Tag Archive | nest

Banff: A National Treasure Part 3

Continued from Part 2.

For our final day in Banff, we went to Johnston Canyon, just minutes away from the Johnston Canyon campground. We packed up our trailer under sunny skies and prepared for the hike. As we went along our hike more and more clouds started to roll in…

    Johnston Canyon is one of two places in Alberta where Black Swifts nest and is also home to American Dippers, North America’s only truly aquatic songbirds. We started our hike, looking for Dippers and admiring the rushing water as it raced by us.

We continued on our way until we reached the Lower Falls, where a small tunnel gave us a closer look at the waterfall; spray from the water jumping about.

From the Lower Falls, we hiked up to the Upper Falls, looking for our target birds but failing to see them. We heard some Townsend’s Warblers, a difficult bird to see and we did manage to see a Pacific Wren, a race of the Winter Wren that was recently split and became its own species.

Common Ravens, which are readily seen in the mountains, were seen in several different places along the hike.

By this time, we were almost to the Upper Falls and now a steady drizzle was falling; it became heavier and heavier until it was raining quite hard. We made it to the Upper Falls, enjoyed the view and then beat a hasty retreat to our car, trying not to become wetter than we already were. We made it to our car, wetter than we would have liked before driving down the road several kilometers to the Castle Mountain chalets and stopping in a parking lot for a quick lunch. By this time, the rain had stopped (how convenient) and we stopped to admire a pair of Osprey’s and their nest as well as a Flicker nest right beside the road.

Our trip to Banff was great and I would readily do it again!

Posted by Matthew Sim

Oh What a Canada Day!

Canada Day, last Friday, I rode my bike out to Fish Creek once again to see what I could find. At a storm water pond, I found a total of 9 cute Common Goldeneye ducklings; swimming and diving about.

In Hull’s Wood, I was alerted to a Common Raven and her two young by some loud croaking, the immature birds hungrily calling for food, despite being able to feed themselves.

As I passed by the Bow River, I could hear a Song Sparrow singing and after a quick search, I located this melodious little sparrow.

As I worked my way back to the intersection of Canyon Meadows and Bonaventure Dr. I passed over Bridge #11. As I did so, I could hear a pair of House Wrens scolding me.

I soon found out why I was being scolded. Just beyond the bridge, was a railing, and inside the railing was the Wren’s nest with several young on the inside. The parents flew inside several times to feed the young and it was quite a tight squeeze!

I continued on my way, not wanting to bother the young family. As I came to the last storm water pond between the ranch and the Glennfield area of Fish Creek, I saw an interesting shape in a tree. I stopped my bike, took a closer look, and found the object to be a porcupine! This was great, as I had never seen one before.

Almost out of the park, I saw a perched Osprey near a small path through long grass. I stopped and approached for a closer view… And got absolutely eaten alive by mosquitoes. I added to my bug bite collection by at least 20 in less than 5 minutes!

Oh what a great Canada Day it was!

Posted by Matthew Sim