Hi, all. Maureen Ellis' Maine report has spurred me into action. I've been
up working in Fort Nelson in the northeast corner of BC the past couple of
weeks. Time for a "trip" report. For those unfamiliar with the Fort Nelson
Lowlands area of the Taiga Plains ecoprovince, here is a brief rundown:

landforms - sedimentary base (sandstone, mudstone) due to prehistoric
lakebed history (thus explaining its massive gas and oilfields); higher
plateau outcrops of limestone and other harder rocks; average basin
elevation 370m ASL, average plateau elevation 720m ASL.
rivers - muddy due to substrate; all run north and east into the Mackenzie
drainage and into the Arctic Ocean; five main rivers running out of the
Rockies to the west: the Liard ("liard" is French for poplar); Muskwa;
Sikanni Chief; Prophet; and the Fort Nelson.
vegetation - lowest levels away from river floodplains clothed in "muskeg",
the term given to black spruce bogs; river floodplains are the typical
cottonwood bottomlands; higher hills and plateaux covered in trembling
aspen/balsam poplar/white spruce associations (aspen here are among the
largest in the world), along with raised black spruce bogs; relatively
small ratio of fire-origin lodgepole pine stands compared to other
ecoprovinces.
climate - continental; winters cold with a fair amount of snow, while
summers are warm under the 18-20 hour days with frequent convective showers
providing ample summer rainfall.

Spring and summer weather this year has been wet just about everywhere
north of 45N latitude in N. America. The Fort Nelson Lowlands received
about 300% of normal rainfall in June. The drive up July 10th confirmed
this with standing water everywhere in the muskeg and the vegetation as
lush as I have ever seen it. I was thus prepared for a bad bugfest - I
wasn't disappointed. One bottle of Deep-Woods Off used up so far and I
haven't been out in the woods much.

The Fort Nelson Lowlands are near the northwestern extremity of the broad,
continuous band of boreal forest stretching from eastern Canada across the
top of the Prairies, ending in southeasternmost Yukon. As such, the
birdlife has a high component of more typically "eastern" species such as
wood-warblers.

One welcome repercussion of the antecedent wet weather is that many birds
are still in fine voice during the mornings, despite the bushes being full
of "kid" birds now. I went down to the floodplain of the Fort Nelson River
near the airport yesterday morning after work and here is a list of the
birds encountered during a 50 minute search along a 100 meter stretch of
road bordered by regenerating deciduous stands:

ALDER FLYCATCHER (the first one to greet the sunrise)
NORTHERN FLICKER (pure Yellow-shafted male)
YELLOW-BELLIED SAPSUCKER
AMERICAN ROBIN
SWAINSON'S THRUSH
WARBLING VIREO
RED-EYED VIREO (males singing continuously after temp hit 18C)
PHILADELPHIA VIREO (adult at 10 feet; quieter than Red-eyed)
BLACKPOLL WARBLER
MAGNOLIA WARBLER
ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER (yellow undertail coverts best discriminant from
juv. Tennessee)
TENNESSEE WARBLER (responds best to "pishing")
YELLOW WARBLER
AMERICAN REDSTART (males getting ratty now as molt kicks in)
CHIPPING SPARROW
WHITE-THROATED SPARROW

I was too tired to work the whole 1.5 km length of the road so I missed out
on Mourning, Canada, and Black-and-White Warblers, along with Least and
Hammond's Flycatchers and several other species. Biggest surprise so far
was a BLUE JAY in town July 16th - first record for the Fort Nelson area
that I know of - but haven't seen it since. It is nice to come to a corner
of the world where the brief summer is filled with neotropical migrants
revelling in the boreal forest, seemingly safe from the pressures of
farther south. It seems that the greatest perils await them on their
wintering grounds these days. Will post further with a "trip list" if I get
the time.

cheers,
Jack

Jack Bowling
Fort Nelson, BC
jcbowling at mindlink.bc.ca