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: 

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