Visits to the usual places, with some unusual sightings and visits to some different places.
Mud Lake is always interesting with its many birds. The fall colours added to the interest this month. A water snake was out on a warm day at the end of the month. We had an interesting experience with a young (?) lost (?) beaver down on the river shoreline during a month-end visit
Guillot Park in Aylmer, is a park in name only. It is a small forest with a few very narrow rough trails through it. There is a small wetlands in the centre that ducks like to drop into as it is very private. There seemed to be more than a few wildflowers still in bloom when we visited.
Nepean Creek Ponds on Colonnade Road produced only a single green heron and some isolated bright fall colour.
The Mer Bleue "snowman" trail was a nice fall walk. Birdhouse kits have started re-appearing after the NCC took them down last spring.
The Mill of Kintail in Almonte is a favourite fall colours place to visit. This year the colours were quite muted. There is also a museum located at the Mill featuring the work of sculptor Dr. R. Tait McKenzie and James Naismith, the inventor of the game of Basketball
The Gatineau Parkway was open to cars for the last week or so of October. Not many people were aware of it so the traffic was relatively light for the peak fall colour time. We also visited Lac Philippe before going up the Parkway
Once the fog had lifted we were treated to 1,000 (approximately) sandhill cranes just north of Cobden. This is an annual gathering spot for the cranes before migrating south.
Petrie Island had some nice fall colours this year. Not sure if I had seen a cardinal at the Island before, but one was checking out a bittersweet bush.
Fletcher Wildlife Garden unexpectedly produced a barred owl. I found out later there was more than one there. A few holdout wildflowers were still blooming.
Two visits to Parc Omega produced many of the usual animals, but always slightly different activities. A nice assortment of birds caught our eye. All are visitors to the Parc for free meals. The Prairie Dogs during our second visit were busy getting ready for their light hibernation. The second visit produced a "record" number of videos.
