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.
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| 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.
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| Dutchman's Breeches |
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| Dutchman's Breeches |
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| Spring Beauty |
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