Ram's Horn Snail shell

There were quite a few of these small, old snail shells lying along the edge of Middle Lake in Bow Valley Provincial Park, not far from the foot of Mt. Yamnuska. Two days ago, on 3 July 2016, a group of 12 of us went west of the city to the very eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains for a day of birding and botanizing. This is less than an hour's drive from the city. Our main walk was along the Many Springs Trail, but this photo was taken when we stopped for a short while at Middle Lake at the end of the day. This was my second visit to this park in the past week, as the leaders, Dorothy and Stephen, had invited me to go with them for a dry run on 28 June 2916, before they led the trip two days ago.

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.

Our main walk was following the Many Springs Trail, which is always a most rewarding trail. A great variety of plants can be found there (and elsewhere). We saw a reasonably good variety of wildflowers, including Western Wood Lilies, the last (?) 3 Yellow Lady's-slippers, Sticky False Asphodel, Harebells, Fleabane, and lots of Gaillardia. I was also thrilled to bits to find the tiny flowers of Kalm's Lobelia (Lobelia kalmii) along the edge of Middle Lake. I only remember ever seeing this plant once before, at Elkton Bog. 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 the way out of the park, we stopped at Middle Lake (seen in this photo) 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 at Many Springs, too, with low water levels.

On the trip two days ago, 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 - wildflowers are easier, though it was windy this day, 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

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. Once our visit was over and we were ready to drive back to Calgary, a bit of 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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