Dunlins at Second Marsh!!!

Never have I ever seen this bird, a Dunlin. I believe from what I read on the Wiki link, that we were lucky to see one as most likely, this migratory bird was on a stop over during its trip from the arctic to far south of here. It was such a delicate, cute little thing! Also, not shy, paid no notice to us as we stood and marveled at them, walking within a couple feet of us along the shoreline, hunting for bugs I guess.

There were about 30 - 40 of them and they would take off in a group in flight once in a while, over the water, landing as a group a few feet further along the shore. I took about 50 pictures of them as I doubt I'll be seeing any more any time soon.

Note: discovered they are No big deal to spot lol! Oh well, it was still exciting to us :-)

Niagara!

Had an awesome time in the Niagara Region May 24th weekend! Stayed at an older motel with heart shaped jacuzzis in the room (yes we soaked the stairs and floor around them getting in and out to reset the timer but we cleaned it up responsibly and amazingly though it used all our towels but not a speck of dirt appeared on the towels so we were happy to see how clean the place is lol!). Visited the Botanical Gardens, hiked down to the river at a rest stop before the gardens, ate at Johnny Roccos (our fav!), and went to the Bird Kingdom. Bought a snowy owl stuff toy at their wonderful gift shop.

This was a combination mini vaycay and a trip to visit my aunt and my step dad who live in Welland. 2 years ago we had driven down for a specific reason to the Port Colborne and Welland area several times, not a real good reason. My mother's family having grown up in Port Colborne, I've loved Niagara since a little kid, have good family memories from there. We passed the fruit blossom trees in a couple orchards on one trip but failed to stop (passed it 3 times but did we stop? no! lol! doh!) and take a photo of them back lit, so gorgeous, and had hoped to this time. Well, we weren't really going down that same road, which lead to Ball's Falls, so we didn't really get an opportunity to revisit that exact scene and lighting condition, but I did get a few nice shots at the Botanical Gardens. As usual, Johnny Roccos did not disappoint. The food and atmosphere are awesome there, and funny as it sounds, they make the Best vegetables that are sides to many of the meals. I believe if I recall, they get what is local and available depending on when you go. Bird Kingdom was fun! I have been there once before, with my kids when they were little. There are 3 floors and many exotic birds flying around free. They even can be seen nesting! We walked along the walkway by the Falls briefly, it was chill chill and there were huge ice rocks still below them. Got some pics of probably what is a familiar local guy sitting in a mass of peanut shells feeding the birds and squirrels (sneaked a shot), saw a black squirrel with a white tip on the tail, photographed some flowers, and saw some outdoor birds.

Since we've sort of developed an interest in birds, we planned to go to Bird Kingdom. It's not an expensive place to go to, great for families! There are 3 floors, parrots, reptiles, nocturnal birds and creatures, and a whole open area with free birds everywhere :-) Last time I spotted a nesting bird and this time as well, a silly bird with her nest right on the emergency box lol! The plants and waterfall in the main area are also wonderful, with the daylight streaming in from above through glass.

One thing we planned was to visit the Botanical Gardens though I guess this time of year they aren't quite as exciting as when I saw them one late summer/fall trip about 8 years ago. At that time, the botanical students, who come from all over the world to study there, had their examination gardens up. They were interesting and stunning in many cases! We will go back again later this year as I'd love to see that again :-) But, we saw quite a few stunning blossom tree examples, lots of gold finches and we even witnessed a wedding party in a sun shower, trying to keep dry as they walked way ahead of us (sneaked another shot lol!).

My aunt's home is in Welland and she has an area set up where she does hair. It's a really cool environment and my aunt is and has been since age 18, a talented hair stylist and taught hair as well in a school in Toronto years ago. I always enjoy visiting her <3

Birdie Smorgasbord at Bluffers Park!

Well, we were treated to quite the variety of birds this morning at Bluffers Park in Scarborough. Having gotten up at 5:45am to venture out somewhere, we hit Rosetta McLean Gardens first, hoping to see the Red Fox that others have seen there often. No such luck, but we did see lots of warblers, squirrels, cardinals and pretty flowers, mainly Daffodils. The Cat Birds were plentiful there, and loud, crazy lol!

We then headed to Bluffers to see what was out and about there. It was around 7:45 by the time we parked and were walking. Not much at first but as we headed to the west, near the high bluff cliffs, just before entering the marsh area and metal bridges, we spotted 3 Bobolinks, closer than we'd ever seen, Baltimore Orioles eating, chasing each other and gathering nest materials, as well as an Orchard Oriole. In the small trees around the marsh area, there were Yellow Warblers, Warbling Vireos, American Gold Finch, and different Sparrows.

Driving over to the east area, near the beach, along the path that heads west, we saw tons of Cliff Swallows and although far, the images I took show that there were hundreds and there holes were plentiful and way out of harms way in the sand and clay of the bluff walls.

Just a gorgeous Saturday morning out there!

Horned Grebes at Bluffers

A couple of nights ago we went down quickly after I got home from work to see if we could spot the Wood Ducks that have shown up there. We didn't get to see them but we did see Horned Grebes! A first for us. The cutest little things! It was getting fairly dark and the sun was long behind the bluffs so the light was not so great. Three images of them turned out not too bad to see their plumage which we learned is their breeding plumage.