Winding Down The Year

So, once again time rampaged through another month, and now November is done, and we are counting down the days until Christmas.

We spent some time helping out with the raptor count at Holiday Beach, and that too has come to an end for the year. We had some days when almost nothing went through the area, but a couple of days when it was extremely busy. One day was so busy in fact that there was an urgent request for assistant counters to help out.

It just so happened that morning when my Lady and I woke up, I opened the blinds and watched as thousands of crows traveled past our house and made their way up river. It literally went on for over an hour. Then, just after the crows, the raptors started going by. It was not as busy as the crows, but it was an amazing sight none the less.

Steady stream of Crows flying past our back yard, just over by the river.

I made a point to go to the tower in the early afternoon, and arrived just as the request for help was going out. I got to the tower and just stood dumbfounded as the birds just kept coming by in waves. I am still not confident enough to call out what I was seeing, but I know that most were Red Tailed Hawks. I tried to count the crows that mixed in, since I was fairly certain of what they were.

Red Tailed Hawks directly over the tower

At the end of the day, it turned out to be the 3^rd largest Red Tail Hawk migration day on record at Holiday Beach, with 2,414 Red Tails. Total number was 3,069 various raptors, and around 15,000 crows. All I remember saying was “Oh My God” as they kept flying overhead. Truly awesome to see. A multitude of ducks and other waterfowl were counted as well that day.

Now here it is, early December, and the skies have been pretty gloomy and cloud covered for at least a week or so. Not too many larger birds visible in the sky and most of the waterfowl have left the area. Our little egret roost just up the road sits empty.

We did get a nice view of a large group of Swans in a field a couple of days ago, and just this afternoon we had 2 Bald Eagles fly almost 50 feet directly overhead.

The snows have started blowing through. We had a couple of inches fall a few weeks back, but within a day or two, it was all gone. Nothing like what it sounds like Toronto is getting. Thank goodness for moving down to the “Banana Belt”. I guess we’ll see what this winter brings.

Anyhow, this might be the last entry for 2019, unless something really interesting comes up.

We hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and a safe and Happy New Year.

Thanks for reading, and we’ll talk again next year.

How was your Halloween?

So, did you get out and vote?

We had a very busy day during the election, starting at 8:00 in the morning, right through to 1:00 the next morning. We spent our day locked up in a school gym, working with Elections Canada, confirming voters, giving the ballots, and eventually counting the ballots. Really a very interesting process.

Funny thing, when we were in Toronto, my Lady often said that she would like to work an election one day. Sure enough, the first election to come around in our new place, and we get asked to work it. Kind of bizarre if you ask me.

Yup, it’s Fall. The trees have almost lost all of their leaves, the weather is cooler, the birds are on their way to somewhere warm, and the days are getting short.

Speaking of birds, we had a really cool sighting recently. It was reported that there was a Nelson’s Sparrow hanging around the Holiday Beach Hawk Tower. We were able to get over to see it, and after some time it showed itself to us. This was exciting as we learned that it was a very rare bird in our area. So of course, I start taking photographs from the top of the tower, into the grass at the base, and was fortunate to get at least a couple of good photos.

After cropping and sending them to one of our very knowledgeable friends, he confirmed with the original spotter, that it actually wasn’t a Nelson’s, but in fact something even more rare, a Le Conte’s Sparrow. It’s strange to think that my photos helped to determine an extremely rare bird in our area.

We have had a Snowy Egret hanging out in our little Egret roost just a couple minutes walk from our place. Much smaller than a Great Egret, it comes in every night before the big ones arrive, and it seems to have claimed it’s own little spot.

Went for a drive a couple weeks ago and came across a large flock of Starlings on the road. They started off on a sideroad, and then moved to a paved road. We stopped and opened the windows and listened to them as they talked to each other and flew off. I forgot my camera so had to use the cell phone.

The hunters have been out recently. We can hear the guns going off in the morning and even at Holiday Beach there are duck hunters around. We would be at the tower, and suddenly, Bang Bang. All the wildlife on the marsh suddenly take to wing and fly off to a different area. Even going for a walk can be restricted on some trails. There are signs out in some areas, warning not to hike during certain times and days due to hunters in the area. Personally, I prefer to hunt with a camera, so I try to stay far away from the guys with the guns. Mind you though, since moving down, we have learned that the most common colour to wear is Camouflage.

