Point Pelee Trip 2016

Finally getting around to going through my photos from Point Pelee, which my husband and I visited mid May.

We have been saying for 4 years or so, that we want to make the trip down there. It was going to be a bit pricey because it is a 4 1/2 hr drive or so, from where we live, so staying over was basically a necessity. So, I made it kind of like my 50th birthday, and our 2nd year wedding anniversary, and my one sort of "bigger" vacation activity for this year, all rolled into one. We stayed at the Talbot Trail Inn, which as I mentioned in my earlier Rondeau Post, was super great! We saved on eating out by doing a grocery shop for all our lunch and brekkie stuff, and had a nice one night of the 2 we were there, dinner out at Armando's Italian restaurant. There are not a lot of restaurants to choose from in Leamington, so it seemed to us, actually.

Pelee is a pretty much full day hiking day, so we took lunch, snacks and water, as well as sun screen to reapply. We were gone 8 hours and we walked pretty much the whole distance, stopping our car 2 times in 2 areas, to park then walk, as well as the last little bit, we jumped on the trolley train to the point drop off, and walked down to the point. The point is actually not a large amount of land, mainly it is just a narrow point that reaches out into the lake, and it has a tree right on it's edge. The waves were quite surly the day we were there so it was cool seeing all the water splashing up onto the point. It can be quite perilous so one needs to be careful there, and not be venturing too close to the tip nor trying to enter the water.

There were quite a few beach areas to walk along, gorgeous textures on the long fallen and dried huge tree trunks of drift wood. The marshland there is hugely expansive, far beyond what we are used to seeing in Toronto or the Durham Region, which also does boast of quite a few natural wetland areas. There is a few story wood walk up tower platform which allows one to look far over the marshland into the distance. It is like being in another place other than Ontario. We were treated to a real close encounter with all the nesting barn swallows under the steps of the wood walk up.

What can I say, people go there that time of year, mainly because they are birders. Granted, in the Toronto area, especially at Tommy Thompson Park, you hear and see a lot of birds and a large variety of migrant and resident birds at that. However, it was noticeably well increased at Point Pelee, both in sounds and sighting. Warblers are everywhere, just popping up and in and out all around us. Catbirds, even a Scarlet Tanager. The elusive worm eating warbler though, that many die hard photographer birders were looking for there, eluded John and I lol! Some did see it though, we heard in conversations as we passed others on the paths.

There were also trees there that one does not see in eastern Ontario as much. One being the Kentucky Coffee Tree. Some of the oldest existing trees we have grow along one path there at the park. It's very awe striking if one is into trees.

Quite unexpected, was to discover a male turkey, in full display, stalking the female turkeys, all of them on the beach near the point, in the evening light. Not a bird we would have imagined seeing there lol!

What a gorgeous place on earth Point Pelee is, even the surrounding towns, and the road leading to the park entrance, with people's homes right on the shores of Lake Erie, waves crashing up against their backyard shoreline.

yellow warbler in nest

Cooper Hawk Nest Near Our Place

We often walk over to the ravine that is near our condo. It is not a far walk, but once you get into the ravine entrance, you could conceivably walk for miles, east towards McCowan, then towards Markham Rd., into the Highland Creek area. We often go as far as McCowan, but have walked for 4 hours or so, and done the longer route.

Last time we were there, John noticed a huge stick nest up in a tree. It was quite visible from certain spots. We saw the partially silhouetted head of a hawk in it, and I thought it to be a Red Tailed Hawk.

Today, on a day off from work, after renewing our library cards, we decided to head over and see how the hawk was doing.

There was a city worker mowing the meadow area just north of where the nest is, and as he left, passing us as we stepped aside and out of his way, the one hawk took off from the nest and was circling. It didn't seem to like all the noise, and it flew back and forth finally settling in a tree near the nest. I got a couple photos of it, enough to see that it was not a Red Tail Hawk, it was a Cooper's Hawk. We decided to walk on and leave it alone, let it settle down and go back to its business.

