Manitoba

Like it's neighbour Saskatchewan, Manitoba has a reputation for being flat and uninteresting. There certainly is a scarcity of mountains, but the land is not billiard-table smooth. We found plenty to interest us.

From the literature generously provided by the Manitoba Tourist Authority, the wildest parts of the province are well to the North. They are certainly attractive, but the time and money involved in another foray towards the higher latitudes was too much. What we got from the 2017 brochure (mailed gratis to New Zealand) was a July lily festival in Neepawa. In the 2018 equivalent document we spotted a reference to the Oak Hammock Marsh Wildlife Management Centre. We aimed at these two destinations.

We arrived in Neepawa (slight stress on the 1^stand 3^rd syllables) in August, far too late for any festival, but we did get directions to the Lily Nook and went for a dekko. It is a commercial lily-growing enterprise started by the enthusiasm of the current owner's father. So late in the season the flowers were well past their best, and some had shrivelled away entirely. We almost gave it up as a bad job, but Eve got into conversation with the owner, who told us that there were plants just coming into bloom in the growing field, about 4km further along the road. We were invited to go and have a look. There are indeed late-flowering lilies, and they made a gorgeous display.

A sign on the main road pointed us at a bird sanctuary. “Pelicans!”, I cried, as Gregory veered wildly across the road. As well as the avians on the lake, there are cages with exotic birds, including a pair of emus.

An Australian in captivity.

American white pelicans.

This is a grebe preening itself.  It has a red neck so, from the printed field guide, it *might* be a Red-necked Grebe. But it might equally be a Horned Grebe without its breeding crest. On the other hand the Audubon app would appear to eliminate the possibility that it is a non-breeding Horned Grebe and doesn't list the Red-necked Grebe at all.

Juvenile Franklin's Gulls

Walking round the lake Eve saw our first snake. All I saw was a tail disappearing into the grass. Garter snakes are common and not very poisonous, and this one was of a retiring disposition. A good first snake to see.

We were overdue to let the world know some more about our travels and Neepawa was the perfect place to do this. It is a small town with a good library, where free Internet was available, and a laundromat. It also has one of the nicest, and most reasonably priced, campgrounds outside the provincial parks. For only $20 we had a site with electricity laid on and access to a modern, clean ablution block. In the neighbouring park there was a swimming pool, which we really should have taken advantage of, and disc golf.

Part of the campground from across the river.

We arrived at Oak Hammock Marsh in the evening. The interpretive centre was already closed, but the information boards described the trails, and we went on a ramble. The ponds and reeds were alive with birds and the light was good enough for photography.

A large flotilla of Canada Geese

A Mallard in flight

The plover in the foreground is known as a Killdeer, which seems a most inappropriate name. The bird behind it is a Greater Yellowlegs.

Young barn swallows in the nest.

There were no signs prohibiting overnight parking so we put the stabilisers down and stayed the night.

In the morning we followed a different trail and saw a range of mammals as well as lots more birds. The rabbit and the weasel ducked back into the herbage before the camera could be brought to bear, but the ground squirrels sat up and posed.

Either a Marsh Wren or a Sedge Wren.

An Eared Grebe with its chick.

A Marsh Wren with its breakfast.

Common Yellowthroat.

A Sedge (?) Wren takes off.

A 13-striped Ground Squirrel.

A large flock of Franklin's Gulls.  We had never seen gulls flock like starlings before.

Red-winged Blackbirds in the rushes.

An American Goldfinch.

A Common Grackle.

By the time we finished this circuit the interpretive center was open. Importantly, the cafe was open and we expressed our gratitude for the facility by purchasing breakfast there.

Almost too late, we discovered that some birds were being netted and banded that day, and we were allowed to watch. We were in time to see the last two of the morning. The young woman in charge gave a commentary as she worked, explaining the whole process.

A flycatcher being shown off by the banding lady.  It is one of two species that cannot be distinguished by appearance, even in the hand.

A Yellow Warbler that has just been banded.

Didn't we mention amphibians before?  This is a Leopard Frog.

Our route to Ontario took us across country and we missed Winnipeg entirely. A shame, but we don't have time to see all of Canada's interesting places. Our last stop in Manitoba was a rest area at Rennie, where we brewed a cup of tea. A deer came silently through the trees, stood elegantly still long enough for a couple of photos and then departed.

Who is bivouacking in these tents, photographed in Saskatchewan?

Please keep all comments seemly and the answer will be provided in about a week.

Answer:
They are shelters for leaf-cutter bees.  These are preferred over honey bees for pollenating some crops, such as alfalfa.

Grasslands National Park

Even some Saskatchewan residents told us that there is nothing to see in their province but wheat fields. They are so wrong.

Special thanks to Kelvin Wood for recommending that we visit this park.

