July 28 and 29 - Grand Forks Birding

After staying overnight in Couer d'Alene, we drove west to Spokane and then north to Grand Forks BC, where my sister Patty lives. We were attending my niece Jody's wedding on the weekend.

Just before crossing the border, we stopped for gas in in Colville Washington. First bird of the day was this Cowbird.


Brown-headed Cowbird - Colville Wa

Although Grand Forks is situated in a Valley between two rivers, there are not many easy places to go birdwatching. There is plenty of habitat for birds, but you'd have to go off-road to find them.

One place that is close to my sister's place is Ward's Lake, a small lake by a Hydro station. The lake is not accessible but with a spotting scope you can see the ducks and coots down below.

Here's a picture of the lake:


Ward's Lake - Grand Forks BC

This seems to be the year of the Pewee for me. Usually I'm lucky to see one in the Okanagan. This year I've seen one in North Vancouver, Chilliwack, the Okanagan and Alberta.

The photo below is a bit poor, but lighting was difficult for photos.


Western Wood-pewee - Ward's Lake, Grand Forks BC

However, I found some better light and took a video of the bird with the Nikon. It turned out very well. Here's a short clip from the video which captures the call quite clearly.

A bit later in the day I took Edith to a place on the edge of town so she could get a pedicure for the wedding. While waiting to pick her up, I had a bit of time to take some photos. A house up the block had a couple of deer grazing in the yard, a doe and a fawn. I'm quite sure that this is a White-tailed deer.


White-tailed Deer Fawn - Grand Forks BC

Also in the yard were a couple of female House Finches. This photo turned out quite well:


House Finch (F) - Grand Forks BC

Back at my sister's place, which overlooks the Kettle River, I spotted a bird in a tree by the river. It was getting late by this time but there's enough detail to identify it as a female Evening Grosbeak.


Evening Grosbeak (F) - Grand Forks BC

The next morning there were a few birds on the wires.This time it was a pair of House Finches.


House Finch (F) - Grand Forks BC

And nearby was a Collared Dove, a natural for this flat rural area.


Eurasian Collared Dove - Grand Forks BC

I have not included the wedding photos in this blog, there will be a separate photo album published for that.

On our way home we stopped at the Swan Lake Restoration area in Princeton but there were no notable sightings there. We skipped Manning Park due to time constraints.

So that ends the Vacation Blog.