I knew what to expect for birds and hoped that we'd see at least some of them.
Almost immediately I had a new bird for the year. It was a Common Grackle hunting for lunch in the grass. I'd see one later in the day and get a much better shot than this one.
Common Grackle - Dinosaur Provincial Park, AB - 2018 Bird #170
Shortly after, a Common Nighthawk flew over. I wasn't prepared to take a photo, so I've substituted this shot I took in 2017. This park is the only place I've ever seen flying Nighthawks during the day.
Common Nighthawk - Dinosaur Provincial Park, AB - 2018 Bird #171
Nearby we spotted an Eastern Kingbird perched on a sign, a good sign for the day! Mary-jean got this shot.
Eastern Kingbird - Dinosaur Provincial Park, AB
I took a few shots but the lighting was a bit awkward.Then a second kingbird came along. This was my best effort.
Eastern Kingbirds - Dinosaur Provincial Park, AB
One of the birds I'd seen here in 2017 was a Brown Thrasher. As we were slowly walking towards the campground , we spotted one in the grass. I believe this was a lifer for Mary-Jean.
Brown Thrasher - Dinosaur Provincial Park, AB - 2018 Bird #172
This shot shows the bird's enormous tail:
Brown Thrasher - Dinosaur Provincial Park, AB
At this point we climbed up from the campground into the badlands. I was hoping to find a Lark Sparrow, a lifer I'd seen in 1997. Bur first we had to capture the intrepid birders in the badlands.
About 10 minutes later I caught sight of a bird above on a ledge eating an insect. I thought it was a Lark Sparrow, but realized after reviewing the day's photos that it was a Rock Wren.
Rock Wren - Dinosaur Provincial Park, AB - 2018 Bird #173
I believe this was another MJ life list addition.
Rock Wren - Dinosaur Provincial Park, AB
I was losing hope for a Lark Sparrow, but then we spotted a small bird on on top of a rock pile off in the distance. Only one problem, we'd have to climb off the trail to get closer. We finally got within photo range and I took a couple of fuzzy photos with the Nikon. I was able to confirm it was a Lark Sparrow, but we needed to get closer to get the following shot.
Lark Sparrow - Dinosaur Provincial Park, AB - 2018 Bird #174
Lark Sparrow - Dinosaur Provincial Park, AB
I was wondering how we'd get down from where we were. Mary-Jean could certainly handle it, but I was carrying two cameras and am not as sure-footed as she is. Then we looked beyond the gravel pile and saw the Park access road behind it, a simple climb up to reach it.
Just after taking the first Lark Sparrow photo, I took a nice close-up of another Sparrow. After the climb I reviewed my shots and realized it was a Vesper Sparrow. I'd seen this bird a few times, the most recent at Blackie Spit in April of this year. But I think it was another first for Mary-Jean.
Vesper Sparrow - Dinosaur Provincial Park, AB
A western Kingbird decided to visit nearby on the rock pile.
Western Kingbird - Dinosaur Provincial Park, AB
Mary-Jean got one last shot of the Lark Sparrow, this really shows the colouring on the head.
Lark Sparrow - Dinosaur Provincial Park AB - Photo by Mary-jean Payeur
And finally our last bird was a Barn Swallow just as we neared the Service Road.
Barn Swallow - Dinosaur Provincial Park, AB
This ended another great visit to Dinosaur Provincial Park, but we still had more birding to do in the area. Our next stop would be at Kinbrook Island Provincial Park near Brooks AB.
No comments:
Post a Comment