We did a self-guided 80km loop drive from the Parks Canada office in nearby Val Marie. Oddly enough we saw more species outside the park than in it, but the office agreed that the farmlands round about had lots of wild animals.

The first 'tick' of the day - a Sharp-tailed Grouse

These deer slipped through the fence with an ease that argued much practice.

The most abundant, and actually in the park, were the black-tailed prairie dogs (silly name - they are marmots, not dogs). They have a very high coefficient of cuteness and were not shy at long camera range. 

The Richardson's ground squirrels outside the park are also cute, but not vehicle savvy. Luckily we managed to miss them all.

There were lots of deer, including a whole herd of white-tailed. The coyote was our first and *is* a member of the dog family.

A number of birds remain to be identified from the photos, but there were definitely double-crested cormorants (yes, this far from the sea), Swainson's hawks and Eastern kingbirds.

A (Field?) Sparrow

Eastern Kingbirds

A sparrow takes flight

Double-crested Cormorants - young ones don't have the crests.

The one thing  missing was the park's pride and joy - prairie bison. Before we set off we were given warnings about the bison being extra dangerous because is is their breeding season, and how to dress and walk (eyes down) to avoid being chomped by rattlesnakes. We neither saw nor heard any snakes.  We could see over huge acreages of grassland but somehow the bison managed to hide.

This does not do justice to the vastness of the prairie.  It is huge.  But there are contours and coulees in which the bison were presumably concealing themselves.

Grass - what the park is all about.

Heading East

We've been to the farthest North we're going to get in the Arctic, and as far South as the Canada/USA border. Now it's time to travel across Canada towards the Atlantic Ocean.

The last post had us headed for Watson Lake, where we hoped to get some work done on Gregory, our noble vehicle. That was a partial success. The muffler was professionally bolted back into place and has stayed there! Getting help from an auto electrician was much more difficult. It seemed as though they were all booked up for 3 months ahead in every part of Canada. It wasn't until we reached Summerland in South British Columbia that we found one to fix our left rear indicator. We are very grateful to Bob of B-Wired for squeezing in our task one evening amongst his other work.

While Bob was making sense of the tangled wires underneath Gregory I noticed that one of the front tyres was very badly worn on one side. That's a nearly new tyre! So the next day we visited a tyre shop. No, we didn't get a new tyre under warranty – the other front tyre was almost as bad. Gregory's front wheels were badly out of alignment and pretty much had to be freshly attached with new tyres, rods, bushes and other mysterious parts. We were a danger on the road! Tyrecraft recognised the gravity of the situation and went to work as soon as the parts could be secured. While they were about it they fitted new brake linings. It was expensive, but necessary. Gregory no longer looks like a cartoon vehicle with knock knees. And his steering is more definite.

The wobbly wheels had taken us along almost empty roads to Yellowknife, the capital of Northwest Territory (NWT). We followed the Ingraham Trail for 50-odd kilometres before turning round and starting South. On the way we saw more bears and many wood bison. They seem to care nothing for vehicles and just graze or chew their cud as if humans and their machines didn't exist. The frequent warnings to watch out for bison are not for fun. If you come across one suddenly on the highway you cannot rely on it to get out of the way and a collision could well kill the occupants of the vehicle as well as the cud-chewer.

One noteworthy stop (this was before Yellowknife) was the Liard River Hot Springs. Big deal, you say. There are plenty of hot springs in New Zealand. But these were almost natural. There are changing rooms beside the hotter pool, and steps down into the water. Otherwise, it is pretty much left as nature made it. And it was only $5 each to have a long, relaxing wallow.

The natural setting

Is everybody happy?  You bet your life we are!

One of the NWT trails is named the Waterfalls Trail. We may have skipped one or two of the smaller ones, but we enjoyed seeing most of the list. The Lady Evelyn Falls were, from their name, a must-see attraction.

Cameron Falls

Lady Evelyn Falls

At 60 degrees North latitude we crossed into Alberta. What we immediately noticed was not the beauty of Alberta – there's not much difference in the scenery at 59^o– but we found there were fewer places to pull off the road and camp for the night. Eventually we found a bit of hard surface with what looked like a pink portaloo, presumably for the road mending crews.

A much nicer campsite in Northwest Territories. Just beyond the trees on the left is a large lake with loons to sing us to sleep.

As we went South the scenery did change. There were farms. We hadn't seen significant agriculture in weeks! Mostly we identified the yellow flowers of canola and, we think, barley.

The second night in Alberta was much better. A park at Peace River allowed free camping next to a fishing pond. We didn't see anyone catch anything, but we saw a fox disputing ownership of some edible rubbish with a pair of magpies and in the morning we got some lovely pictures of a red-winged blackbird.

One of the disappointed magpies can be seen through the angle of the bench.

A red-winged blackbird ...

