hi
Being a BCer partnered with an AB/ SK partner I could carry on all day!
Pukaskwa National Park along Superior is great on its own merits and we saw some neat birds, including tame spruce grouse pecking around our campsite. Neys Provincial Park is lovely and we saw lots of warblers.
Fort Whyte in Winnipeg is well worth a visit as it's essentially a birding area, along with a resident small bison herd and prairie dog town. Good visitor centre too.
In general I try to drive off the TransCanada through the Prairies; it's worth the extra time because of the scenery and great roadside raptors and pothole birding-- waterfowl, Y-H blackbirds, egrets, marsh passerines... you name it. And the traffic is light enough that despite the back roads 90-100 km/h limit a quick drop into reverse is generally not a problem (;
I was just at Whitewater Lake in SW Manitoba, just north of the #3 and was amazed-- water fowl and shorebirds galore, and this may still be the case in summer; it's a national birding area. It's worth the detour south off the TransCanada along the #2 (owing also to the retro ice cream and burger shop at Treherne). Taking this indirect route to Whitewater lets you swing past Pelican Lake and its resident white pelicans. I think there is camping at Deloraine and then you swing north to go up to Riding Mountain.
We would love to see Grasslands. Limited services but so worth it, I would think.
Alberta I don’t know as much about, nor the Kootenays. In Calgary there’s apparently a bird sanctuary at the SE end of the city but I don’t know much about it.
In BC, Osoyoos and the Okanagan Valley are great because of the desert environment. Check out Vaseux Lake birding area and the pocket desert around Osoyoos (elf owls, I think, and rare bats, plus a great interpretive centre run by the Osoyoos First Nation close to their winery). Finding camping or motels at the weekend might be a bit hard around Osoyoos.
The massive kill of pine that you’ll encounter has led to an influx of woodpeckers and others apparently—Manning Park is lovely despite the tree kill and I think birders generally keep an eye on it.
Good overall site, and the rare bird alerts are helpful:
http://www.birding.bc.ca/ And if you go far west enough, Mike Yip of Vancouver Island has some good tips and great pix:
www.vancouverislandbirds.com I am envious, as you can probably tell. Safe travel and good birding!
Julie
