{"id":81451,"date":"2025-08-19T15:01:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-19T15:01:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/81451\/"},"modified":"2025-08-19T15:01:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T15:01:11","slug":"readers-wildlife-photos-why-evolution-is-true-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/81451\/","title":{"rendered":"Readers\u2019 wildlife photos \u2013 Why Evolution Is True"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thanks to the readers who sent in wildlife photos.\u00a0 Today we have the first part of a two-part series from Kevin Krebs taken in British Columbia. Kevin\u2019s notes and IDs are indented, and you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them.<\/p>\n

The Crowsnest to Osoyoos \u2013 Part 1<\/p>\n

Vancouver to Princeton<\/p>\n

Each spring I make a pilgrimage from my home in Vancouver to Osoyoos<\/a> in south-central British Columbia. Birds are what drew me there initially, but over the years the ecology and geology have cast a spell on me.<\/p>\n

After roughly 2\u00bd hours of driving on the Crowsnest Highway<\/a>, E.C. Manning Provincial Park<\/a> is my first stop. Located in the North Cascades<\/a>, the area is densely forested with coniferous trees, and even in late May you can expect to find some patches of snow.<\/p>\n

Every year without fail I\u2019m greeted by numerous Columbian Ground Squirrels (Urocitellus columbianus)<\/a>. They hibernate for up to 8 months of the year, and this population has probably been active for only a few weeks when I visit.<\/p>\n

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I don\u2019t have to go much further than the parking lot to find flocks of Chipping sparrows (Spizella passerina)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Venturing further into the park, I almost always find a few Townsend\u2019s Warblers (Setophaga townsendi)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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This year I felt especially lucky \u2014 a pair of American Three-toed Woodpeckers (Picoides dorsalis)<\/a> appeared out of nowhere just as I was about to leave.<\/p>\n

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Princeton<\/a> is my next stop, and where the transition from the forests to semi-arid climate begins to become apparent. According to Wikipedia, \u201cPrinceton is one of the sunniest places in British Columbia with 2,088 hours of sunshine annually\u201d.<\/p>\n

My destination is Swan Lake Wildlife Refuge<\/a>, located just north of the city that is always replete with swallows, waterfowl, and many other surprises.<\/p>\n

A Common Raven (Corvus corax)<\/a> keeping watch from a fence post.<\/p>\n

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New World Sparrows (Family Passerellidae)<\/a> don\u2019t get a lot of love and it\u2019s not uncommon to hear them derided as LBJs (Little Brown Jobs). I think many birders do themselves a disservice by not paying attention to sparrows and other \u2018common\u2019 birds. Here\u2019s a beautiful Vesper Sparrow (Pooecetes gramineus)<\/a> posing on a branch.<\/p>\n

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American Kestral (Falco sparverius)<\/a> are the smallest and most widespread North American falcon with distinctive sexual dimorphism<\/a>. This male was waiting out a sudden rain shower:<\/p>\n

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Another photo of the American Kestral (Falco sparverius)<\/a> being scolded by a Western Meadowlark (Sturnella neglecta)<\/a> who was very unhappy with his presence:<\/p>\n

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The bluest of bluebirds \u2014 this male Mountain Bluebird (Sialia currucoides)<\/a> was quite shy, but let me get a decent photograph before it fled my primate curiosity.<\/p>\n

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A mediocre photo of a Lewis\u2019s Woodpecker (Melanerpes lewis)<\/a> \u2014 a large, oddball woodpecker which is still somewhat enigmatic.<\/p>\n

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On the route to Osoyoos, I pass through the small town of Hedley<\/a>, once the site of a gold mine (confusingly named the Nickel Plate Mine<\/a>). The geology is striking \u2014 uplifted Triassic sedimentary rocks of the Nicola Formation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thanks to the readers who sent in wildlife photos.\u00a0 Today we have the first part of a two-part…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":81452,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,66,323],"class_list":{"0":"post-81451","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}