Later on, we stopped to see how it was doing, on our way out. I could see a bird seemingly feeding another bird, or pulling from something below in the nest then lifting its head. The bird popped up its head. It has yellow eyes and it seems larger than the one that flew from the nest earlier. Not sure if it is a female being brought food by the smaller male, or a single juvi hawk. Hard to know 100%, could be the female sitting on eggs still, or a juvenile pretty close to fledging. It was large. Hard to see from the distance the photos were taken from too, and the amount of the bird that I was able to discern in the photo. I purposely over exposed the photo when I tool it so I could see as much detail as possible later on. Looking in person it is too far and in total silhouette.

We also were treated to a pair of crows chasing a red tailed hawk through the sky.

The ravine is a pretty place to walk. Generally, someone will stop and talk to us for a few moments, and it is quite enjoyable. Many are long time area residents and we learn quite a bit from them. We saw a lot of swallow tails, mostly the yellow Eastern ones, but we did see a black swallowtail butterfly closer to our condo, on the walk back.

A Visit to Rondeau Provincial Park

Mid May, my husband and I spent a few days in south western Ontario, and we visited 2 very wonderful parks while there.

We were heading to Point Pelee as we'd always wanted to go there, being big hikers and fairly avid but amateur bird lovers. I booked into the Talbot Trail Inn, which by the way, was excellent! Shout out to Talbot Trail, we recommend it!

It was pretty chill chill the day we left on our 4 1/4 hr drive, raining on and off, and threatening snow. We did end up getting soft little balls of wet snow while at Rondeau, and I was Not dressed warm enough. Seeing the Spring forest floor flowers get dusted with snow balls, and the poor migrant birds probably chilled to the bone just seemed wrong, lol! The sun peeked out here and there luckily, and the visit there was so amazing that the cold day and weird weather didn't ruin it.

The marsh was expansive and stunning, running in section like rows between forested land rows. There were a ton of warblers, and we saw Rose Breasted Grosbeaks so close and plentiful. One higher skilled birder made a comment that the warblers were in trouble, as they were seen coming down low to the marsh surface, hopping around on fallen logs in the water. Maybe due to the weather being not quite right for them, and food not being plentiful enough for their migration, would be my guess :-(

The scenery, plant life and bird life in this park was all breath taking. We have marsh areas in Durham Region and in Toronto, but it seems so like another world in southern Ontario. Sort of similar to the Niagara area in a way.

I'll be doing a post on our Pelee visit later on down the road a week or so.

Right in Our Back Yard

Ok, well, I guess not Literally, since we don't own a house, but live in a condo. Though, this is very close, basically right across the street :-)

Often, we walk a ways, to the Birkdale Ravine, or we drive a short distance to one of the parks or trails down on the shores of Lake Ontario off Kingston Rd. in Scarborough, or we head into the city for Tommy Thompson, or even out to our old haunts in Durham Region (which are sorely missed by us).

However, there is this lovely little forest area right near Scarborough Town Ctre, on Borough Dr. and it is basically on the street that runs just south of our condo building. It's a 5 minute walk. We decided to do this little walk, something we have not done since last Spring, and see what there was to enjoy.

This time of year the Trilliums are coming up, and lots of other little forest floor flowers. They were starting, and there were a lot of Trout Lilies already. The fallen tree pieces seem to lay in a beautiful elegant way in this forest, among the plentiful piles of leaf debris and pine cones, and with the flowers nestled all around these, it makes for quite a scrumptious sight. There also was some beautiful lower evening light on lots of dried leaves and new buds and such, always a visual joy :-)

We did come up with some really cool little bird and critter sightings! Right in this little urban forest. Lots of White Throated Sparrows, 3 Hermit Thrush, and lots of Robins, as well as your usual House Sparrows. We spotted many of these city sparrows on the way there, eating the new blossom buds and dandelion flowers.

A critter, we think a ground hog, was collecting dried clumps of leaves for its den, which we did find the entrance hole to.

Pikachu even waved to us from out his window high above, welcoming us back lol!

All in all, really, we did not need to go to far to enjoy a fun and beneficial walk.

our little urban forest