It Happened Again

The snow has come back, at least temporarily. Yesterday evening snow started to fall, and by this morning, we had a nice blanket of snow.

Creek Path

It’s slowly starting to melt as the temperatures begin to climb again. The meteorologists weren’t kidding when they said it would be a mild winter. So far, we’ve had three decent sized snowfalls, and usually, within a couple of days, the temps go up, and the snow disappears.

Berries

The fun thing about the snow melting is you get these little droplets hanging off of things like these berries.

Pine Needles

Or these pine needles.

Shoe Ice

And then there are these fun shapes that icicles can become, like this little boot-shaped icicle. Okay, I’ve never really seen icicles shaped like little boots before, but how cool is that? And it’s just hanging on with this squiggly ice shape. Now, this was a great find on my walk. If I had waited another day, it would most likely be gone.

Bad Weather is Brewing

I met my friend Nigel at Meadowvale Conservation Area for a hike around the credit river. It was an overcast day but the place looked promising when we spotted a hawk in a nearby tree. We, of course, had the wrong lenses to capture an image of the hawk. The hawk didn’t stick around long so we headed onto the trail where we saw one more hawk. I swear, they were taunting us.

Credit River

There were some good views of the credit river from different spots along the trail.

Stormy Day

This spooky tree stood out against this section of the river. I tried a few different spots along the trail to photograph it but I liked this one the best. There is another trail in the other direction from the parking lot. We may have to try it out next time we head this way to see what surprises lie there. And maybe I’ll bring my long lens, just in case.

Caught Red-Handed

My friend Nigel and I went out for a hike at Lynde Shores today. The trails at Lynde Shores are full of wildlife, most likely because they have several feeders on one of their popular trails. The Chickadee trail is only 500m long. On most winter days, you can find wild turkeys, chickadees, nuthatches, squirrels and more on this trail.

Goose Stretch

Under the walking bridge by the parking lot, ducks and geese were congregating in the river below. I got lucky when this goose decided to wash his feathers and put on quite the display doing so.

Mourning Dove

Starting on the Chickadee Trail, we spotted this Mourning Dove sitting on one of the trail fences.

Caught Red-Handed

The feeders are quite popular, and you won’t just see birds here. This squirrel was taking advantage of the free food. Do you think he looks a little worried that we’ve discovered him inside the feeder?

Red-Breasted Nuthatch

We stopped a little further down the trail and decided to take out the seed Nigel brought with him to feed the chickadees. Little did we know that this Red-breasted Nuthatch preferred to be feed by hand. When we put the seed on a nearby bench, to be able to free our hands to photograph, he scolded us from a branch above us. It wasn’t until we put the seed in our hand that he stopped scolding us and came down to eat. Someone’s a little spoiled.

Red Squirrel

We continued hiking, eventually coming to LeVay’s Lane trail, which looped us back towards the parking lot. On LeVay’s trail, we found this cute red squirrel, who couldn’t decide if we were friends or foes. After overcoming some of its fear, it came a little closer, and we were able to get a few photos.

It turned out to be a successful day out.

 

The First Snowfall

And just like that, the world is white.

First Snowfall

We had our first significant snowfall here in the GTA, and it looks so pretty.

Snowy Trail

These photos are from my usual walk along the creek path. Things look so much different when pristine white snow decides to land on all that brown.

Drynan & Chesney

Nigel and I decided to head back over to Drynan Forest for another hike. When we were here last time, we spoke to someone who mentioned another nearby trail. So, we have decided to try both trails today, with the Drynan Forest loop trail up first.

Drynan Forest Reflections

You’ll notice a big change from our last hike. All the deciduous trees have lost their leaves, leaving only the evergreens. Which means everything is green again! One of my first photos today was of the trees across the small lake. The lake is very still and acting as the perfect mirror, making the reflections look almost real.

Tree-Lined Path

After hiking the Drynan trail, we travelled to the Chesney Wilderness Trail. We began hiking the trail counterclockwise and were greeted by this pathway of Hemlock trees. They make an impressive entrance to the trail. Although the Chesney trail is on the shorter side at only two kilometres, it makes it perfect as an add-on hike. And it was a great way to end our hiking journey today.