Sandbanks Provincial Park is very popular park in Prince Edward County. It has wonderful beaches and sand dunes to play on. North Beach is an "overflow" day use park not far away that also has wonderful beaches and more subtle sand dunes.
Sandbanks beach goes on "forever" with some of the dunes being roped off to protect them. In one area there is an accessible pathway to the beach
The sand dunes that are available for children (and adults) to enjoy, are located in a separate section of Sandbanks
At times with fewer visitors ring-billed gulls take over large sections of the beach
Not far from the gulls we spotted a pair of much smaller birds pecking on the shoreline. They were a least sandpiper and semipalmated plover.
As we were leaving Sandbanks I spotted some false solomon seal with fully ripe berries
We arrived quite early at North Beach, almost having the park to ourselves
It doesn't take much of a breeze to move the very fine sand, including out from under tree roots
The staff were busy sweeping the sand off the road. They do have a power brush, but prefer to use normal brooms unless the sand is quite deep
There were plenty of ring-billed gulls on the beach, but we spotted two larger gulls. The juvenile was quite dark and noticeably larger than his ring-billed counterparts. They were herring gulls
As we walked a trail through the dunes we spotted killdeer, which flew away as we came near, and some juvenile mute swans
The sand, despite being very fine, supported a good deal of vegetation. Scroll over for ID
Field sagewort
false foxglove
false foxglove
Nodding beggar-tick
Pale knotweed
Kalm's lobelia
barnyard grass
bearded sedge,
Milkweed
dogwood
wild grape
There are lots of insects out on the dunes as well
monarch butterfly
sand cutworm moth
stone spider
damselfly
red ants
Lots of tracks one sand as well. The ones on the left belong to a heron, the squiggly one on the right are open to guessing
It is likely I found the owner of these tiny tracks
A leopard frog and a bull frog were close to some reeds on the shore
As usual, I found some mushrooms
The thin layer of algae made an interesting pattern on the shoreline
