April 8 - Tour Day 2 - Hardy Falls, Summerland, Penticton and Oliver

We met back at the Apple Bowl in the morning and left Kelowna. The rest of the tour would be in the South Okanagan. The entire group would be taking over a old style motel set on Tuc-el-Nuit Lake in Oliver.

Our sighting of the American Dipper at Hardy Falls persuaded Chris to stop there. With a big group he avoids the site as it can burn up a lot of time. Luckily, we only had to walk about 100 meters before we caught sight of a Dipper. I did not take photos as I had good ones already.

There was some bird activity as we returned to the parking lot. Chris called out a Spotted Towhee, which is less common in the Okanagan compared to the Coast. Interestingly, they have a slightly different call than the Coastal birds.


Spotted Towhee - Hardy Falls Regional Park, Peachland BC

We then spotted some finches at a feeder over in the Trailer Park. Chris was able to confirm that they were Cassin's Finches, a species not seen on the coast. They are related, and similar to, the House and Purple Finches we see.

This was taken a quite a distance with the Nikon super zoom. The red male has a small crest on the head unlike the other two species.


Cassin's Finch - Hardy Falls Regional Park, Peachland BC - 2017 Bird #109

Another bird in the trailer park was a Say's Phoebe. I didn't take any shots of it, but Mary-Jean got quite a nice one.


Say's Phoebe  - Hardy Falls Regional Park, Peachland BC by Mary-Jean Payeur

We resumed our trip south with Summerland being the next destination. Chris knew of a possible Long-eared Owl in the Powell Beach area. As we got out of our vehicles, Mary-Jean spotted a mid-size bird in a tree, a Northern Shrike. It was the first one she'd ever seen.


Northern Shrike - Powell Beach, Summerland BC

While Chris searched for the Owl we looked for other birds. Someone spotted a Merlin up in a tree. This is a small falcon, bigger than a Kestrel but smaller than a Peregrine.


Merlin - Powell Beach, Summerland BC - 2017 Bird #110

The owl could not be located so we piled back into the cars heading for Penticton. On the way out we passed a house with bird feeders in the front yard. I believe these are Cassin's Finches. Notice the yellow colour of the male on the right. This is caused by a lower level of carotenoids, which are pigments that affect the colouring of the males.

Our next stop was Penticton for coffee and then a quick visit to the lakefront. We saw a few different ducks and a Common Loon, but all at scope distance. We then visited Gyro Park in downtown Penticton where there was a well-publicized Great Horned Owl nest.

I took several photos of two chicks and one adult. There was a third chick according to news reports, it might be in the foreground with just a bit of the head sticking up. According to the latest news, two chicks fledged successfully but the third had to be rescued. It's doing well at the rehab center.


Great Horned Owls - Gyro Park, Penticton BC

Here's a photo of the parent, one eye watching out for danger.

Great Horned Owl - Gyro Park, Penticton BC

Back on the road again we headed toward Okanagan Falls. The group stopped at Three Gates Farm on White Lake Road which is officially part of Kaleden. Chris was able to call in some chickadees and nuthatches using his Pygmy Owl imitation mixed with some pishing. 

Although I have Red-breasted Nuthatches occasionally in my backyard, I had not seen any yet for the year.

Red-breasted Nuthatch - Three Gates Farm, Kaleden BC - 2017 Bird #111

The calls also brought in a White-breasted Nuthatch. Although related, this species is about 1.5 times larger and twice as massive as the Red-breasted and Pygmy Nuthatches.


White-breasted Nuthatch - Three Gates Farm, Kaleden BC - 2017 Bird #112

We stopped along White Lake Road to have lunch. Chris pointed out huge flocks of Sandhill Cranes flying high over us as they migrated North. Each V formation had a hundred or more of them and new flights came quite frequently. This photo zooms in on the leading edge of a smaller flock.


Sandhill Crane - Overhead on White Lake Road, Oliver BC

While having lunch we did some birding on the edges of the road. Here's a Yellow-rumped Warbler that I caught with the Nikon.


Yellow-rumped Warbler - White Lake Road, Oliver BC

We resumed our progress on White Lake Road until Chris made one last stop at a good place for Pacific Wren. He didn't manage to call one out, but got the attention of a Ruby-crowned Kinglet. This has been the year of the Kinglet for me as I've seen Ruby Crowns wherever I go, including my backyard on Super Bowl Sunday.


Ruby-crowned Kinglet - White Lake Road, Oliver BC

Our last stop of the day was the McIntyre Bluffs overlooking Vaseux Lake. Our target was Canyon Wren. Chris managed to get an answer once from his playback call, but that was it. We did see this young Bighorn Sheep, but no birds.


Bighorn Sheep - McIntyre Bluffs, Oliver BC

We'd been on the road all day and were ready to check in, rest up for awhile and then go for a group dinner. This is the entire group at the Gecko Grill in downtown Oliver.

A portion of the group went out after dark looking for Owls, but we had no luck at all. We called it a night. The group would reconvene in the morning for the last day of the tour.