Of all the times we’ve been to Banff National Park, I haven’t seen any bear roaming about yet except when we were cycling on the Continental Divide west of the Park over 15 years ago.

This summer Jack did spot a bear when he biked out to Vermillion Lake, a popular marshy area with birds, striking wild grasses and bushes in especially fall. People drive out, hike, kayak and hang out along the water edge. I had

declined after a fabulous 50 km. of cyclng round trip along the Legacy trail between Canmore and Banff.
To see a bear in broad daylight in a human-busy national park at summer peak, is a rare treat. Good thing the bear, was ambling up a gentle rocky hill. Be aware this type of bear can run 50-60 km. per hour.

More than Just Wild Bears
While international tourists might crave to glimpse our large wildlife –elk, bighorn sheep or mountain goat, they might consider some of our wild birds and small ground animals found in the Rocky Mountains. Not anywhere else in Canada, east of central Alberta.

We forget in some countries, particularly in the tropical areas, certain squirrels and chipmunks we see in Canada, don’t even inhabit elsewhere in the wild.
In my last blog post, I included shots of chipmunks sited in the park, by Lake Moraine. They were wonderful chance glimpses.

This spring, while we were biking in the mountain resort town of Canmore, it was the Columbian ground squirrel by a bike path. It has a habit of standing up, sentinel-like when it senses danger (of a human being or large animal) nearby.

The next siting was by picnic table where not surprisingly there were several burrow holes right underneath the table. One might as well be dropping food from heaven without any effort for these wild happy critters. Certainly we

spied a plump Columbian ground squirrel that didn’t run away from us. It did shriek out for others –probably a food call, rather than a danger alert.

Perhaps it’s just living thousands of kilometres from where I grew up in southern Ontario but now decades later, I am more aware of the birds flitting, chirping and twittering in the trees and above. The red-breast robin is still one of the bird harbingers of spring in western Canada. There are still the brilliant green headed mallard duck trundling around in ponds and rivers.

Now it’s the Stellar Jay, a bird native to northwest Pacific coast in Canada and states as well as into the Rocky Mountains. More grey with blue and less white than the flashier blue jay I saw often in Ontario.

Since we still don’t have a pair of binoculars, it’s a challenge to glimpse tiny cute warblers and other song birds darting and hiding among tree foliage.

While we were along the Tram Line, a hiking and snowshoeing trail in the Lake Louise area, we spotted a bird colouring unknown to us. It turned out to be a Varied Thrush — a species that does not frequent this area.

While we were near Lake Agnes, by the Beehive mini-mountain, a short hike above Lake Louise, a friendly Canada Jay popped onto a low branch. It was formerly called the Gray Jay, until the American Ornithological Society renamed it appropriately since this jay bird does occupy a huge swath across Canada.



True, long after leaving these wilderness areas, I occasionally dream of jewel lakes, ice capped mountains and the wildlife that pop about.

Fantastic pictures, Jean. We we were in Denali NP lately, we didn’t get that close to the wirldlife, but we did see some [bears, caribou, moose] and we enjoyed our visit there a lot.
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Believe me, my partner was not that close to the bear. He had a pocket digital camera that had enough zoom for the situation. We were to other wildlife featured in the blog post. Great you went to Denali! I’ve only seen a moose briefly…it was a teenager. 🙂
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Great pictures!! I loved the ground squirrel, hahaha.
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The ground squirrel is only found in western Canada. It takes awhile to gather photos of wildlife. For us, various years. Not in 1 trip. Glad you enjoyed them, Marta.
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So cute. Those bird photos – WOW. You could print a calendar. Have you thought about that? They make great gifts.
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Thx, Lani. I’m not sure if my family still wants an analog calendar even with nice photos. On the other hand, I received 2 different wall clocks from 2 different sisters, each gift given in different years..
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I love calendars. I like the art or photos in them, but since I’ve moved abroad, I’m a fan of desk calendars because they don’t have dry walls over here, thus it’s easier to put up a desk calendar. Do you mean ppl use their phones or laptops for calendars? Egats!
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🙂 Still haven’t got an iPhone/cell phone yet. So I love wearing my little arty watch..its face has a tiny quill pen and key for watch arms.
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OK, you are hereby promoted to Professional Photographer!! Beautiful captures, Jean, really fine. I especially liked the jay-bird eating a creepy-crawly potato chip!! 😊
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🙂
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