Memories of McIntyre Marsh | shadeTreeImaging

Boreal Chickadee - Poecile hudsonicus — I followed up my afternoon visit to McIntyre Marsh, northwest of Whitehorse, with a second visit the next morning. At last, I managed to meet another Boreal Chickadee, a bird I only met once before on the Dempster Highway.

Alder Flycatcher - Empidonax alnorum — *I used my second day of clear weather to return to McIntyre Marsh, northwest of Whitehorse. I enjoyed the company of birds there, such as the Alder Flycatcher hawking its ‘Free Beer’ songs.*

I first visited McIntyre Marsh in June-2005 during my stop-over in Whitehorse Yukon while traveling to Alaska. It would be seventeen years later that I would return to enjoy the birds making their summer homes there.

In June-2022, it was a hard push getting to Whitehorse, and it took a toll on my endurance. I arrived on June 9th, and didn’t leave until the morning of the 19th. I did very little photography for the first week. Between catching up with my earlier blogs, recuperating from the road, and the rainy weather that set in, I could not muster any enthusiasm for chasing the birds I love. But when the 15th rolled around, I was itching to get back into the groove, and I mustered four straight days of photo safaris right through the 18th, including a visit to Lake Lebarge and McIntyre Marsh.

When I finished at Lake Lebarge on Thursday, I drove down to McIntyre Marsh for a visit under sunny skies. My visit here a week earlier was cloudy and threatening rain, and not conducive to bird photography. What a difference there was this afternoon. I met juncos, warblers, sparrows, and flycatchers. Most fun for me were the chickadees, especially the Boreal Chickadees I had been wishing for.

Friday morning I drove back out to McIntyre Marsh from my roadside camp only three miles away. The Wilson’s Warbler that I got poor pictures of Thursday afternoon, continued its elusive ways and avoided giving me good looks. I was pleased to get a few more shots of the Boreal Chickadee in better light than I had late yesterday. Before I met these McIntyre Marsh birds, the only Boreal Chickadee I’d met was a single bird I found while I stopped in the Ogilvie Valley on the Dempster Highway in 2005. And while the picture I got all those years ago was a good one, I captured only one image before the bird lifted off and disappeared from view.

As I was wrapping up my time in the marsh, a husband-wife team was starting down the trail looking for birds. When we met on the trail, we stopped to chat, and our conversation lasted at least 45 minutes. I learned they were from southwest British Columbia north of Vancouver, but had significant experiences traveling in Africa and South America, as well as across Canada. When I told them of my plans to retrace my steps back to Slave Lake, and then journey down through Saskatchewan, they suggested I stop at Grasslands National Park and spend time with birds and other animals there. I can only hope I get there before all the birds head south.