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Confession : I have absolutely no knowledge of birds. When I see something flying , I can make the difference between a bird and a plane, but that is about the end of my ornithological expertise. As you can guess, you won’t find me hiding in the bushes, early in the morning, dressed in anorak and armed with binoculars, hoping to spot a common linnet, a robin or a house-martin. Unlike children, birds should be heard (or eaten) and not seen, that’s my opinion.
But during our stay in Canada, I started noticing birds. They resembled Dutch/European birds, but there were differences. Except for the canada goose, which is a familiar winter guest in the Netherlands (and I believe some geese have stopped migrating completely and are now staying all year round), most birds we saw were new, more colorfull, or larger. And so gradually my interest in our feathered friends grew, and I started to take pictures of them.
My new interest got a real boost at the Nature Bay Wildlife Sanctuary in Salmon Arm. Here, on the shores of the Shuswap Lake, tucked away between the water and the railroad, lies a small stretch of marshland with an abundance of birds. Once in a while a train rumbles past, but otherwise the sanctuary is an oasis of silence, where only the sounds of nature are heard.Wind rustling through gently swaying reeds, small waves breaking on the shore, and lots and lots of birds fluting, quacking, whistling and so on.
Funnily enough, the poster image of this wildlife paradise is a bird that is a very familiar site in The Netherlands, but is nurtured here as an endangered species, the blue heron. In Amsterdam, the blue heron is totally adapted to life in a big city. But in Salmon Arm, the only heron I saw was shy and kept a safe distance from us. Later I learned that this heron is a subspecies of the heron family, the great blue heron, where the Dutch variety is plainly called the blue heron. Even with names of birds, everything is bigger in Canada, apparently.
The Salmon Arm sanctuary is a great place for watching birds. The bright colors, the different singing and their natural behavior where fun to watch. A highlight was the osprey, which landed in a treetop, scarring all the geese and their ducklings. They immediately fled into the reed lands, protected by their parents, leaving the osprey plaintively squealing in his high lookout.
In the forest near Wapta Falls I found another bird, rustling about between the fallen leaves and branches. First I thought it was an ordinary stray chicken. It looked a bit like that, but when it came closer, I could see there was a difference. I took some pictures, before the bird noticed me and flew up on to a low hanging branch of a tree. It was a spruce grouse, I could determine later.
Although I had fun, I don’t think bird watching will  be my new hobby. I don’t have the patience needed to wait for the bird to sit perfectly still, and hearing a bird whistle or seeing it fly doesn’t excite me enough. But I took some great pictures that I would like to share with you. I couldn’t name every bird (or maybe I made a mistake), so please feel free to fill in the blanks.

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Salmon Arm Bay Bird watching : Klik hier

Salmon Arm Bay Nature Enhancement Society klik hier

This is the third in a series of articles with photo’s I took on a trip from Calgary to Victoria and back, through the Rocky Mountains, in May 2015.

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On our trip through Canada we encountered a few lakes and rivers. Calgary, our starting point, is wedged between the rivers Bow and Elbow. We only saw the River Bow, and followed it upstream to Lake Louise. According to every guide this lake is the prettiest of all the lakes in the Rockies. Every picture shows a bright blue lake, surrounded by glorious mountains covered with green forests. Well, we got quiet a different view. The parking lot by the lakeside was edged by a wall of snow, 1,5 m high! The famous blue lake was white! It was completely covered with ice. Dangerously thin, a sign warned us, so we didn’t dare to step on the surface. Instead, we walked along the shoreline to the other end of the lake. And yes, the views were magnificent.
In Salmon Arm we went to the Bird Sanctuary on the shores of Shuswap Lake. An other surprise. The tranquility of the place, the many birds we saw (in a next article I will show some pictures of them) and the colours of the landscape made the visit unforgettable.
We stayed a few days in Kelowna, on the shores of Lake Okanagan. On our hike up Knox Mountain, we got some great views on this large lake. I nearly stepped on a snake, but that’s an other story.
From Kelowna we went to Field, and near this town we visited the Wapta Falls. These falls, in the Kicking Horse River, are not so well known, but it is a place well worth a visit. Astounding surroundings, and not a tourist in sight!
On our last day of travelling we visited Emerald Lake, also near the town of Field. When we arrived, it felt like a tourist trap, with a canoe rental, gift shop, buffets, hotels and apartments, swarming with busloads (literary) of people. But as soon as we left the last holiday home behind us, and walked along the small shoreline trail, we could really enjoy the magnificence of this lake and the surrounding landscape, and see the greenlike colour that gave the lake it’s name. Our last port of call was the Johnston Canyon, another magnet for tourist and day trippers. Hordes of people crowded the catwalks above the wildly flowing Johnston Creek. Emerald Lake was a sea of tranquility, compaired to this. But it was a nice walk, and we enjoyed it.

This is the second in a series of articles with photo’s I took on a trip from Calgary to Victoria and back, through the Rocky Mountains, in May 2015.

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