Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Blue River to 100-Mile House

Western-wood Pewee
No Internet or cell phone for the last 36 hours has been spooky to say the least, especially for a techno freak like me, but I’m glad to say that our current stopover has a full wifi service.

Over the past two days we’ve gently made our way southwest, stopping over at Clearwater on the Sunday night and arriving about 20km short of 100-Mile House earlier today. Tonight we’re laid up overlooking the beautiful Horse Lake, at Cariboo Bananza Resort in the intriguingly named town of Lone Butte, where we’ve already recorded Common Loon, Red-necked Grebe and Mule Deer.

Last nights stopover was on the outskirts of Well’s Gray Provincial Park next to a fast running Creek and a walk during the early evening boosted our species count with a Three-toed Woodpecker, Western-wood Pewee and Golden-crowned Kinglet, on the same walk we also encountered Red and a more rare Black Fox. Why is it that each RV Park we visit seems to have stories that occurred the day before, on this occasion it was a Black Bear with two cubs that was on site, suffice to say, no signs today.

This morning an early walk before moving on produced Blue Grouse and Common Yellowthroat but considering this is a renowned Moose area they still have yet to show. Having said that, the hunting season started today and so if you were a Moose you probably wouldn’t show either!! I’m still at a loss to understand why a small number of these animals are still allowed to be hunted in Canada each Fall!

Rare Black Fox
Our progress over the past 48hrs has seen us leave the dizzy heights of the Rockies behind us and into more colourful and tree lined surroundings with less dramatic mountains and some beautifully stunning lakes. We’ve also left behind the North Thompson River and Canadian National Railway, which have recently been our constant companion. The temperature has risen too and the weather a balmy 20C today, although reports have reached us concerning flooding down towards the Vancouver area, our final destination on Saturday.

As for today’s sightings, the several lakes we’ve stopped to overlook have produced good numbers of American Wigeon, Lesser Scaup and Cinnamon Teal but the bird of the day has to been Northern Goshawk which over flew the RV as we approached Lac des Roches Lake, giving some sensational views.

Tonight we’ve enjoyed a good meal, an excellent campfire and some truly amazing sights of the Milky Way, (no light pollution here), and the moon rising over Lake Horse was just magical. The bats have been around too tonight but I’m unsure as to what species they might be.