... in flight. Note the reflection.

In Edmonton we started a series of visits to friends that continued through Calgary to the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia. Their hospitality was always warm and generous, whether we paused for lunch or stayed for a week. Our grateful thanks to Ann & David Ogden, Brenda Vickers, Jane & David Theilmann, Jan & Norm Wegerhoff and Lynne & Dave Tullis. Having a shower rather than a flannel wash has become a treat.

In the Okanagan we came close to some of the wildfires that are troubling Canada this year. We never had to change our route to avoid a fire, but we certainly were aware of the smoke and sometimes could see a red glow in the mountains.

The beach on Lake Okanagan at Trout Creek, Summerland.  The haze is smoke particles from the wildfires.

In between the visits we camped at a variety of sites. Arriving in Drumheller there was a big pullout in front of the town's name sign and the only restriction was not leaving our vehicle unattended for more than 18 hours. It was easy to comply. A gem was the free campground at Waitabit Creek Recreation Site. It is on the banks of a river and one of the most delightful camping spots we have used.

What could be more welcoming than a free campsite and a model dinosaur?

Waitabit Creek

The attraction of Drumheller is the magnificent fossil museum, which wore out our feet long before our interest waned. It almost seems that you cannot turn a spadeful of earth in Alberta without turning up a dinosaur skeleton. Nearby are some limestone rocks weathered into strange shapes and called “hoodoos”.

The museum has signs forbidding the feeding of wildlife, but this gopher expected that rule to be broken.

Hoodoos

The layered rock, which is a feature of the Drumheller region.

More hoodoos.

Now we have left friends' houses behind are are heading East. Along the way there are any number of parks and historical sites, but if we visited them all it would be difficult to get out of British Columbia, let alone reach the Atlantic Coast.

We have admired the beauty of Waterton Lakes (although it was blowing a gale and most of the trails were closed anyway), peered at some of the pictograms and petroglyphs in Writing-on-Stone Park and are approaching Grasslands National Park in Saskatchewan. Mostly we have been travelling on secondary roads. There is much less traffic, but there are fewer places to pull off the road.

Wildlife: We have seen more bears, glimpsed a large animal that was probably a moose, seen more live deer than dead ones and seen LOTS of wood bison. After one day of seeing several, similar small animals we quizzed the locals in Fort Simpson and concluded that they were muskrats.

A couple of wood bison wandered past while we were camped for the night beside the road.

Wood bison calves.

Most animals have been spotted from the cab as we drive along, but one of the bears appeared as we were enjoying the Orchid Walk across the river from Dawson City. I was lying on the ground trying to get a particularly artistic photo of some orchids when Eve said “There's a bear.” I was concentrating on the camera, of course. “Bill, there's a BEAR.” I got up and unholstered the bear spray. The bear ignored us entirely and wandered off. By the time I tried to get a picture it was just a black, furry backside disappearing in distant bushes.

A black bear and her cub, photographed from inside the vehicle!

One morning drive was rewarded with heaps of small mammals frolicking beside or across the road. Quite a few were squirrels. Others may have been ground squirrels or marmots. One was a hare that ran out into the road and then stopped to look at the motor home as we approached at 90km per hour. Sorry, hare. :-(.

A surprised gopher - species unknown.

A chipmunk.

There have been birds, many of them unidentified despite the guides we carry with us. One easily identifiable species was the sandhill crane. We've seen about a dozen. Most of them flew away before we could get a camera to bear, and the two that didn't fly managed to put enough herbage between them and the camera to spoil the picture. How does such a big bird do that?

Bonapart's Gull

Raven

Cedar waxwing

California Quail

California Quail chicks

A Mew Gull (we think) in Yellowknife

Can anyone identify this one for us?

One other definite species that we added to the list is the yellow-bellied sapsucker. It's a kind of woodpecker, with not much yellow colouring at all, but a red throat that distinguishes the male from other woodpeckers.

Yellow-bellied sapsucker

Canada has masses of lakes, but the waterfowl are almost always:

• Canada geese,
• brown ducks with no species-specific markings,
• too distant to identify even with binoculars, or
• entirely absent.

It is most frustrating.

A frog discovered near Cameron Falls in Northwest Territories.  How does it survive the winters so far North?

One of many beautiful butterflies at the botanic gardens near Edmonton.

We've been photographing flowers everywhere we've been.  Eve knows nearly all of their families, at least.  We'll label them soon.  Well, sometime.

Other random photographs:

A natural bridge in the Rockies.

The Canada/USA border near the Tullis's house.  The Americans would not think it amusing if we climbed over the wire.  The obelisk records the date of the survey and, if you happen to be lost, which side is which.

It's a great name, but it only has old cars so we did not go inside.

Hooray.  We think all churches should be free of evangelicals.