Wellers Bay Freeze Up

Canadian Kids

Tree Rubies

Presqu’ile Ice Volcanoes

Ice Sculpture- Lake Ontario

Long Tailed Duck Takes Off

Frozen Bubbles

Bubble Sculpture

Success

There’s lots to love about winter!

The post Fire and Ice appeared first on Leslie Abram Photography.

Good Morning Presqu’ile!   Oh how I love you!

There are so many reasons to love Presqu’ile Park, no matter when you visit.You can show up early on a hazy fall morning, and observe as Presqu’ile’s beaches and offshore islands start to come alive with sound and activity.

Migrating shorebirds start to wake up, and begin their daily search for food.

If you sit or lie down very still, the shorebirds will walk right past you as they are feeding.   It is endlessly entertaining to watch them.

A fall drive around the park may reveal a Ruffed Grouse, foraging at the side of the road for breakfast.  Look at those gorgeous feather patterns!

As seasons change and the weather turns colder, the park becomes very quiet.    I think winter is when Presqu’ile really shows its magic.

Little by little the lake freezes over.   Depending on the wind and the waves, the lakeshore looks different every time I visit in the winter, and each time is spectacular.Presqu’ile is famous for its ice volcanoes.   When the wind is just right, water from the waves will spray up through these holes in the ice.  I like them best at sunset, when they are lit up like some alien landscape.   Snowy owls love to use the offshore islands to hunt. Even in the dead of winter there is so much beauty to be found at Presqu’ile.Spring comes to Presqu’ile, and with it, the busiest time of year.A walk along the boardwalk in Jobes Woods reveals little sprouts of green, and some unexpected company.Look who’s watching you now!Early spring also brings the arrival of waterfowl, who are great show-offs for their potential mates.   What characters. As the ice moves out of Presqu’ile Bay, huge “rafts” of waterfowl can be seen feeding along the ice edge.Spring also brings bugs- lots of them!   But isn’t that perfect timing? The migratory birds are on their way back north.

Lots and lots and lots of them!.   How exciting to be at the park when the trees and bushes are just full of colourful birds singing and eating and flying about.  I am very grateful to have met some very experienced and knowledgeable birders at the park, who can help me learn about all these birds, their names, and their habits.     The diversity of species at Presqu’ile is amazing!

One day I got stuck out in a thunderstorm down by the lighthouse so went into the duck viewing shelter to get out of the rain.   In the tree next to me were so many different kinds of little birds I could barely keep track of them.   Above is a little Yellow Warbler shaking off the rain.Oh, and “fallouts!”   A fallout is when weather or wind conditions cause many thousands of birds to come to the same area all at once.   I will never forget being at Owen Point early on a May morning this year, and experiencing a fallout of shorebirds.   They were everywhere the eye could see, in flocks in the hundreds, soaring around, and feeding on the beaches.

I think I took over 1000 photographs that day!    It was so great because the Ontario Field Ornithologists Young Birders were at Owen Point that morning too, and this enthusiastic group of young people got to experience this spectacle as well. I don’t think any of us will ever forget it.

Did I mention you could see a fox at Presqu’ile?   And if that’s not enough for you…How about watching a fox walk down the road and then having a deer cross right in front of it, say “Good Morning” and carry on.   Is this the Bambi movie? I don’t know.    Presqu’ile is so cool.On the first hot hazy days of the year, the momma snapping turtles will come out of the mud and start to lay their eggs at the side of the roads.     A couple of years I have been down there on just the right day and seen 4 or 5 of these beauties all in the same trip.  I love their long sharp claws!Of course, Presqu’ile is for recreation too!   Walter loves to swim and run on the rocky beach.    The sandy beach is for the shorebirds, and of course all the campers and day trippers that flock to Presqu’ile in the summer.No matter when I visit, Presqu’ile always has something beautiful to offer.    I’m never disappointed.

Presqu’ile Provincial Park is located on the north shore of Lake Ontario, just south of Brighton.   Check it out!

The post Why I Love Presqu’ile! appeared first on Leslie Abram Photography.

Well hello there…

Move Over

Humph!

Oh my…

Let me introduce you to one of our more photogenic baby birds in the area – Great Blue Herons.

We are lucky to have a nesting colony of Great Blue Herons (more specifically, a “heronry”) north of us on the Trent River system.   There are about 15 nests up in trees on a very small island.  The herons like to build there so they can avoid land based predators like racoons.  The nests are mainly made of sticks, and are reused and added to each year.   The male does most of the gathering of nesting material,  and can also be seen presenting the female with sticks during a fancy courtship display. The female does the most of the nest building,

Apartment Style Living: 3  Nests in a Great Blue Heron Colony

Heronry

These photos were all taken from our canoe.

Pair of Great Blue Herons Embrace in Nest

Ah love!  In late April and early May the Herons return to our area, pair up, and begin to build their stick nests.  They exhibit amazing pair-bonding displays such as this happy couple, who intertwined their necks in various ways upon returning to their nest. A pair of herons will remain fairly faithful to each other during the breeding season, but will pair up with someone else the following year.

Nesting Pair in Great Blue Heron Colony

Herons lay between 2 – 6 eggs, and incubate them for about a month.

Great Blue Heron watches over baby

In our area, the chicks appear in mid to late May. They grow extremely quickly.  Because the eggs are laid a few days apart, the older chick in the nest tends to be much larger, and begs for food quite aggressively.

Waiting to be fedFeeding Time

Herons eat pretty much anything they can strike with their long sharp bill.  They will stand motionless and then snap their S-shaped neck out quickly to spear fish, amphibians, rodents, insects, and other birds.

3 mouths to feed

Both parents will feed the chicks at the nest by regurgitating down into their throats.  Mmmmm.

Juvenile Great Blue Heron

By the time the juveniles are about 2 months old, they are ready to take their first flight, but will follow their parents around for another few weeks, and return to the nest site to be fed.   They are looking more like their stately and graceful parents, and a bit less like something out of a Dr.Seuss book.

We have been watching this heronry for 3 years now.  It is one of my absolute favourite spring activities to take the canoe out and see what’s happening there.   The herons fly in and out with their huge wingspans and slow wingbeats, hunting and feeding their babies, greeting their mates, and performing bonding behaviours I can’t even begin to understand.

Here’s a link to the Cornell University “All About Birds” website.   I use it all the time to help identify birds, and learn about them.

Cornell University All About Birds

The post Life in a Great Blue Heron Colony: Check out these Babies! appeared first on Leslie Abram Photography.