Pacific Northwest 2000

Wednesday, August 23
When I checked the weather for Whistler before I went on vacation, I found that the temperatures had ranged from 30°F to 50°F for a week or so. However, it had reached 85°F yesterday (before we arrived). It was a little on the cool side this morning (shorts but a fleece pullover over my t-shirt) when we went for an early morning walk. We are staying in a lodge right on the edge of the Nicklaus North golf course and we walked a little bit around the edge of the course and then near a lake that is used by seaplanes. The houses here are all amazing—very large interiors, massive wooden beams and poles supporting the structures, large picture windows. I was surprised at how close together they actually are.

We took an early morning walk with Joan's two nieces aged eight and eleven. Their hair is so blonde, they look as though they visited a peroxide factory. Very cute. There are beautiful flowers and plants along many of the houses and at the golf course's clubhouse. We stopped to admire them and the wildflowers quite often. We did see a couple of birds begging on the ground near some of the bushes and then many birds in them. One had white outer tail feathers and we thought towhee but were not quite sure. Glimpses of many of the others led us to identify Common Yellowthroats. I misidentified a pair of ducks in the lake as Mallards (didn't have my binocs on me at the time and didn't look at them closely). Then we saw an Osprey flying overhead. Also saw a very intensely colored Yellow Warbler.

We then returned to the house for breakfast. After that we began a long walk into the town of Whistler. On the way we admired the spectacular views of the mountains, the wide assortment of wildflowers, the wonderful colors of the trees—shades of green and brown in the shadows and sunlight. The forest is magnificent. As we passed the lake, we discovered that the previously identified Mallards were, in fact, Northern Shovelers. The walk was delayed several times to look at the wildflowers and to sample some of the abundant wild berries. We walked along and heard many songbirds which were intent on remaining hidden. However, we did find Chestnut-backed Chickadee, Golden-crowned Kinglet (only a quick glimpse of one although we did hear many), and Gray Jay. At another lake, we saw a Great Blue Heron perched on a platform. It had its wings spread as if it were doing a cormorant impression. It kept them spread that way for several minutes. Very unusual behavior. At the side of the lake we saw thousands and thousands of tiny frogs (or toads)—they were all over the place and it was very difficult to avoid stepping on them. There were thousands of tadpoles in various stages of development in the water also. A little further along, we saw a snake in the branches of a bush. Then we got to see "real" Mallards.

Had a very nice lunch in the town of Whistler—smoked salmon and cream cheese and vegetables at a restaurant called Ingrid's. Enjoyed it very much. We then began the long walk back. It had gotten quite warm out (must have been in the 80s) and the sun was strong. We took a little detour to see the bear scratch trees. Some of the claw marks were quite high up on the tree and cut deep into the bark. We also saw what we identified as bear scat. (Later on we read in one of the pamphlets that if you come to a bear scratch tree you should get out of the area right away because that is the way a bear marks its territory!) While walking down that trail, we heard the strange (but soon to be familiar) call of a Steller's Jay and saw several of them. One of the little girls found a Pileated Woodpecker for us. We had some excellent looks at it and watched it for some time. Added a female Red-breasted Merganser to our sightings. We did not see too many butterflies—Cabbage Whites were identified but we also saw two others that were unfamiliar to us and which we couldn't identify because we didn't have a Western butterfly book. The walk back took much longer than the walk into Whistler because we were really hot and tired. Along the way, a good number of local wild berries seemed to have disappeared (into the mouths of Joan and her family). But even though it was quite warm out, I went into the hot tub on my return (hoping it would ease the pain and stiffness; and it did).

More at Whistler

Go to the SongStar home page
Drop me a note