Last weekend, I joined Glenn, an avid birder and wildlife photographer, for an all day birding day in the Kamloops area to see how many species we could see.  We were part of many groups of people canvassing the entire area within a 60 km radius of the city. Kamloops is divided by the south Thompson River so teams competed on either side of the river to see which side would produce more species.  In the end, 148 species were seen on that day with an even split of 125 species on each side of the river.  Highlights for the day included a Franklin’s Gull and a Bobolink.  Glenn and I were able to get 97 of the species.  We met at his house at 5:30 am and covered Goose Lake Road quite well.  74 of our species were found on this road alone.  After Goose Lake Road Glenn showed me a gravel road from Lac le Jeune Road to Highway 5A.  Parts of this road were quite birdy but is was approaching midday by the time we were there.  More things would have been singing if we did this road at dawn.  We joined 5A near Stump Lake and birded along this route back to Kamloops with a short stop at Separation Lake.  Later at Glenn’s house in Knutsford I was able to see the differences between Cassin’s and House Finches thanks to Glenn’s amazing feeder and his experience with both species.  All in all it was a very pleasant day out with great company and learning more to identify calls here.  The weather and scenery along the entire route was top notch.  Unfortunately my camera was on a wrong setting for much of the day so lots of the photos didn’t turn out.

Kamloops–Goose Lake Road, Thompson-Nicola, British Columbia, CA

May 27, 2018 5:38 AM – 10:02 AM

Protocol: Traveling

14.796 kilometer(s)

74 species

Canada Goose  2

Blue-winged Teal  2

Cinnamon Teal  3

Northern Shoveler  1

American Wigeon  1

Mallard  2

Green-winged Teal  4

Ring-necked Duck  2

Lesser Scaup  14

Bufflehead  2

Barrow’s Goldeneye  4

Ruddy Duck  16

Ruffed Grouse  1

Common Loon  1

Pied-billed Grebe  2

Red-necked Grebe  2

Bald Eagle  1

Red-tailed Hawk  5

Sora  1

American Coot  5

Killdeer  1

Wilson’s Snipe  8

Spotted Sandpiper  6

Eurasian Collared-Dove  2

Mourning Dove  2

Rufous Hummingbird  1

Calliope Hummingbird  3

Red-naped Sapsucker  4

Northern Flicker  3

American Kestrel  5

Olive-sided Flycatcher  1

Western Wood-Pewee  7

Willow Flycatcher  7

Hammond’s Flycatcher  4

Dusky Flycatcher  4

Say’s Phoebe  2

Eastern Kingbird  3

Warbling Vireo  4

American Crow  1

Common Raven  2

Northern Rough-winged Swallow  2

Tree Swallow  6

Black-capped Chickadee  1

Mountain Chickadee  2

Red-breasted Nuthatch  11

House Wren  5

Marsh Wren  6

Golden-crowned Kinglet  2

Ruby-crowned Kinglet  10

Mountain Bluebird  2

American Robin  7

Gray Catbird  1

European Starling  15

Orange-crowned Warbler  4

Common Yellowthroat  7

Yellow Warbler  5

Yellow-rumped Warbler  6

Townsend’s Warbler  1

Wilson’s Warbler  1

Chipping Sparrow  12

Clay-colored Sparrow  13

Vesper Sparrow  13

Savannah Sparrow  6

Song Sparrow  3

Lincoln’s Sparrow  1

Spotted Towhee  1

Western Tanager  1

Western Meadowlark  8

Bullock’s Oriole  3

Red-winged Blackbird  10

Brown-headed Cowbird  3

Brewer’s Blackbird  10

American Goldfinch  1

House Sparrow  1

Other photos from other species seen later in the day: