11 July 2015, I had a wonderful day out with friend Sandy, driving westwards from Calgary and eventually reaching the next province, British Columbia (B.C.). Sandy had two destinations in mind - a stop at the Spiral Tunnels and then to explore the forest around Emerald Lake. I had only been to B.C. a handful of times in 37 years, so this was an absolute treat.

Our trip started just after 7:00 am, to get a good, early start, especially before the temperature soared. The drive from Calgary to Emerald Lake takes about 2 and a half hours and is a 218.5 km drive via Trans-Canada Hwy/AB-1 W. We took a quieter route home at the end of the day. Rain arrived just in time for this drive home and, by the time I got back to my car in Calgary, the rain was really heavy and a few of the roads were beginning to flood very quickly. It was raining again the next morning. I was kind of hoping for a few rainy days, as I suddenly have a build-up of quite a few major, very urgent things to deal with and I didn't want to be tempted to go out with my camera.

Shortly after we began our walk though the forest along the right hand side of the lake, we heard a commotion coming from the water. When we found a place to see through the trees, we could see two beautiful Common Loons and a female duck with several babies, possibly Common Mergansers. My guess would be that the Merganser mother kept chasing away the Loons, creating a lot of splashing.

Also, at the beginning and the end of our "hike", we watched a family of Violet-green Swallows that were nesting. Not sure how many young ones there were, but I saw two little heads most of the time and then, suddenly, a third appeared. They lay 4-6 (rarely, 7) eggs. Though we do get these birds in Calgary, I've never really seen one - just when a mass of Tree Swallows swarms over the Bow River and someone calls out "There's a Violet-green!" The adults flew to feed their babies at top speed and barely stayed a second at the nest hole. I was just thrilled to see these birds - thanks, Sandy, for your patience, allowing me to try and get a few photos! Thanks, too, for such a great day, as usual!

"A beautiful swallow of open woodlands, the Violet-green Swallow is found only in the American West." From AllAboutBirds.

www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Violet-green_Swallow/id