Calgary to Vancouver Island through the Rockies of Alberta and British Columbia
In late August 2007 we took a family road trip from Calgary with a side trip to Head Smashed in Buffalo Jump through the Rockies to Vancouver and Vancouver Island. In hindsight it was far too much driving and not enough stopping but we thought at the time we might never go back! The day trip to HMIBJ was very hot and we ran out of food but bypassed many Prairie potholes alive with birds. In frustration I had an hour at one accessible pool and logged Semi-palmated Sandpipers, Stilt Sandpipers, Lesser Yellowlegs and Wilson’s Phalaropes in abundance and a wide variety of other birds but it was all too short a stop. In the Rockies it was variably hot and wet but there was a massive movement of White-winged Crossbills underway I managed my best ever Red-breasted Nuthatch shot at Lake Minnewanka near Banf and we took the sky train, gondola at Jasper which produced my only encounters with Pika, Hoary Marmot and White-tailed Ptarmigan which I have never managed to see in successive visits earlier in the year.
The other problem in late August of course is the sheer number of tourists in the area particularly around Banff and Jasper and the Icefields Parkway but also passerines are in moult or juvenile plumage and offer few decent photographic opportunities.
Left the Bow River Valley at Canmore a cheaper alternative to staying in the Park at Banff.
