Whitehorse, Yukon (The REAL Best Place on Earth)

Today we spent the whole day in Whitehorse, Yukon. I woke up this morning around 2:45 and it was STILL light outside!! It never got dark last night, if I wasn't so tired, I may have stayed out to enjoy it! This morning, we birded in the campground to start, but the birds were not out singing or moving. We walked around and explored downtown Whitehorse. I am not usually a fan of cities at all, but I love this city!! I really feel like I could fit in happily here. We went to Alpine Bakery, which is mostly organic foods and snacks. I got an amazingly delicious chocolate walnut roll. Afterwards, we drove around looking for a place called the Fish Ladder. We got there in time to watch a fish filleting and grilling demonstration! I tried a really tasty Arctic Char with spruce maple seasoning! If you are interested in a new flavor for you fish, try adding spruce tips, maple syrup, grainy mustard, and salt/pepper to taste. I also squeezed some lemon juice onto mine... and I think I could have eaten about 3 whole fish, it was so good!

Whitehorse, Yukon

While we waited at the Fish Ladder for the Yukon Birding Club, a porcupine showed up outside!! It was so cute, and since it wandered in behind a fence, I was able to be about 2 feet away from it! We met up with the YBC and entomologist Syd Cannings for a field trip to a local pond to look for birds and damselflies. It was a TON of fun!! I ran around catching dragonflies for a while, saw my lifer Gray Jays and Olive-sided Flycatcher, caught a Wood Frog, spotted a White-winged Scoter (a year bird for Margaret), saw a Red Fox, got some great contacts for coming back up here to do some research, learned a lot about local plants and insects, met some really cool people, and overall, just had an AWESOME time!! One really interesting thing I learned is that most of the birds in this area are Eastern birds (Myrtle Warbler, instead of Audubon's, Yellow-shafted Flicker, instead of red, Slate-colored Junco, instead of Oregon, etc.) This is because of the way the glaciers receded. As the moved down, they still blocked the western species from expanding their territories, but the eastern species were able to expand westward from the north. By the time the glaciers were gone, the eastern species had already taken over the area so the westerns couldn't move in! Other areas near here to the south have all of the normal western species, but up here, they get a lot of the same birds we see in Ohio! Cool, right!?

Syd Cannings teaching the YBC about Damselflies

Me properly holding a live dragonfly so I could examine it better!

Green Bog Orchid

YBC catching insects in a local pond

After we left the YBC field trip, we went back in Whitehorse and explored the S.S. Klondike and found some Mew Gulls and Arctic Terns!

S. S. Klondike

What an awesome day!! Tomorrow (Sunday) we are heading to Alaska and probably won't have internet for a few days. I will post again as soon as I can! Until then, check out some of my trip photos on my facebook page!

Why did the Ruffed Grouse Cross the Road?

To get to her chicks!

Here she is crossing in front of the RV on the Cassier Highway (We were stopped!) to chase after her ~8 chicks that ran to the other side! My best guess is that the chicks were 3-4 days old.

Ruffed Grouse female

We are on the AlCan and made it to the Yukon Territory!! We are staying two nights in Whitehorse, Yukon. The Yukon is awesome! Everything I imagined it to be and more... Tomorrow we are planning on going out on a bird/dragonfly walk with the Yukon Bird Club as long as we can find the location! We will also be heading out to explore the Yukon in the Whitehorse area and look for birds at some local hotspots!

I took this photo of myself in the beautiful Yukon Territory

In addition to the Ruffed Grouse, we also saw a Northern Hawk Owl today in a recovering burned area. He was awesome and just sat in the tree hunting while I got great looks through my binoculars and snapped some photos! Margaret and I saw both of these birds on our trip to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in February with Ethan Kistler and Gary Cowell, but it was fun to see them again, and find them on our own! I must have good luck at spotting Ruffed Grouse, because I was the one that found them both times!!

Northern Hawk Owl

Getting close to Alaska!

Yesterday was a ton of fun! We drove up the Cassier Hwy part way, then turned onto the Glacier Hwy to Stewart, BC/Hyder, Alaska. We spent the afternoon birding and sightseeing in Stewart/Hyder. I saw four new life birds! Northwestern Crow and Mew Gull in British Columbia, and Varied Thrush and Pacific Wren in Alaska! Varied Thrush is an awesome bird with a really neat and unique song! Visit this link to see and hear a Varied Thrush: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/varied_thrush/sounds

Yesterday morning we also visited some first nations people's totem poles and a really old, beautiful church and bell tower (see below). The Cassier Highway is proving to be extremely beautiful! Today, even though it rained the whole day, we saw some incredible scenery and even saw some good birds and a second American Black Bear!!

