Hello Larry and Tweeters:
Two friends (Rebecca Guiao and Emily Tompkins) and myself got back from a
trip to Cold Lake and other areas across Alberta on 30 June. Our experience
was in direct contrast to yours! My thoughts were that the area lived up to,
and I think exceeded, its reputation. This was one of the more enjoyable
trips I've ever been on. I thought I would write about it a little here.
This isn't a full report, just some random bits of what we did and saw. I
may post a more complete report on www.surfbirds.com at some point.

We left Seattle mid-morning on the 24th and drove through to St. Regis,
Montana that day (with a stop to search for Uppies near Spokane-- no joy).
The next day we rose early and took our time going through scenic Glacier
National Park. A very short stroll from the visitors center at Logan Pass
produced a male White-tailed Ptarmigan far too easily for my liking. We went
through the border crossing and found ourselves in the vast prairies of
southeastern Alberta. The sudden change of terrain was mind-blowing. The
roads were long and remarkably straight, but made driving dull and after a
while the nondescript land was wearing on us. So we camped at Dinosaur
Provincial Park, near some almost extra-terrestrial looking badlands. In the
campgrounds, Least Flycatcher was arguably the most common bird, with
Clay-colored Sparrows and Brown Thrashers also being common. In a
cottonwood I studied a male Baltimore x Bullock's Oriole hybrid; pure
Baltimores were also present. A female Yellow Warbler amused us, tirelessly
attacking its reflection in the car's rear-view mirrors (until I covered
them all, for the bird's sake).

In the prairies of the park the next morning we found several Lark Buntings,
but no longspurs that should've been there. Heading through Hanna on our
path north we did a short drive on backroads. Upland Sandpipers were giving
bizarre flight songs. We set our sights on Cold Lake Prov. Park, where we
arrived in early afternoon. We camped two nights, and of all the great
places we visited on the trip, this region was my favorite. Just meandering
through the campsites during the afternoons I located Canada, Mourning,
Chestnut-sided, Magnolia, Black-and-white, Blackburnian, and Black-throated
Green Warblers, and Ovenbirds. That first evening we took the short drive to
a marsh we had heard about west of Ethel Lk (which, in turn, is west of Cold
Lk). After ten minutes, I got very excited as a Yellow Rail began calling.
Soon there were about 6 of them on both sides of the road. During our full
day in the Cold Lake area we drove around on the west side of the lake. On
the road to English Bay, I randomly suggested we pull over on the roadside.
Instantly I heard Connecticut Warbler songs. A single phrase from the CD out
the car's door caused a male warbler to fly over the car and land a bit
above eye-level in a tree, giving ludicrous views! It sat there 5 minutes or
more, then went back to singing. The previous night I had heard a few
tantalizing, breath-like sparrow songs at the Yellow Rail marsh, so I wanted
to go back to try to see them. It was a chilly morning, so we greatly
enjoyed sitting on the road with the sun on our backs watching the marsh. At
length, we got views of Le Conte's and Nelson's Sharp-tailed Sparrows, and
many Sedge Wrens. The Yellow Rails were still ticking away, and continued to
do so through at least 9am when we headed back to camp.

On the fifth day of the trip we broke camp and headed to Lac la Biche, an
area of slightly more remote boreal forests northwest of Cold Lake. We spent
a few hours exploring the trails at Sir Winston Churchill Park. This gave us
several Bay-breasted (among more Blackburnian) and one Cape May Warbler
(heard only, alas), and an American Redstart sitting in the trail two feet
away. Philadelphia Vireo was at one of the parking lots. In the lake itself,
which is large but not nearly Cold Lake-large, there were scads of
Franklin's Gulls and an apparently breeding pair of White-winged Scoters.
After that, we were going more or less south. We arrived in Jasper that
afternoon and spent two days soaking in incredible views of the Canadian
Rockies in Jasper and Banff Parks. On day six we took an alpine hike near
Peyto Lk, and found a pair of Bohemian Waxwings as well as Grey-crowned
Rosy-Finches and a Pine Grosbeak. On the final day of the trip, we left
Banff and drove all the way back to Seattle via the Sumas border crossing.

All in all I ended up with 212 species. Of those, 25 were warblers and three
were lifers (Lark Bunting, Connecticut Warbler, Le Conte's Sparrow). I'd
have to say a trip to eastern Alberta is highly recommendable, but perhaps
you should go before July and allow yourself more than a weekend, in case of
adverse weather like Larry and Leora encountered. Also, be warned you'll
need to cover a lot of distance for this trip! I believe Rebecca and Emily
put over 2600 miles on the car.

Cheers and good birding,
--
Charlie Wright
Bonney Lake, Washington