Ontario Beach Park
Turning Point Park & The Genesee Riverway
Sunday, March 16, 2008
photo slideshow
No question, I wanted to get outside today, and my coughing is still bad enough that going for a run seemed like a poor idea. Fortunately, there was enough sunshine that I was able to convince Ann to go out for a walk despite it being on the rather chilly side...
The first place we stopped at was Ontario Beach Park. We were going to walk out onto the long concrete pier, but the wind was blasting across the beach something fierce and making it very cold. So instead we admired the waves smashing against the pier, checked out the ducks and gulls in the much calmer harbor, and watched a group of people doing some sort of bizarre sailboat manuevers... I'd almost say they were some type of sailing team, because they had two powerboats in the water with them that seemed to be giving instructions.
After leaving the beach, we stopped briefly at the Charlotte Light House so I could take some pictures of it up close.
Click on picture for larger image
From there we headed down the road to Turning Point Park and the Genesee Riverway - in particular, the boardwalk that runs out over the water in the turning basin. I was surprised at how many folks were out there today, walking or walking their dogs or even fishing. No question, that boardwalk was a fantastic investment.
I didn't expect to see much wildlife beyond gulls, ducks, and maybe some geese... but in the end the swans were there, and we got to watch two herons squabble over territory.
We also spotted a small black and white bird swimming in the water... at first I thought it was a gull, but when we got a clearer view it was evident it was something else. I snapped some photos on full zoom and later identified it as a bufflehead, a type of small duck that lives in northern Canada and Alaska but winters further south.
After Turning Point Park we headed along the river and stopped at what we thought was the bridge overlooking Lower Falls... unfortunately, after taking the rather fancy pedestrian bridge across the road, we discovered we were about a mile too far up the river - I could just barely see the bridge we wanted to be on down the gorge. And given that it was getting even colder and we were both getting tired, we decided to call it a day and headed home to a warm house and some dinner.
JMH
