We took advantage of a trip to photograph raptors at the Canadian Raptor Conservancy south of Hamilton near Lake Erie, to explore nearby areas.
Being a migration point, the area around Long Point Provincial Park is an active birding area. We knew we were late in the year for many birds but checked out a few places.
The day we were there, the beaches on Lake Erie were deserted with a strong wind blowing in waves
At Turkey Point, there was a good size flock of Bonaparte gulls, (left photo) along with a few herring gulls (right photo) and even fewer ring-billed gulls
North America's longest running bird banding station is located at Long Point. We stopped by the Observatory to watch the catching and banding of the birds. The birds are caught in very fine mist nets (bottom). A song sparrow was in the netting and had not been collected by the staff yet. A gold-crowned kinglet had been banded was about to be released.
Along the narrow road leading to Long Point were mute and trumpeter swans as well as sandhill cranes
Backus Woods is a large forest owned by the Nature Conservancy. It is well known for its many birds. But no birds got the message that we were coming as we saw no birds, except a lone chickadee at the entrance gate.
There were some good sized patches of horsetail "grass:" (which I call "pull-apart" grass)
Some of the ferns were bright and showing no signs of winter coming, while others showed signs of dormancy
Moss was growing in spots
Standing side by side, the different species oak trees were quite apparent (White vs red oak?)
The golden rod had gone to seed as had some tall grass
We also checked out some waterfall is in Hamilton. Albion Falls had a stream of water going over it, while Falkers' Falls was a bare trickle.
Along the trails by the waterfalls fall asters were still blooming, as were hawkweed oxtongue (A variety of hawkweed I don't recall seeing before). Teasels were definitely finished blooming.
A quick visit to the St Jacob's Market on the way home...
There are retail shops of various types inside the buildings at the Market, we smiled at this offering
And a few murals in Simcoe and a traffic control box in Hamilton to add to the collection
