Alberta Badlands and Prairie

 

June 21st (posted June 22nd )

          The first day of summer in Alberta was beautiful.  We needed a sweater in the morning, but it warmed up to about 70 degrees by the afternoon.  We left Calgary behind and headed to Dinosaur Provincial Park which was a two-hour drive to the east.  The park has very interesting rock formations and hoodoos and the area is part of the Alberta Badlands.  This park is most famous for the many dinosaur bone fossils that have been discovered here.  After a century of excavation over 150 complete dinosaur skeletons have been discovered.

          It was also a good birding spot.  We saw some Violet-green Swallows flying around the rocky cliffs and heard several Rock Wrens calling.  We also saw a couple of Common Nighthawks and a beautiful Mountain Bluebird.

          After lunch at the café, we went to two reservoirs in the area to look for waterfowl.  We saw several species of ducks including a Cinnamon Teal as well as a Western Grebe, Forster’s and Black Terns, a Black-necked Stilt and White Pelicans.

          Next, we drove through miles and miles of grassland and saw herds of cattle roaming on the open range along with some Pronghorn.  We were very successful in our hunt for the specialty birds of this area.  We saw a number of shorebirds including Long-billed Curlew, Marbled Godwit, Willet and American Avocet in the wet areas of the prairie. Chestnut-collared and Thick-billed Longspurs and a variety of sparrows were also seen.  We really wanted to find a Baird’s Sparrow because it would be a lifer.  We drove on and on through miles of dusty gravel roads and finally heard and saw it.  This was a great day of birding.

          Back at our motel in Brooks, AL which was not a Hampton Inn (our preferred motel) but a Ramada, we discovered there was no shower curtain around the tub.  We took showers anyway and of course flooded the floor.  Housekeeping will find a lot of sopping wet towels tomorrow.   

(14 FOY birds including one lifer, total in Alberta 18)

Cinnamon Teal

Western Grebe

American Avocet

Long-billed Curlew

Marbled Godwit

Willet

California Gull

Violet-green Swallow

Rock Wren

Mountain Bluebird

Chestnut-collared Longspur

Thick-billed Longspur

Baird’s Sparrow

Western Meadowlark

                                           Lark Sparrow

                                           Spotted Towhee

                                           Rock Wren

                                           Prickly Pear Cactus


                                            Western Grebe

                                           Cinnamon Teal (male)

                                           White Pelican

                                           Thick-billed Longspur

                                           American Avocet

                                           Chestnut-collared Longspur

                                           Swainson's Hawk (with Prairie Dog)

                                           Pronghorn

                                           Prairie Dog







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