The World Through Our Lens
Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south and east by the American state of New York.
Sandbanks Provincial Park is a park in Ontario known for its sand dunes and sandy beaches. Late the afternoon before our planned hike in the dunes, Bob had taken a quick peak at the dune system from Dunes Beach. Read more
Today, in Toronto, we came upon a flutter of Monarch butterflies at Colonel Samuel Smith Park on the edge of Lake Ontario. The winds were brisk out of the northwest, and as a result, the butterflies were staying very low.
Amherst Island is situated in Lake Ontario near Kingston, and for at least a couple of years, Bob and I had intended to visit it. The intention was to photograph birds of prey that winter there. Our explorations were enriched by of a healthy population of White-tailed Deer that casually foraged in different areas. Read more
It was late spring when Bob and I undertook our second notable bike ride of the season, May 28, and because of the warm temperature, we opted to cycle from Scarborough to the Lake Ontario shoreline. At the first rocky breakwater east of Highland Creek Trail, we spotted 5 Whimbrels grouped on some large flat slabs of concrete. Read more
Our winter here in southern Ontario has been a real mixed bag to say the least. Yoyoing between a series of very warm spells and frigid Arctic air has left us, here in Toronto, with no snow to speak of, and it is now the end of February. What a surprise then, when Bob and I walked along the shore of Lake Ontario in Whitby, to find the water thick with slab ice and the most fanciful ice formations decorating the shoreline. Read more
After a spate of hot, humid weather, Bob and I seized the first day of below-seasonal temperatures to go cycling in Toronto. While cruising along the Lake Ontario shoreline at the bottom of Rouge National Urban Park, we spotted a Mink loping along the rocky shore with a floppy fish dangling from its mouth. Read more
Shoreline Ice at Tommy Thompson Park
On our one and only outing to Tommy Thompson Park this past winter, Bob and I felt like kids let out of school for the summer. It was a pleasantly warm, sunny day…typical March weather with a persistent wind out of the north that threatened to chill us to the bone if it weren’t for the strong rays of the sun beating down on our backs. Still, winter had its icy grip on Toronto’s lakeshore. Read more
At the height of the past spring’s migration, Bob and I made a plan to check out Ashbridge’s Bay Park at the shoreline of Lake Ontario in Toronto. Hundreds of sightings had been reported there the previous week, so we were up much earlier than usual and on site in the parking lot before the sun’s rays were much above the horizon. It was fairly late in the morning, however, when we discovered this female American Redstart (Setophaga ruticilla) in the middle of a dense thicket of trees. Read more
On a winter morning, Bob and I left our house to scope out Colonel Samuel Smith Park at the edge of Lake Ontario. We were on the hunt for some Snowy Owls that had been seen there a couple of days earlier. We had no idea that, later that same day, surging waves driven by gale-force winds would be battering the Toronto waterfront. Read more