 As beautiful as the area is, I am extremely disappointed and saddened by the amount of clear cutting going on up here. It is unbelievable how many trucks go by filled with logs, how many timber yards have thousands and thousands of trees piled up and how many lovely mountain-sides are completely bare, torn up, and ugly.

Tomorrow we head up the rest of the Cassier Hwy to the Yukon and hopefully make to the Alaskan Hwy!

Stewart, BC/Hyder, Alaska

Yesterday was one of the best days yet! I saw a Black Bear, saw four new life birds, and saw a REAL glacier! We stayed the night in Stewart, BC and even spent part of yesterday visiting Hyder, Alaska!

I don't have time for a real post, but I promise more details as soon as I get internet access again!! Until then, enjoy this glacier :)

Glacier View

Today was eventful. It was pouring rain when we woke up and most of the morning. It sprinkled off and on the rest of the day as well. We drove 370 miles today and since it wasn't all looping up and down mountains, we actually made some progress towards Alaska! We are staying the night in Smithers, BC which isn't too far from the Cassier Highway that we will be taking up to the Yukon!

We made a few stops for some quick birding, stretching, running, and dog walking and heard three new birds for the trip: Alder Flycatcher, Hammond's Flycatcher and White-throated Sparrow! Here is one of the rest areas where we stopped along the highway:

While we were on the road, I was listening to music with my eyes closed (not sleeping!) when I was startled by a loud noise and something hitting my face. Apparently a truck threw a rock into the windshield right in front of me and it hit hard enough to shatter a part of the window and send little glass shards flying onto me!

Before we arrived at the campground, we stopped at an RV wash. It was actually fun to get out and wash the RV and try to get all the bugs off.

Tonight we are staying at a campground called Glacier View, and it does have a beautiful view, although the glaciers are nearly melted. Here's what I'm seeing:

baby ducks always make a day better!

Today has been raining nearly the whole day. We slept in this morning and then started heading north towards Prince George, BC. We didn't get much birding in but we made it as far as Williams Lake, BC. We did stop at one little pond to bird and found the cutest baby ducks I have ever seen! Tiny, fluffy, Common Goldneye ducklings!

Q is for Quail

Today was a fun day! I am really enjoying British Columbia... the birds and scenery don't get much better! This morning we saw a nice variety of birds at a rest stop along the highway! We picked up Evening Grosbeaks, Pine Siskins, a Golden-crowned Kinglet, Red-naped Sapsukers and more! We continued driving up and down mountains to get to Osoyoos to bird. Osoyoos is a very beautiful city that doesn't seem like it belongs in North America. It is also the home to some excellent birds! We found at least three pairs of Osprey, two on nests, and I picked up five life birds: Long-billed Curlew, Black-headed Grosbeak, Cinnamon Teal, California Quail, and Yellow-breasted Chat!

The quail was so cute, and I found him just by luck! After I found him, I later saw two females and Margaret found another female leading seven young quail across the path! I looked in time to see the last one scurrying behind. It was fun to see that quail because I remember quails from my ABC flashcards as a young child. I always remember seeing the funny bird on the Q is for Quail card and thinking there wasn't really a bird that looked like that!

California Quail

So far on the trip I have seen 55 life birds!! I also hit another milestone on my life list; the Long-billed Curlew made 100 life birds that I have seen just this year! I left Ohio with 290 species on my list and I currently have 345! How many do you think I will end up with by the time I return to Ohio?

A view of Osoyoos from a mountain

The Best Place on Earth

Yesterday we did more driving than birding and ended up in British Columbia. When we crossed the border the sign said "Welcome, The Best Place on Earth" and it didn't take long being in BC to realize that weren't kidding when they put that on the welcome sign! BC is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen (and not even *actually* seen.) It is prettier than anything you see in photos and the movies. See for yourself...

Although we didn't do any major birding, I still saw six new life birds!! The campground we stayed in the night before in Montana had a nice trail down to a river. We hiked that trail in the morning and I saw a Chestnut-backed Chickadee and a Violet-green Swallow! While checking my email outside, I had a Black-chinned Hummingbird hovering about 10 feet in front of my face, just long enough for me to get an amazing look at him!!!

