Trout Creek Tour October 17 2010

I was in the ER for 2.15 hours,not including about 40 minutes to walk in and out. It was a great day: sun, little wind, clear skies and 3 degrees at 8.30 am. I saw or heard 10 bird species, none of them unexpected. I was, however pleased to see a mound of droppings left by a Dusky (formerly Blue) Grouse as I usually see or hear the grouse, like the one I flushed just outside the N-S fence. I saw or heard no mammals.

There were no plants in bloom which was unusual I thought as I usually see one or two Scarlet Gilia and even a daisy at this time of the year. It appeared to my uneducated eye that there were fewer toadflax seed heads,probably due to the bio-control. The cactus is thriving in the reserve!  I found another patch of 15 Sulphur Cinquefoil plants where  found them 1n 2007; I pulled them all out.

The new style is well made and effective, it needs only some stain to be applied, which I will do next spring if I can get the stain and a brush from you. Just north of the new style a portion of the fence needs to be repaired with T-bar. Needless to say, the fence at the talus slope still needs replacing.

I was pleased to note that there was no sign of human activity except by that of Don Gayton doing his fire dendrology study. At this time of the year I was also very pleased to see no fence damage by deer hunters.

Cheers............Laurie