May 26th, 2011

Our Victoria Day long weekend holiday was spent near Tobermory on the Lake Huron side of the Bruce Penninsula.  For me it is a naturalist’s paradise with a great many species of birds and a variety of wild orchids flowering  almost every month of the growing season.

This weekend we logged just over 50 species of birds, a few butterflies (spring azure, mourning cloak, red admiral, cabbage white) and the first of the spring wildflowers including birds-eye primrose, fringed polygala and dwarf lake iris – an at-risk species in Ontario, designated as ‘Threatened” by COSEWIC.

Several Caspian terns were dueling in the air space over Warner Bay throughout the weekend for the fishing rights to the waters below.  They put on a very entertaining aerial dog-fight, though the stakes were of greater consequence for them than for those of us spectating from shore.

(click on any of the photos to see a full-size image)

On a Sunday afternoon walk at the Singing Sands Nature Reserve on Dorcas Bay, we were treated to the sight of a Massasauga rattle snake.  Scary sounding, these snakes are not typically aggressive, and give good warning with their rattles to warn you of their presence which this one did while sunning itself on the trail.  These too, are a threatened species in Ontario.

(click on any of the photos to see a full-size image)