How was Halloween in your area? We live on a small street where there are still a few homes up for sale, and only a few people have children. We didn’t have any idea how many kids would come around, and this year the weather really sucked. It was wet all day, stopped for a couple hours during trick or treat time, but that’s when the cold winds blew in strong. As such, we had a total of 12 visitors. Oh well, I guess there’s still more chips and chocolates for me to eat.

So, that’s what we have for this episode.

Thanks for reading, and if you like, don’t forget to tell your friends about this little blog, and get them to sign up too.

Till next time.

OMG, I’ve Never Seen It Like This Before!

Let’s get this straight; the inbound migration in Spring is very different from the outbound Fall migration.

In May we spent a lot of time at Point Pelee watching the little Warblers coming in. We had a few really great days, but we actually had to wander around looking for all the different birds, most of the time.

This is Fall, and we are spending a lot of our time at Holiday Beach, not only during the couple of weekends for the Hawk Festival, but during the rest of September and October, and will carry on through November.

Sure, some Warblers are being seen, but not in the numbers from May.

What’s really keeping us going out, are the various types of Raptors, the Turkey Vultures, and Blue Jays.

These guys are just passing through, but it’s a lot easier to find them than the little guys, considering they are travelling through in massive groups, or Kettles. We have observed a few thousand Broad-Winged Hawks going through on one day. Then, just a few days ago, I looked out our back door, and noticed lines and lines of Turkey Vultures going by. I grabbed my camera, ran outside and looked off to the south and saw more and more coming through.

I made a quick decision and hopped into the car and found myself at the Hawk Tower, and helped to observe and count the various birds that flew by. Vultures, Blue Jays, Kestrels, Sharp-Shinned Hawks, Harriers, a Peregrine Falcon, a Merlin, and lots of Starlings. One of our resident Eagles and Ospreys even buzzed the tower

And on October 8, we heard that there were over 55,000 Blue Jays counted going past Holiday Beach. We couldn’t be there to see it, but we did observe a lot of Jays going upriver from our back yard.

So now, the majority of Turkey Vultures appear to have migrated out, but some still hang around, and believe it or not, the Jays are still passing through.

One day, my lady and I were at the tower, and one of the Hawk Banding members came by with a Merlin. When asked if anyone wanted to adopt it, my lady quickly said that she would. The gentleman said that it would scream at her when they took it out of the protective covering, but the bird sat nice and quiet the whole time my lady held it, as we all took photos. As soon as she released it, it flew into a nearby tree and promptly told us all off.

This is one of the special times that we looked forward to when we decided to move to our little piece of heaven. Last year when we came down, we missed the outbound Monarch Butterflies as they pushed through Pelee, and again this year we haven’t been there at the right time (about 1000 were roosting on a tree near the tip a couple evenings ago, but we couldn’t make it). We did manage to see a small number resting on top of a tree one day, took a few photos, watched one that had a tag on it, and when we looked back to the group, they were all gone. Just like that.

A handful of migrating Monarch Butterflies

None the less, we have so much going on around here, it’s difficult to decide where to go and when. We might be in one place, and whatever might pass through somewhere else. Luck of the draw, but so much fun anyway.

Remember, we have an election coming up, and the polls are open pretty late. Be sure to get out and vote.

Anyway, thanks for reading, and don’t forget to click follow if you haven’t already.

Take care till next time.

Has it really been a month already?

I guess every month might be the new norm for getting posts out.

It’s going to be hard to try to catch up nowadays.

The Tall Ships made their way through a few weeks ago. We had a small number of them in Kingsville for the weekend. Had a chance to go out and see them. I’m definitely not a sailor, but there’s something about the smell of the canvas sails, the strength of the wooden masts, and the thought of being out on the ocean travelling to new lands, that makes visiting the ships an enjoyable experience.

Empire Sandy
Empire Sandy

We had a friend down with us recently and showed her around our little slice of paradise. First night she arrived, we boogied on over to the Tecumseh Corn Festival. Nice little country fair. Enjoyed some corn on the cob, watched some people try to hang by their arms for 2 minutes to win a prize. Sadly nobody could. Checked out the vendors, wandered the midway and made our way back home. Next morning, it was off to some of our local birding sites. She was very lucky to have been able to see some of our feathered friends; Eagle, Ospreys, Green Heron, Snowy Egrets, and a rare Black Bellied Whistling Duck.

