the Way of the Turtle

1.4 Mile Walk at Ontario Beach Park
Tuesday, March 9, 2010

After Ann got home from work we headed over to Ontario Beach Park to see the sights and hopefully feed the gulls. Only problem was - there were almost no gulls there! I would have fed the ducks instead, but there were a couple of people already doing so with large bags of bread, so they seemed all set. Even the swans got in on the free food action...

We walked all the way out to the end of the concrete pier, which turned out to be tougher work than usual because much of it is still covered with snow and ice. I was hoping to see more "barking" ducks (actually long-tailed ducks) like we spotted this time last year, but the only ducks in sight were mallards. As the sun went down it chilled down very quickly, which made things a bit foggy out on the water... while we were standing out at the "lighthouse" we could hear gulls and geese off in the distance - maybe there was an ice floe they were on out in the lake? - and we spotted one diving duck that was probably a long-tail - the photo I took was very blurry but the markings didn't seem to match any other diving ducks.

The sun setting over the water was very scenic but it also made things very cold by the time we headed back... I was very glad to finally get back in the car and turn on the heat!

I've seen very few gulls so far this year in places where they usually congregate - I wonder if that's timing (either wrong time of day or maybe I'm out earlier this year than usual) or something else going on? Clearly more visits are in order to figure out the answer...

JMH