Wye Marsh Wildlife Centre
John and I took a trip up north to the Wye Marsh Wildlife Centre in Midland today to do some hiking. On first glance Wye Marsh is unassuming, but it blossoms as you get down onto the trails. It proved to be one of the best hikes we've taken in awhile. The wildlife is just amazing! You never know what creature you're going to meet around each bend. Over the course of the day we came across turtles, frogs, snakes, trumpeter swans, fish, adult and baby Canada geese, chipmunks, bees and dragonflies. It was just a memorable close-up experience with nature.
(Photo: Not representative of the day, but interesting none the less! And Ontarians, what strikes you as most unusual about this sign in the middle of a Ontario park? For me it's that the sign is not just written in English and French (common), but also in German, too! I just find myself curious why the sign is also in German- maybe the Midland area has a large German population?)
The first event we ran into at Wye Marsh was a Birds of Prey presentation. The naturalists taught us about hawks (like this one) , owls and other birds of prey in the marsh.
At the start of our hike we climbed to the top of an observation tower to look down at the marsh, part of which you can see here. The water looks rather unassuming, but it is absolutely teeming with life. We walked down to that dock afterward and communed with several turtles, dragonflies and fish. Throughout the hike we saw turtles sunning themselves on assorted logs and stones in the marshes, sometimes four and five at a time. That was very cool.
The Wildlife Centre was made up of forest trails and a boardwalk going across the marsh. The boardwalk provided some excellent views of the life within the marsh water and some beautiful forest panoramas, too, of the surrounding scenery. There were some lookout spots, too, to observe wildlife. In one such spot we saw the log-sunning turtles, two families of Canada geese and many red-winged blackbirds.
Love this guy! :) These little frogs were -everywhere- on the hiking trails and in the water and it was so charming to hear them chirping and harumphing throughout the hike. We also came across two snakes, as well, on the boardwalk, one garter snake and one black water snake who caught me so off-guard that I didn't get his photo. John was delighted to follow him along the boardwalk with his video camera, though :).
I really like my present camera, but I do wish it had better zoom capacity for taking photos of wildlife. Sigh...
In the background of this photo of Wye Marsh you can see the spires of the Martyrs' Shrine, another major landmark in Midland. I've been to the shrine several times with my family when I was younger- my father grew up in the Midland area- and it was cool to see the shrine from this angle. What really strikes me about the shrine from Wye Marsh is how much it was built to be part of the scenery around it. It would have been easy to cut down the forest to accommodate such a grand church, but instead it looks much more elemental and natural as part of the forested area.
You can see the rest of my Wye Marsh hiking photos here: Wye Marsh Wildlife Centre
On Saturday John and I walked over to downtown Richmond Hill to check out the Richmond Hill Heritage Day. It was fun, with a lot of people, vendor's booths, music and food tents to explore. I liked this fence painting activity going on in the middle of the festival. The fence being painted is surrounding the construction site for Richmond Hill's new stage theatre.
(Photo: Not representative of the day, but interesting none the less! And Ontarians, what strikes you as most unusual about this sign in the middle of a Ontario park? For me it's that the sign is not just written in English and French (common), but also in German, too! I just find myself curious why the sign is also in German- maybe the Midland area has a large German population?)
The first event we ran into at Wye Marsh was a Birds of Prey presentation. The naturalists taught us about hawks (like this one) , owls and other birds of prey in the marsh.
At the start of our hike we climbed to the top of an observation tower to look down at the marsh, part of which you can see here. The water looks rather unassuming, but it is absolutely teeming with life. We walked down to that dock afterward and communed with several turtles, dragonflies and fish. Throughout the hike we saw turtles sunning themselves on assorted logs and stones in the marshes, sometimes four and five at a time. That was very cool.
The Wildlife Centre was made up of forest trails and a boardwalk going across the marsh. The boardwalk provided some excellent views of the life within the marsh water and some beautiful forest panoramas, too, of the surrounding scenery. There were some lookout spots, too, to observe wildlife. In one such spot we saw the log-sunning turtles, two families of Canada geese and many red-winged blackbirds.
Love this guy! :) These little frogs were -everywhere- on the hiking trails and in the water and it was so charming to hear them chirping and harumphing throughout the hike. We also came across two snakes, as well, on the boardwalk, one garter snake and one black water snake who caught me so off-guard that I didn't get his photo. John was delighted to follow him along the boardwalk with his video camera, though :).
I really like my present camera, but I do wish it had better zoom capacity for taking photos of wildlife. Sigh...
In the background of this photo of Wye Marsh you can see the spires of the Martyrs' Shrine, another major landmark in Midland. I've been to the shrine several times with my family when I was younger- my father grew up in the Midland area- and it was cool to see the shrine from this angle. What really strikes me about the shrine from Wye Marsh is how much it was built to be part of the scenery around it. It would have been easy to cut down the forest to accommodate such a grand church, but instead it looks much more elemental and natural as part of the forested area.
You can see the rest of my Wye Marsh hiking photos here: Wye Marsh Wildlife Centre
On Saturday John and I walked over to downtown Richmond Hill to check out the Richmond Hill Heritage Day. It was fun, with a lot of people, vendor's booths, music and food tents to explore. I liked this fence painting activity going on in the middle of the festival. The fence being painted is surrounding the construction site for Richmond Hill's new stage theatre.