Submitted by Margaret Graham

Five hardy soles braved the rain on Sunday morning, June 10, to look for birds along the East Shuswap Road. We crossed the South Thompson River at the Lafarge Bridge and travelled as far as the Wolf Ranch and the pond at the corner where the road turns left to Niskonlith and McGillivray Lake where we had hoped to see the bobolink and curlew but didn’t spot them. We did see a total of 50 other species of birds on our trip, stopping often to get out and look and listen. We saw lots of turkey vultures but no red-tailed hawks flying, probably because it was cold and rainy for most of our journey. We saw most of the birds listed below, however at least four species were identified by song alone.

Many turkey vultures were seen. Glenn Dreger photo

It was a rewarding day as far as the number of species of birds seen, but it would have been more pleasant if the sun had been shining and there was no wind.  We drove all the way to Chase and back along VLA Road hoping to see the curlews and bobolinks, but no luck once again.

The list is as follows: Three types of blackbirds (yellow-headed, red-winged, Brewers); 4 types of swallows (tree, violet-green, cliff, and rough-winged); ospreys, kestrel, bald eagles, northern harrier); sparrows (house, song, savannah, vesper, clay-colored, chipping); eastern & western kingbirds, willow flycatcher, western wood peewee; Eurasian and mourning doves; cedar waxwing; northern flicker; house wren; mountain bluebird; American robin; European starling; common yellowthroat; western meadowlark; Bullock’s oriole; spotted towhee; American coot, lesser scaup, American wigeon, gadwall, northern shoveller, mallard, green-winged teal, Barrow’s goldeneye, ruddy duck, bufflehead; American crow, black-billed magpie, Canada goose.