Mature Bald Eagle
Green Heron
Dragonfly
Sanderling
Snowy Egret
Great Egret
Osprey calling
Osprey pair
Black Bellied Whistling Duck

Soon we were on our way to Point Pelee. Took the tram to the tip and walked the path to the most southern end of mainland Canada. As we started back to the tram stop, we found ourselves in the middle of hundreds of dragonflies, of all sizes and colours. A couple allowed me to take their photos, but most of the time they just buzzed around all over the place.

Too soon, our friend had to return home, but not before visiting Fort Malden for the Arts by the River in Amherstburg. We spent a couple hours wandering through the vendors. It’s quite a large event, especially for a small town, and even though we hadn’t planned on spending any money, I ended up making a couple of purchases.

The following week, my lady and I went to the Harrow Fair. This seemed bigger than the Corn Fest, and offered much more to see. Of course there’s the midway, vendors and food, but we spent a fair time wandering through the buildings looking at all the contests, including; quilting, baking, photography, livestock and vegetables. And let’s not forget the Tractor Pull.

As it turns out, the beginning of September is also the start of the Raptor Watch at Holiday Beach. Even though the Hawk Festival happens on the 14-15 and 21-22 weekends, the counting has already started. We have been to the tower a number of days already and have learned quite a bit about how to identify various raptors (not the Toronto Raptors, or the dinosaur). We all watch the sky for any movement, and even though it is a Raptor Watch, anything that seems to be migrating gets counted. Butterflies, dragonflies, hummingbirds, various warblers, starlings, ducks, geese, swans, and so on, along with the kestrel, falcon, merlin, red-tail hawk, sharp-shinned hawk, vulture, harrier, osprey (quite a few locals who aren’t moving out yet) and eagles (also not moving out yet), plus many more.

Our backyard birds are changing as well. The House Wren is gone, but we have seen and heard the Carolina Wren once in a while. The Hummingbirds have left and the Orioles were only back for a very short time. The Starlings are starting to gather in the trees, and we have seen flocks moving through the fields. The Egret roost just a couple of minutes’ walk away is filling up each evening, the Blue Jays are slowly moving in and will be here for a couple of weeks, before they too go quiet.

Soon, the season will change again, and if I am really lucky, or just diligent, I can start moving the pace of this blog up a bit, depending on what’s happening. But based on what I see on the Events Calendar, we are going to be pretty busy right through Christmas.

By the way, if you are in Amherstburg during September 14-15 or 21-22, try to stop by the Festival of Hawks at Holiday Beach. And on the weekend of September 27-29 we have The Uncommon Festival, Museum Ghost Tours, and the Essex County War of 1812. Not far down the road is the 40^th Anniversary of the Ruthven Apple Festival on the 28-29, and what’s even better is that admission is FREE.

Thanks for reading and I’m glad you made it this far.

Don’t forget, if you haven’t already, click follow at the bottom right of the first page, and enter your email address so you get notifications when a new post goes up.

Well, so much for weekly blogs.

But hey, it’s only been a few weeks since the last one, right?

Gotta admit, Summer is busy.

We went to Ohio for a few days, ended up being in the middle of a heat wave, and yes, it was too hot. I hate using the car AC, but we really needed it then.

Went out to the car in the morning, and saw this little baby parked nearby. Reminded us of when our son was younger and took similar photos. Can’t help humming the jingle every time I see this.

Oh I’d love to be an Oscar Mayer Wiener …

We spent a day at the Columbus Zoo. Funny thing is we didn’t really want to go back to a zoo after seeing animals in their own environment during our travels. But here we are at the Columbus Zoo, during a heat wave, and looking at all the animals. Let’s just say that the midday sun, in the middle of a heat wave, when the animals just want to rest somewhere cool, is not conducive to any good action photos. None-the-less, we were able to grab a few of the following.

Silverback Gorilla
Don’t mess with this guy
Orangutan couple
A teaching moment
Red Panda
Tiger cooling off in the shade
Cheetah speed demonstration
Just out for a quick run
Moose staying cool

Just for information, two Bonobos Monkeys were en-route to the Columbus Zoo during 9/11. Although we didn’t get a chance to see them as they were in the back and not on display at the time, we did see one of Unga’s children. Gander, named after the city that provided a home for his mother during the airspace shutdown of 9/11.

