Willow Flycatcher

HAPPY 4th JULY to all Americans!

I just managed to get a quick shot of this little Flycatcher yesterday, when I stood on tiptoes to try and see it through a bit of an opening through a tangle of bushes and shrubs. The lighting might not have resulted in 100% accurate colouring, but birders identified this as a Willow Flycatcher. I don't know if this could be a juvenile.

Yesterday, 3 July 2016, I again went with friends, Dorothy and Stephen, to Bow Valley Provincial Park. On 28 June 2016, the three of us had been out there to do a dry run before yesterday's day trip, when 9 other people joined the three of us.

The mountains in this park are the first ones you come to, when you drive westwards on Highway 1 or 1A from Calgary. They form the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains. Mt. Yamnuska is a spectacular sight, and very popular with rock-climbers and hikers. I've never hiked up there - and am never likely to : ) The flat area at the foot of these mountains is Bow Valley Provincial Park, very popular with botanists and birders. It is less than an hour's drive west from Calgary.

Our main walk was following the Many Springs Trail, which is perhaps the most rewarding in the park. A great variety of plants can be found there. We saw a reasonably good variety of wildflowers, including Western Wood Lilies, Yellow Lady's-slippers, Sticky False Asphodel, Harebells, Fleabane, and lots of Gaillardia. Though the end of June is usually the best time to go for the wildflowers, you still never know what you will find. We barely had a spring this year, it was so hot and so dry, more like summer.

Birds were much harder to find, even though we heard them. There were quite a few small birds flitting about, but we were not able to ID them all. On 28th June, our best sightings were of a brightly coloured male Yellow Warbler and some kind of flycatcher (Willow or Alder Flycatcher) near the boardwalk at Many Springs. Both were on the move constantly, though I did manage to get a few less-than-good photos. One of my Warbler shots made me smile when I saw it on my computer. The bird was perched, with a beak full of insects, right next to a large spider's web. Kind of robbing ones neighbour.

On yesterday''s trip, we saw 20 bird species and I will add the list compiled by Janet Gill. I never find this park a good place for taking bird photos - widflowers are easier, though it was windy yesterday, which made it more difficult.

1. Great Blue Heron - 1 seen flying overhead
2. Green-winged Teal - 2 females, 6 ducklings
3. Scaup sp. (likely Lesser) 1 male, 1 female
4. Bufflehead - l female
5. Spotted Sandpiper - 6 including 1 at nest sight
6. Willow Flycatcher - 2 (1 seen, 1 heard)
7. American Crow - 1
8. Common Raven - 1
9. Tree Swallow - 1
10. Northern Rough-winged Swallow - 1
11. Black-capped Chickadee - 2
12. Red-breasted Nuthatch - 1
13. American Robin - 5
14. Swainson's Thrush - 1
15. Yellow Warbler - 6
16. Yellow-rumped Warbler - 6 Myrtles
17. Song Sparrow - 1
18. White-throated Sparrow - 2
19. Dark-eyed Junco - 1
20. Brown-headed Cowbird -2

Dorothy's list of some of the wildflowers we saw in bloom:

Western Wood Lily
Yellow Lady's Slipper
Indian Paintbrush
Western Canada Violet
Blue Clematis
Cut-leaved Anemone
Camas Lily
Showy Locoweed
Honeysucke
Gailardia
Northern Bedstraw
Common Yarrow
Harebell
Goldenrod
Common Pink Wintergreen
Elephanthead
Fleabane

On the way out of the park, we stopped at Middle Lake and walked down the path as far as the lake. We were horrified at how low the water level was - there was no sign of the beautiful reeds that used to really add something special to this view. We had seen the same thing with the water level at Many Springs, too.

The weather forecast for this day mentioned the risk of thunderstorms, but we were so lucky. The sun shone all day and the sky was full of puffy clouds. Late in the evening, back home in Calgary, the rain did arrive.

Thanks so much, Dorothy and Stephen, for such an enjoyable day! It was a real treat to go to the mountains, as I so rarely go.

www.albertaparks.ca/bow-valley-pp/

The link below is a map showing the turn off to the park and the layout of the lake areas. The roads at the junction with highway 1A are quite confusing!

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