I just returned from three weeks at Eliguk L. as a fly fishing insructor.
While getting a lot of fishing each day I also keep track of the birdlife.
The lake is about 300 air miles north of Vancouver, BC at the eastern edge
of Tweedsmuir Park. The nearest road is 50 miles and access is by floatplane
from Nimpo Lake. The lake is at 3500 ft., is about 3-1/2 mi. long and from
1/2 to 3/4 mi. wide. It is surrounded by dense forest of mainly spruce and
lodgepole pine, with some groves of aspen, and some cottonwood, birch and
alder. There is a slow moving inlet stream at the west end that winds about
1/2 mile thru wet marsh and meadow with a number of beaver houses. If any
one is interested in more info you can check their web page at http://
www.eliguk.com. Here is a list of birds seen or heard in the area of Eliguk
lake and three nearby lakes.

Red-winged Blackbird
Sandhill Crane - heard only
American Crow
Bald Eagles - saw two active nests
Northern Flicker
Olive-sided Flycatcher - heard
Red-necked Grebe
Western Grebe - 4 sleeping on lake altho range maps do not show them that far
no.
Spruce Grouse - including a female with 6-8 young.
Rufous Hummingbird
Gray Jay
Dark-eyed Junco
Golden-crowned Kinglet - heard
Ruby-crowned Kinglet - heard
Common Loon - two nests observed, one hatched two young on June 25. There is
an interesting story about this which I will report in a separate
message.
Red-breasted Nuthatch - heard
Osprey
Common Raven
Sora - heard
American Robin
Solitary Sandpiper
Common Snipe - heard winnowing
Chipping Sparrow - heard
Song Sparrow
Barn Swallow
Tree Swallow
Black Tern
Forster Tern
Hermit Thrush - heard
Swainson's Thrush - heard
Yellow-rumped Warbler
MacGillivary's Warbler - heard
Wilson's Warbler - heard
Three-toed Woodpecker
Western Wood-Peewee
Common Yellowthroat

I did wish that I had taken my small tape recorder as I heard a number of
other bird calls that I couldn't identify.

One thing I learned to my surprise is that the Solitary Sandpiper (SOSA)
nests in conifer trees. One day while going up the inlet to the lake, a pair
of SOSA's were scolding and erratically flying back and forth over us before
flying and perching in two small isolated spruce trees in the marsh. A few
days earlier I had seen two SOSA feeding on a log near the shoreline. This
is the first time I had seen a sandpiper land in a tree. But on checking a
bird book I did learn that the SOSA does nest in trees.

Hugh Jennings
Bellevue, WA
hughbirder at aol.com