First Spring Hike at the Doris McCarthy Trail

Last weekend, while it wasn't real warm, it wasn't freezing, nice hiking weather. Doris McCarthy Trail is a hike with quite a bit of an incline to it, for the way back up and out. Perfect for sight seeing and exercise!


The hike down the trail which reaches the shores of Lake Ontario in Scarborough,is about 15 to 20 mins at a leisurely sight seeing pace, longer if one stops to take photos, faster if one just jaunts down to the end with no gawking.

You'll want to gawk though, especially in late Spring and the Summer months. Chances are you'll see the deer if it is early enough in the morning or not too busy, there are a lot of birds, butterflies and dragon flies in the Spring, Summer and early Fall. In very early Spring, there are blossoming trees and pussy willow bushes. It's super exciting, all the things you can spot!

The lake shore area has long waterfront paths that you can follow either east or west. It has a similar structure to Tommy Thompson Park in Toronto Lesleyville area. There is clean fill that builds up some of the shoreline.

During our last weekend's hike, which covered 5.2 kms, around 3:30pm in the afternoon until about 6pm, we spotted a pair of redwinged hawks soaring, a few long tailed and bufflehead ducks and scaups on the water, and quite a few red winged black birds calling back and forth. Other than that, the light was gorgeous, lots of cool rocks and such on the ground, and it was sunny airy slightly nippy but also pleasantly mild at times, day.

It is probably one of the, if not The favourite spot that we like to walk and take pictures at.

Flying Bird Weekend - Ducks, Swans, Owls, Hawks, and Swallows

Had an exciting weekend of walks and sightings, amongst a family get together and a makeover too :-)

On top of seeing the wild turkeys (previous post), we were thrilled witnesses to many flying birds of all kinds and sizes. It began with swans flying right over our heads, like huge white 747s. Then, we realized the Tree swallows are back and flying and swooping close to our heads in many cases. I cannot believe I aimed and got one semi-decent  shot of one of these speeding birds. Then, there appears a Red Tailed Hawk, gliding hunting pretty much right above us as well, though high above. On top of this, last weekend, we had walked at another location before heading home to make din din and don't we get to see the Great Horned Owl, the boy, leave one tree to go sit in another. I waited till he got into an open sky space and I took one shot, managing to catch a far away but semi half decent pic of him. We were so amazed to actually get to see one of these owls fly.

Not quite flight, but we were also witness to a goose and swan fight on these very same ventures out. Crazy birds lol! All getting territorial and preparing to nest.

Red Tailed Hawk Surprise

Last weekend, we decided to go to a different location, a park down in the east south end of Scarborough, for a change of scenery. We ended up parking and basically turning around as we reached the top of the steep park entrance path - I'm just Not keen on people's large dogs running off leash :-( I had had a feeling we would encounter that there too, similar to the whole of Greenwood, because it isn't signed as a sensitive wild life area. I am just too scared of strange large loose running dogs and it is a terrifying anxiety filled venture then, unfortunately. So, we headed back to Whitby, and the Lynde Shores/Halls Rd. areas again as we'd spent a lot of the time driving already.

Lucky we did because we ended up seeing some pretty cool and exciting things.

As we stood on the bridge over the water at Lynde Shores, John spotted a red-tailed hawk fly across from one side to the other, landing in trees on either side of the narrow marsh. We waited to see if it was going to attempt to grab one of the many mallards below. Walking into the path, John spotted it fly over the forest path and swoop at a Canada Goose. It then went into the forest area and hung around on some low lying fallen brush and tree branches. A possum was looking through the debris on the ground, the hawk seeming to not be concerned with it at all. It then flew into a tree just above where I was standing. I got a couple images of it before it again took off. We thought it may still have been a juvenile one, from its behaviour and the head markings and yellow still present at the beak.

At the marsh, 4 of the Trumpeters were up on the roadway, hunting for food. Probably the babies from last summer we think. There were also 2 adult pairs in the water, mutes and trumpeters. The ducks were crazy as usual and we saw a weirdly marked male mallard, maybe a mix of some sort. We also saw hybrid female mallard/american black duck mixes.

There were also rabbits, squirrels, American Tree Sparrows, chickadees - as usual. One funny sight was a sparrow bathing in a small amount of icy and dirty water on the ground.

What began as a sort of disappointing outing ended up being a fun one back in our usual haunts.

Baby Animals Abound!

We took a brief jaunt down to Halls Rd. the other evening, and were treated with all kinds of baby animal sightings. We even saw a wild turkey cross in front of us as we left the area. One thing you can be sure of, you will always spot wildlife, and I use that term loosely since many will come right up to people, at Halls Rd.

Jay with eggs.

Finally! ........ Baby Water Fowl!

Well, having just moved into an area near Lake Ontario last spring, we kind of were a bit oblivious to the aspects of that season last year, and missed the beginnings of new life. This winter, we waited patiently (lol! maybe 1 of us did) for the spring baby animals and birds we enjoyed seeing in the fall and winter on walks. Well, we got our first look in late April! Another person we run in to off and on, on our adventures, let us know he had just seen the first babies of the season. We headed over to the area he mentioned, and we did see them, but a bit far by the time we got there. Later in the week, on a drizzly day, we went out for what ended up being a short walk, as it began to pour shortly after we got to our usual destination. However, Not before I managed to come up on and grab some shots of the baby geese! Omg are they cute. There are 12. The one parent was hissing continuously so I took a couple shots then left them alone.

The ducks also were startled out of there hiding spot in the marsh, when we went to see what else was around.

The day we discovered the baby geese for the first time, we also ventured back that evening, in hopes of spotting them closer. I had my 105mm manual lens all ready, but alas, no dice. However.... we were treated to a pretty brave raccoon and some muskrat love lol! Too bad the muskrats seem to like privacy or I'd have gotten a better shot lol! Always plenty of animals to see around on our ventures.