Gander

On our way home, we found some short term relief from the heat, by way of the Ohio Caverns. They offered a combo pack of 2 tours for a reduced price, and we figured why not. The initial tour is a history based tour into the caverns, explaining how it was found, cleared out of mud, damaged by graffiti, or by souvenir collectors, and preservation techniques. The second tour shows more of the real beauty, and if you only go for 1 tour, this is the one to do. It remains a constant 54 degrees Fahrenheit in the cavern and each tour is about 50 minutes long. Caution if you plan on taking pictures, flash is allowed, but no additional equipment such as monopod or tripod is permitted, and you can’t rest against the wall, so everything is handheld.

Ohio Caverns
Ohio Caverns
Ohio Caverns
Ohio Caverns
Ohio Caverns
Ohio Caverns

After returning home, life just seemed to catch up and pull us along at blinding speeds.

I did a slideshow presentation of one of our trips, to a wonderful group of people where my lady volunteers. This was my second time there and thankfully they are asking for more. Even though the presentation is only 1 hour, it takes such a long time to put it all together and come up with the condensed story.

Amherstburg has been having an annual car show for some time now, and we spent a few hours walking around there. Over 700 classic and antique cars were being shown by people from all across the county, and as far away as Florida.

While we were wandering the streets during the show, we met up briefly with former East York Mayor, MPP Beaches-East York, and Toronto City Councilor, Michael Prue. He moved from Toronto a few years ago, and is now a councilor for our area down here. Small world.

A couple of our friends visited us over the past weekend, and after the initial shock of being out so far in the country, they quickly came to understand why we live here. The people are so nice, the area is fantastic for birding, the weather is generally comfortable due to the proximity of both the Detroit River and Lake Erie, and the town is big enough to have most of the amenities that we need.

It was really nice that when we were showing our friends around, we found a few deer wandering in a field, and even a Green Heron that came to check us out. First one we have seen.

Fawn
Doe
together make a Fawndoe
Green Heron

And now for an update on our local birds. The House Wren seems to have resigned himself to the fact that the ladies are not interested. He is still here, but his call is not as happy as before, and he’s not hanging around the nest that much. Our little hummingbirds have successfully brought us at least 2 young ones. We have seen a small male and female coming to the feeder, at times with the adults flittering nearby. The Orioles had left for a little while, but appear to be on their way back through. One male Oriole came to the Hummy feeder last weekend, and we had to quickly put out some food for them.

Young female Ruby Throated Hummingbird
Oh no he spotted me
I’m outta here
Hummmmm

We had a really special sighting last week. We were up around dawn and went for a little drive, and just a few hundred yards away from our house, we saw about 10 Night Herons sitting it the trees. I had forgotten my camera, and by the time I turned around and came back, most had already left. We’ve gone back out a few times since, but haven’t seen them there again. They may be on their way back out early.

Night Heron
Night Heron
Night Herons

Thanks for reading and hope you made it this far.

Don’t forget, if you haven’t already, click follow at the bottom right of the first page, and enter your email address so you get notifications when a new post goes up.

And yes, I’ll try to get them out a bit more regularly.

Slowly Catching Up

The Fish flies have finally left us, and now we have another special treat when we go out at night.
Fire Flies, or Lightning Bugs, are all over the place. For some reason these little beetles make me happy. It could be because you don’t see them in the big city due to the lighting, and even when you are out in the countryside, they may not show up in your area. We were taking an evening drive a few days ago, and first noticed flickering lights out in the fields. A couple days later and it was almost like going warp speed in space and having all the stars whiz by. Unfortunately a few hit the windshield and their light slowly went out.

We have heard about flooding all over the place, and our area isn’t immune to it. The Detroit River is high enough to bury docks. Lake Erie has eaten away at the shoreline of Holiday Beach and the trails there are flooded out, so the only place to go walking now is along the roadways, and the Conservation Area has closed the beach. Hopefully the water will go down before the Festival of Hawks near the end of September. In Windsor the Lakeview Marina is closed for the year while they install a new floating dock system. This marina is where we go in the winter to watch all the Eagles over at Peche Island.

I have been going through more of my photos, and found one that I meant to share before. We had a Snowy Owl sitting in a corn field down near Point Pelee back at the end of April. It was pretty far out in the field, so getting a nice clean photo was not really an option. Hopefully we have better luck next year.

