The rain let up somewhere along the way, so we made our planned stop at the Swan Lake Nature Reserve in Princeton. This is a great stop only 5 minutes north of Highway 3.
As we were nearing the site, a family of Mule Deer decided to cross the road.
Mule Deer doe - Swan Lake Nature Reserve - Princeton BC
Although I had seen at least one Raven flying overhead sometime on the tour, I had not taken a photo. I always see Ravens around this location. Unfortunately the photo quality is very poor.
Common Raven - Swan Lake Nature Reserve - Princeton BC - 2017 Bird #125
It was quiet in the sanctuary so we decided to make the hike over to the lake itself. I'd never had time to do this on previous visits, but we had plenty today due to the rain elsewhere.
There are two blinds on the lake, we went to the one that would be on the left in this photo. There were a number of ducks on the lake, most of them Ring-necked.
Ring-necked Duck Swan Lake Nature Reserve - Princeton BC
As we were leaving a local birder showed up and recommended that we visit another lake just up the road. We took his advice and arrived at Wayne Lake. It was busier with Barrow's Goldeneye, Ruddy Duck, Pied-billed Grebe and Mountain Bluebirds.
The highlight was a couple of Barrow's Goldeneye males fighting for the attention of a nearby female. Mary-Jean got this photo of one of the male combatants trying to stake his claim.
Barrow's Goldeneye - Wayne Lake, Princeton BC - by Mary-Jean Payeur
This photo is a capture from a video that I took, which is too large to post on the blog. The two males were going at it for a prolonged period.
Barrow's Goldeneye - Wayne Lake, Princeton BC
Barrow's Goldeneye - Wayne Lake, Princeton BC
Another bird on the lake was a Pied-billed Grebe.
Pied-billed Grebe - Wayne Lake, Princeton BC
I had seen Ruddy Duck a few days before, but this was my first photo of the year.
Ruddy Duck - Wayne Lake, Princeton BC
There were a number of Mountain Bluebirds around Wayne Lake, but I could not get either of my cameras to cooperate in the gray conditions. I did get this rear-end view of a male.
Mountain Bluebird - Wayne Lake, Princeton BC
Mary-Jean had more success with this profile shot.
Mountain Bluebird - Wayne Lake, Princeton BC - by Mary-Jean Payeur
We looked at one more lake but it had no birds, so we headed back to Princeton for lunch. I've been visiting a place named Thomasina's for a couple of years, mostly for their French Press coffee. Thomasina's is in the building that the Princeton movie theatre occupied for many years.
Mary-Jean broke from her Vegan diet and had the most delicious looking prawn's I've seen recently.
We stopped briefly at Manning Park, but it was frozen over and had no birds anywhere.
Our last stop was near the Hope Airpark again. We spotted a Red-tailed Hawk perched on a snag, and I tried to take a decent super-zoomed photo with the Nikon.
Red-tailed Hawk - Hope BC
I dropped Mary-Jean off at Cultas Lake and drove home. It was another great five day birding trip.
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