Along Route 3 in BC, we pulled off on the side of the road and there happened to be a trail down to the lake pictured above. We took the trail, mainly because there was snow and I have been wanting to play in the snow since I saw some on the mountain tops a few days ago! It ended up being great birding!! I saw my lifer  Steller's Jays which made me happy because they remind me of one of my favorite birds from Guatemala! I also saw lifer Mountain Chickadees and a Barrow's Goldeneye!

I also saw a mountain goat while driving yesterday! No pictures, but it was pretty cool to see!! The mammals on this trip are just as interesting as the birds, and I have been very lucky to see so many neat mammal species already!! Next I am hoping for bears :)

We are getting ready to leave Catherine Lake, BC to head further north towards Prince George. I can't wait to see what kind of beautiful scenery and birds I will find today!!

Here's a photo I took through the window of the view we had while driving!

Glacier National Park

Today we didn't bird, we just gained some miles to get closer to Alaska! We passed some absolutely beautiful scenery though! We passed through Glacier National Park... breath taking. Even without seriously birding, I still saw a life bird today! The campground where we are staying tonight has a hummingbird feeder out and I saw a pair of Calliope Hummingbirds! Tomorrow we head north into British Columbia.

Plan B - Avoid the Floods

Thanks to some connections I have in the Calgary, Alberta area, (Thanks Logan and Laurie!) we are now totally bypassing Calgary due to extreme flooding that has been occurring over the past few days. Apparently this has NEVER happened before and towns have evacuated, roads are closed, bridges are out, mudslides are occurring, and worst of all, the good birding locations are under water.

Now the plan is to continue west into Washington state, then head north into British Columbia from there!

Here is a link to a video of one of the roads we were planning on taking today! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGsqxTiANm8

Mountains and Eagles

The last two nights, Margaret and I stayed in an extremely rustic campground at the top of a mountain! It was beautiful and relaxing and we saw some great birds including roughly 100+ Red Crossbills calling and foraging in the pines! I saw many new life birds but I think my favorite was the Clark's Nutcracker! The other life birds I saw at that campground in the Little Rocky Mountains were Red-naped Sapsucker, Say's Phoebe, Spotted Towhee, Townsend's Solitaire, and an amazing look at a white-throated Swift!

Margaret took a beautiful hike 3 miles up the mountain and the scenery was unforgettable. Last night was also got to enjoy a long thunder and lightening show from our mountain top camp site. The dogs disagreed about it being enjoyable, but I was happy!

The view from our hike through the Little Rocky Mountains in Zortman, Montana

This morning we woke up early and went to the Charles M. Russel National Wildlife Refuge. There was a beautiful 19 mile auto tour but we only made it through about 3 miles before the flooding was too bad to continue. It was disappointing that we didn't get to see the rest, but I still saw two life birds: Lazuli Bunting and Bullock's Oriole! Along the way from there to where we are now (Great Falls, Montana) I got another life bird and one of the most beautiful birds I have seen!! This awesome GOLDEN EAGLE!!!

Tonight we are staying in Great Falls and hoping to head up to Calgary, Alberta tomorrow. I heard from a friend today that the area is flooding badly and roads are closed, so we will see how that goes, but we will be looking for Great Gray Owls within the next few days!!

How do you catch a unique bird?

Unique up on it!!

Okay, so that joke isn't that funny... but we did discover quite a few unique birds this morning in North Dakota and then hit the road and found more interesting birds in Montana! Some of our best sightings in ND this morning, however, were NOT birds!! I spotted a moose at Lostwood National Wildlife Refuge and we saw Richardson's Ground Squirrels and Thirteen-lined Ground Squirrels! The moose was quite incredible and Lostwood also produced three more life birds for me: Willet, Baird's Sparrow, and Piping Plover.

 

Within two hours of crossing the border into Montana, I already had FOUR life birds!!! Chestnut-collared Longspurs and Lark Buntings were displaying in a field along the driveway of Medicine Lake National Wildlife Refuge. California Gulls breed there and I saw well over 100 of them along with American White Pelicans and plenty of Western Grebes! My fourth life bird was along US Route 2 and we turned around to see it! I never realized Black-billed Magpies were so big and had such a long tail! I didn't get a great look before/while it flew, but I was still amazed!!

As we were driving through Montana, I noticed that Cookie was lying in Chip's spot (Cookie and Chip are Margaret's dogs that are along on the trip!) I looked back to see where Chip was and it seemed that he was gone! We searched around and no Chip anywhere... I finally looked under the table that was folded down and there he was! It was pretty funny!!

In all it was a pretty great day!! I left North Dakota with 102 species of birds and a nice list of mammals as well! Margaret is up to 417 species for the year, and although I am not actively keeping a year list, my life list is continually growing with 29 new birds added since the start of the trip!!