As mentioned before, we spent a fair bit of May down at Point Pelee and other birding sights in the county, and took thousands of photos. May 9 in particular was outstanding. A bit of backstory first. On May 8 we had a couple things to do in the morning, alright, we actually slept in a bit longer, and we didn’t arrive at Pelee until after 10. By that time all of the southern parking lots were filled, and we had to park about half way down and take a shuttle to the main visitor centre. We figured the next day we would get our butts out of bed and get down there at a good time.

Come the morning of May 9 and we are up nice and early, arriving at the tip by 6:30. Of course there are already hundreds of people there, so we stood near a couple of gentlemen that we knew from other outings, and listened as they pointed out all the different birds flying in and out from the tip. It got to the point where we truly didn’t know where to look, there were so many birds. It was amazing. Birds were flying in and out in what was being called a “reverse migration”. Others suggested they were orienting themselves with the coast after flying through the night. Didn’t matter to us what it was called, we were just giddy with what was happening.

We stayed at the tip for about 6 hours that day, and talked with some people who said that they had been coming every year and had never seen it like this in over 30, 40 or 50 years. We were floored to think that this was really our first true year of birding (stage 3 – see earlier blog post), and we were experiencing this spectacle.

Strange to think that we are almost in the middle of July and I am still working on photos from May.

Perhaps I need to stop being so trigger happy. Uh, no, I don’t think so.

Mind you, the birds have mostly moved on and the trees are nice and green, so even if they were here it’s getting harder to see them.

Hope you are enjoying seeing the photos and reading the stories as much as I enjoy putting this all together for you.

By the way, I noticed that there were some ads showing up on the site. I don’t know how they are getting there, but please ignore them.

Until next time, don’t forget to click Follow to get email notification when a new post is up.

Thanks

Birds, Bees and Bugs

This year we were fortunate to be able to visit Point Pelee during the Festival of Birds, and we met up with our friends Damian and Doug who provided us with most of our identifications of the over 125 species that we spotted. Once again, I took far too many photos, and it is taking quite a while to go through them all and select the “best of the best”. Here are a few, but there will be a lot more to come in the near future.

Blue Grey Gnatcatcher
Catbird
Kingbird
Ovenbird
Ruby Crowned Kinglet
Scarlet Tanager

Our Ruby Throated Hummingbird still visits our backyard feeder, and up until last week, the Baltimore Orioles were making sure we kept them fed as well. It looks like the Orioles have moved along now. And how’s this for something funny, during the inbound migration, I spent days trying to take a decent photo of a House Wren, but all they wanted to do was scurry around the leaf litter and undergrowth on the ground, and then fly away as soon as the camera would focus. I may have a good shot in there somewhere. Then a few weeks ago, I heard some sweet little “Whirreee – poop poop poop – peep peep” in the tree in the neighbour’s yard behind our fence. Then, as I watched, a House Wren popped down to the deck, found a little bit of fluff, grabbed it, and flew into a birdhouse that we put up on the fence. I was dancing with excitement. Not only was our birdhouse being occupied, IT WAS A HOUSE WREN! There have been a few ladies checking it out, but so far it doesn’t look like it met their standards. He is still in the tree, calling for the ladies, and occasionally tidying up the little love nest. Good luck to him.

Ruby Throated Hummingbird
House Wren calling for the ladies
House Wren fixing up the love nest

One little fella that we really don’t want hanging around, is a Carpenter Bee. At first I thought it was a Honeybee, so I left it alone, until I found some wood shavings under our steps, and saw the bee make its way into a hole under the stair. Did some quick reading up, and sure enough there is a difference in the Honeybee, and the Carpenter bee. Looks like I have to make the bee a little uncomfortable about moving in, but I might not be able to evict it until the fall.

When we came to Leamington a few years back during the Canada Day weekend we were introduced, rather rudely I might say, to the common Fish Fly. At night, they would fly in from the waters of Lake Erie, and buzz around anything that a) moved, b) didn’t move, c) was lit up, d) wasn’t lit up, e) breathed. We woke up in the morning and the hotel was covered in them. The cars were covered, the roads were covered, and the grass was alive with them. Millions upon Millions of them. And when you walk on them they crunch and emit the smell of rotting fish. Imagine the smell in town as people try to go about their business, driving over them, walking on them, cleaning them off the signs and buildings everywhere. Our neighbour told us when they lived in Belle River they had to use snow plows to get them off the street.

