Niagara to Grand Rapids: Day 1

This past week my wife and I decided to take a trip across southern Ontario and end up in Grand Rapids Michigan and visit some relatives. Our first destination was Niagara Falls ON we took our time getting there and did some exploring on the way down. The first place that we stopped was La Salle Marina in Burlington to see if there were any interesting birds there. There wasn't anything too out of the ordinary, a horned grebe and a very curious juvenile red-tailed hawk were the highlights for me. But I didn't manage to get any really good shots of the grebe.

I couldn't resist this perfectly posing chipping sparrow

From there we continued on to a small conservation area called devils punch bowl. This is a very inconspicuous conservation area on the side of the escarpment; aside from the huge cross erected here by a near by church, it is just a grassy field when you pull up. But there are some very beautiful water falls here and quite a gorge out of side of the escarpment.

From the devils punch bowl we drove to the butterfly conservancy in Niagara falls. This was a pretty awesome place with tons of butterflies, well worth the trip. I put a few of my favorite photos here but they don't really do the place justice.

Once we had had our fill at the butterfly conservancy, we hiked some close by trails looking for spring ephemeral plants in bloom and exploring some more of the escarpment. There were Dutchman's Breeches everywhere, which I had never seen before, and lots of Trout Lilies, Blood Root and Bellwort too with some Spring Beauty's mixed in.

Dutchman's Breeches

Dutchman's Breeches

Spring Beauty

 

Campbellcroft snowy egret

There was a Snowy Egret found yesterday in Campbellcroft which was on my way today as I headed in to Toronto. When I got there the Egret was 10m from the road and actively feeding and it was snowing slightly.

Bancroft, ON

Snow still dominates the landscape in Bancroft and there are only a few areas of open water and open ground. Despite the almost solid snow and ice cover I still managed to find some interesting birds. A wood duck on the melted edge of a frozen lake, and hooded mergansers where in almost all open water and a Pileated woodpecker working away.

ICE, ICE, BABY!

Thursday of this week all the schools were closed as the weather people warned of a serious ice storm looming on the horizon. However all day Thursday I waited in anticipation and we didn't get one single drop!! But on Friday... everything was coated in a thick sheet of Ice. The trees were so weighed down if you looked at them the wrong way they might have fallen over. So naturally I took a few walks around to see what I could find.

 

Kinglets and Creepers

 I went back to Newcastle to see what was around, in the pond it was the same red breasted mergansers, green wing teal, and Bufflehead. But the trees were covered in golden crowned kinglets and brown creepers so I tried to get a few photos of these as I already had some shots of the mergansers. They were way up near the tops of the trees but I did manage to find a couple closer to the ground.

I also found a couple ring necked ducks in Garden Hill

Redpolls

All winter I have had the odd redpoll come to my feeders but never in large numbers. But lately I have a flock of about 200 redpolls come to my feeder 2 or 3 times a week, so I have had fun getting some photos of them!

 

And a song sparrow I liked

Newcastle ON Birds

There is a small coastal wetland in Newcastle I like to check whenever I get a chance. It is often over run with fisherman as it is one of the only places that you can fish all year round. But there is a small pond there that usually has something interesting on or around it and because of the shape of the pond it is fairly easy to get close without scaring anything off. The last time I was there there where a few red breasted mergansers which was a first for me to see there.