A quick walk in Springwater Park Provincial Park

I had a couple more photos to finish up for the Nature Scavenger Hunt for Families that I am hosting so we headed out to Springwater Park today to get the last of our photos.

Playing in the stream at Springwater Park

On our walk in we saw this butterfly. He was camera shy though and this is the best picture I could get.

The girls were shocked when they first put their feet in this little stream. It was sooOooo cold! My feet were frozen in a matter of minutes. they still had fun exploring in it and we ended up freezing out feet for about 45 minutes.

I found this poor little bee clinging onto this stick floating in the stream too. I carried him to land so he could dry out his wings, rest and hopefully fly away safe and sound.

 Here he is starting to dry out but still not ready to fly. We left the stream before he flew away but I am hopeful that in a bit of time he would regain some energy and make it home. I wished I had something sweet on me to give him for energy but I had nothing. I did what I could though and hope for the best.

Sierra found this little slug on a log that stretched over the river. When she picked it up it slimed her with an orange stain and she was NOT impressed! No matter how much water and sand rubbing we gave her fingers it would not come off...hopefully the tub tonight will get it all cleaned up.

 Some other wild life I captured near the small waterfall...

Next we headed to the playground for a bit and Sierra found a tree she wanted to climb. However the bark was extremely rough and it wasn't a very pleasant experience...poor girl is having a rough day.

 We walked over to the pond to see the baby ducks.

 Here by the pond I got a wonderful surprise. Can you see what is flying in this picture? It's a Cedar Waxwing and believe it or not I don't think I have ever seen one before.

Not only did I see one but there had to have been at least 12 flying around. I wished I had my other camera with me but with my phone this was the best shot I could get of one at least.

On our way out the girls found a better tree to climb.

 And Aayla discovered this weird hole. I have no idea what lives in here but she bent down down and yelled in, "Is anybody home"? there was no answer and nothing scurried out in a hurry so it remains a mystery.

 Last but not least we saw this thing on the side of a tree which someone told me a Cicada hatched from it. I've certainly never seen a cicada before so it was a neat surprise too. The Cedar Waxwings were the best though and I will need to go back again soon with my other camera and hope they are still around.

Birding Workshop with Couchiching Conservancy, Ontario

I signed up for an early morning birding walk put on by the Couchiching Conservancy (same organization we did our Vernal Pools workshop with) at the Copeland Forest this morning.

My Tamron 18-270mm lens for my Canon has been acting up lately and not focusing so I had to take my 28-80 mm lens so most of the pictures I took from today are pitiful but they'll have to do. There were lots of other beautiful bits and pieces to photograph today to include which are totally unrelated to birds but I can't help but stop to take pictures of the bees, butterflies and other critters and flowers I see.

I am also linking to whatbird.com to show you pictures of what we did see. I have no affiliation to this site and only mention them as they are a good source to identify and learn about birds in your area. Whatbird.com is an amazing reference for not only identifying birds but it gives you lots of other educational information including bird-calls to listen to.

Our first birds we saw today were Red Winged Blackbirds. I know these birds are thought of as pests to many but I have always liked them and today for the first time I got to see what a female looks like. I have no pictures of them as they were too far off in the marsh but you can click on 'soucre' on each picture to go to each species on whatbird.com to learn more.

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Next we saw a Song Sparrow.

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Then Mr Frog hopped along our path.

We walked through a field of beautiful old apple trees with all their blooms starting to open up.

Here we saw both male and female Rose-breasted Grosbeaks. This picture is of a male last summer in our back yard.

This is the best I could get today of the male. I couldn't get one of the female.

Here are better pictures to see the details of them.

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We saw Baltimore Orioles (this picture below I took awhile ago as I could not get even remotely close enough to this guy for a picture today).

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Below everyone is looking way up in those distant trees to see the Baltimore Oriole. I saw him through the binoculars but not with the camera.

We passed a small pool which looked like it may be a vernal pool but I didn't see any salamanders, only a couple frogs.

 Then we walked out to a pond.

 Here we saw a Kingfisher,

King Fisher from last year near our property

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A Trumpeter Swan who was way over on the other side of the pond.

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 There were many Canadian Geese with their babies including one who was still sitting on a nest.

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Wild flowers always catch my attention and this little flower was the dearest little thing I have seen in awhile. I had to break out the flower books again and learnt that this one is a Fringed Polygala. Isn't it sweet; so small and delicate and very unusual looking.

Fringed Polygala

 Remnants of what look to be Robins eggs

We also saw a Chestnut-sided Warbler today. I must say he was camera shy and didn't sit still too long and he was very pretty too.

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A King Bird

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We also saw a pair of Goldfinch's munching on caterpillar nest high up on a tree.

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And we apparently heard a Redstart and a Wood Thrush too but no one was able to actually see them.

An abandoned birds nest

It's really quite amazing how many birds you can see around when you stop to look and listen; not to mention all the other wild life like bees, butterflies and dragonflies.

A tiny little bee

A weird little caterpillar...no idea what kind...

There were two highlights of the trip for me today. The first was the Virginia Rail which apparently is quite common just very elusive. He was fun to watch once you spotted him.

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The second for me was the Indigo Bunting. It was so disappointing to not have my good lens for all these pictures but they were so beautiful to watch through the binoculars that I am happy I went.

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He was such a beautiful blue. Sierra saw a small blue bird at home the other day when I was out. I assumed it was an Eastern Bluebird when she told me but perhaps it was one of these little guys? She is learning to identify birds herself too and was so happy to see a hummingbird the other morning. She didn't come on this walk though as it was a very early morning start.

A Cabbage Butterfly...I think

I think I need to start carrying the binoculars on a more regular basis to see just how many different birds we can find while out walking. It was a  wonderful walk today and I look forward to more workshops like this when they come available. Thank you Dorethea for organizing these wonderful outings!