We are a happily married Canadian couple who endeavour to keep a positive outlook on life which overflows into everything we do. This enables us to create a wonderful life together, and we continue to attract the most amazing people into our lives. We love traveling, and are in our element when we are house/pet sitting as we are crazy about animals - both wildlife and domestic. However, we are only doing repeat sits now and not taking on any new requests.
Yesterday,
we decided to take a drive there to see it for ourselves. We were delighted to see that it had been lovingly restored.
We often like to see where a road leads, and we were delighted with the scenery that met us.
As usual, we happened upon another local landmark... the Notch Hill Community Park. Apparently, there used to be two school in the area - the white school (a one-room school erected in 1897, but since demolished), which used to stand where the 'white church' is now, and the brown school, built in 1921, which is still in its original position.
It was here where we learned that the name, Notch Hill, was coined by a geologist who noted an irregular shape or 'notch' in the hilly landscape and attached the name 'Notch Hill' to the area. The name was adopted by the Canadian Pacific Railway as the name of the station cresting the hill between two other small communities. At one time, two 'pusher engines' were required to assist the steam engines up the steep grade.
The Community Park sports a lookout platform, which enables visitors to take in the scenery and watch the freight trains go past...
...or just sit on the old bench to take in the ambience of this quiet place.
“Are the
pelicans still there?” asked the gentleman on the Salmon Arm wharf, who was
training his dog. He had seen us with our binoculars and camera poised, as we
were returning to the parking lot.
Salmon Arm Wharf
“We haven’t
seen any,” we replied… but the truth was – we hadn’t even been looking for them
as we didn’t know there were any in the area.
A few days
later, we hiked one of the nearby trails, and that’s when we saw them for the
first time. They were on the other side of Shuswap Lake but, as we only had our
cellphone cameras, we were unable to take any close-ups of them.
The walk we
were one turned out to be a birders’ paradise so, a couple of days later – and
armed with the appropriate equipment for capturing what we were seeing - we
embarked upon our second hike of the trail, which follows the lake for 3 km,
with a detour around an ‘island’.
It was there
where we watched in awe as dozens of pelicans carried on their daily life –
fishing, taking off and landing on the lake, preening themselves and each other, and seemingly enjoying
the company of their peers.
A few of the dozen pelicans we were able to observe
We were able to capture several videos of these amazing birds. Here is a selection:
It was
fascinating to see these large birds so near to us (about 300ft away), and to
observe their behavior. Once we had found the perfect viewing spot, we must
have stayed there for nearly an hour, until we had nearly exhausted the
batteries in our viewing contraptions!
As well as
the pelicans, we also captured a couple of bald eagles, and several blue herons
that were dotted among them. So many different water fowl were to be seen and
we spoke to a local birder who told us that the pelicans gathered to nest in a
lake a fair bit north of Salmon Arm, and visit this area in July until the
first cold snap – usually at the beginning of October – so we felt lucky to
have seen them at this time. She also gave us tons of information about birds
to be seen in the area, and where to go to observe different species.
American Wigeon
A pair of bald eagles that had, seemingly, taken root!
Preening each other
Blue heron from the back
Lincoln Sparrow
Muskrat among the marshes
One
interesting fact she shared with us was that there are two main types of
pelican in North America – bacisally the
white and the brown. The brown variety are the ones that dive and swoop for
their catch, whereas the white ones we were seeing, here, tend to herd the fish
into one area and then scoop them up in their throat pouches, which we had seen
them do.
After
circling the ‘island’ we returned to the trail while keeping our eyes peeled
for more of our feathered friends.
The mostly
flat trail, itself, has its own beauty… and the peace and tranquility of the
experience was only interrupted when exchanging brief greetings with other
hikers, or when a freight train (a really LONG freight train!) passed us by on
the railway line which runs beside the trail, mostly hidden by trees.
Again, here are some video clips we took of our hike:
We estimated
that the round-trip hike was about 7 km altogether and, after nearly four hours
of walking, standing and ogling, and stopping to appreciate nature’s beauty, we
returned to the car, with gratitude for the ability to be staying in such a
superb area.
P.S. Mark posted about this on social media... and he waxed poetically! Here's what he said:
"So, we were profoundly and pleasantly surprised to partake in the beauty of this plethora of poised, placid, and sometimes playful, pretty pelicans on our peaceful pre-lunch promenade in this very picturesque perfect place!!"