Well, this year isn’t too bad in Amherstburg. Sure, we have them, but nothing like Leamington a couple years ago.

On the other hand, we were in Kingsville (just west of Leamington) on Saturday and found some areas that were like a carpet of bugs.

These bugs are at the end-of-life stage, and the only thing they are interested in is mating. They swarm around looking to hook up, then go off to the nearest streetlamp, neon sign, light coloured car / house / building / person, to wait to die. They live for 24 – 72 hours, and don’t even eat. In fact, they don’t have a mouth, so other than being a nuisance, they won’t bite you.

After a couple of weeks, they will be gone, and we wait for it all to happen again next year.

Fish Fly
Fish Flies under streetlamp
Fish Flies on a hydrant
Carpet of Fish Flies beneath a streetlamp. Notice all the bugs in the grass as well

Welcome to Summer and Happy Canada Day.

Hope you are enjoying, and please be sure to click Follow at the first screen, so that you get automatic notification when a new entry appears.

Till next time, don’t forget to click Follow on the main screen.

Thanks

Typical About Us page – might be worth a look

First off, welcome to the site. How about getting to know what we are all about.

For a number of years during the Victoria Day holiday in May, my lovely lady and I would make our way to Leamington Ontario on the shores of Lake Erie, to enjoy the Spring Migration of the songbirds through Point Pelee National Park. At the time, we had no ideas that we were Birders, we just liked to see all the pretty birds and take some nice pictures.

When we weren’t spending our time in the park, we would be out gallivanting through the area, seeing what we could see, and tossing around the idea of one day moving down here.

Everyone that we met was so nice, and the weather was almost always so nice, and the landscape, although mostly flat, was just so nice, and the air was so much cleaner than Toronto, and was (you guessed it) so nice.

Back in Toronto we would talk about one day retiring and moving to Southwestern Ontario, and maybe find a house that we could turn into a small nursing home, or maybe a bed and breakfast, or how about an Airbnb. We worked out the style of home that we would like, and what would be nice in the yard, and even when we felt we should make the change. Our goal was when we were in our early 60’s so that we still had the strength to follow our other dreams as well.

Fast forward to the autumn of 2018.

We had originally planned on taking a trip to Iceland and drive the Ring Road, but when we found out that our son and his lady had that on their bucket list, well, we decided to hold off until we could all go together. My lady and I had our time booked for holidays, so we decided to wander down to Pelee to observe the outbound Monarch Butterfly migration.

Apparently, we missed the big push through, by about 2 days. Instead of the thousands of butterflies, we saw maybe 50. Even then, that still was pretty cool.

The weather played against us, and since we had a week in the area, we started driving around and my lady got on her phone and began looking at houses for sale.

We got in touch with James, a realtor with Remax, and he took us to look at a few houses.

In short time, we found a home that we both agreed was perfect for us.

Was it the dream home that we had been thinking and planning about? Nope, not in the least. Much smaller than our dreams, not at all big enough for a nursing home, bed and breakfast or even Airbnb. But it was still perfect for us, and if a couple of people come to visit, there is room for them as well.

Now for the hard part. Going back to Toronto and telling family, friends and employers that our retirement plans have made a bit of an adjustment. No longer were we thinking 65, or even 63 years old, but just a couple of months away instead. Yup, returned from bird and butterfly watching in Pelee in October, and moving out of Toronto to a small town of Amherstburg (Where the heck is that?) by the end of December.

Flurry of activity looking after the sale of the old home, figuring out what we need to take with us, and wondering just how the heck we go about down-sizing, all in the space of a couple of months.

I figured I would be too frazzled to sell all our stuff on Kijiji, so we hired Max Sold to come in and auction off the stuff we didn’t need. They did a great job, and we got rid of most of what was up for sale.

So, here we are, at the end of the Detroit River, as it enters Lake Erie, in our perfect (for us) little home, with just a tiny bit of grass in the front yard, that our neighbour and my lady compete to cut first, and our back yard that has a nice deck and no grass, much, much smaller than we had in Toronto. We have great neighbours that are willing to help out anywhere they can, and we are learning to live our lives at a much slower pace.

We have officially become Birders and many of my posts will be about the birds, but we will still let you know about all the other goings-on in and around Amherstburg and the rest of our little adventures.

Thanks to Adam, who helped me get going with this Blog / Social Media thingy.

Thanks for checking in. There will be more to come soon.

Noel and Juliette.