I love North Dakota!!

Last night we stayed at a campground without wifi, but it was a great day! Margaret and I birded one of the most beautiful areas I have ever seen: Arrowwood National Wildlife Refuge. Besides the birds, we saw part of a bison herd that included the BIGGEST bull bison either of us have ever seen, some cows, and a bouncy little calf! It was a little bit terrifying being on the same side of the fence with this massive animal!

Today we birded around the Carrington, ND area and near Chase Lake, although we never actually made it to the lake due to the "low management" roads that were pretty much impassable for the RV! I saw TONS of new birds the past two days. I never imagined North Dakota as such an amazing state for birding, but it has been incredible and we still have another stop in North Dakota tomorrow!!

Margaret is working towards her goal of 450 species this year and is well on her way to meeting that goal with 415 as of today!!

So far, North Dakota has given me 92 species including SIXTEEN Life Birds!!

Western Grebe
Western Kingbird
Vesper Sparrow
Eared Grebe
Le Conte's Sparrow
Western Meadowlark
Ferruginous Hawk
Eurasian Collared-Dove
Gray Partridge
American Bittern
Swainson's Hawk
American Avocet
Black Tern
Grasshopper Sparrow
Nelson's Sparrow
Cattle Egret

My Grasshopper Sparrow Life Bird!!

Check out more of my photos from the trip here: 

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10200169640870053.1073741836.1422330304&type=3

FIVE Life Birds in Minnesota!

Today was an amazingly awesome day!!! We spent all day in Minnesota and visited a National Wildlife Refuge called Prairie Wetlands Learning Center. I highly highly recommend visiting the park if you are ever in   the Fergus Falls, Minnesota area. The area is beautiful and even in the middle part of the day, the birds are great!! I got FOUR new Life Birds at the refuge and one more along the interstate today!

My first life bird was American White Pelican... a nemesis bird of mine back in Ohio! At Prairie Wetlands, I picked up Clay-colored Sparrows, Yellow-headed Blackbirds (which I think are now my favorite bird!), Brewer's Blackbird, and a Sedge Wren!

I took tons of pictures today... Here are a few!

Bobolink in Minnesota

My Life Clay-colored Sparrows!

The Prairie Wetlands Learning Center

Me right before I saw my lifer Yellow-headed Blackbirds!!

My new favorite bird: Yellow-headed Blackbird!

Margaret watching sparrows!

Thirteen-lined Ground Squirrel

Cerulean Warbler!!!

This morning we birded Rock Cut State Park in Illinois where we saw 47 species including my lifer Cerulean Warbler!!

After we left Rock Cut, we drove to Wisconsin and birded Big Hill park. The highlights of Wisconsin were Hairy Woodpecker young being fed in a cavity, an Osprey, and six Sandhill Cranes in a field along the highway! Wisconsin was beautiful! Here is a photo that I took out of the window while we were driving...

Tonight we are staying in Minnesota and the plan for tomorrow is to drive to North Dakota for some more birding!

Chicago Northwest KOA

This morning I was out on my back porch and got Hooded Warbler as a new yard bird!!

Margaret and I left this morning from my house at 7:45! We drove through Ohio and Indiana and made it to Illinois earlier this afternoon. We are staying in a campground and it has been rainy but we have seen 10 species in between the rain drops! I am looking forward to tomorrow when we will start some serious birding in Illinois and Wisconsin!

Driving through Chicago, Illinois

Leaving on Wednesday!

I arrived home from Canada on Saturday. I have been preparing for the trip to Alaska while doing some local birding and visiting with family and friends that I haven't seen in a long time. I've picked up some nice Ohio breeding birds in the last few days including some new year birds! A pair of Prothonotary Warblers built a nest on my grandfather's pontoon boat and today I noticed some of the eggs have hatched! I also picked up year bird #246: Hooded Warbler!! I was hiking with my friend and he spotted it; I didn't have my binoculars but it was close enough to see the hood!

Leaving for the Alaskan adventure on Wednesday morning... I can't wait!

Hi All! In June and July 2013, I will be traveling from Ohio to Alaska and back with my friend Margaret. We will be camping and birding across the United States and Canada in search of as many awesome birds as possible!!! Margaret is shooting for 450+ species on her "laid back 2013 Big Year."

Feel free to follow my blog that will document our trip and new birds between Ohio and Alaska!! I will be posting here every few days and I will also set up a Facebook photo album with additional pictures! (I'll share the link when its available.)