Almost immediately after entering the park and paying our $16 entry fee we spotted two moose, a mother and calf. We have been to Algonquin before and on one occasion spotted one moose, but never two before, so already we were really pleased and it made the visit worthwhile.

Here is the mother and her baby.

We carried on driving through the park to the other end, then turned round. Next we went to the visitors centre where we ate lunch and watched the birds outside on the feeders.

Here are some siskins, male goldfinch and a purple finch.

After filling ourselves with hotdogs and fries (we went for the healthy option) we carried on and then spotted another two moose. We had to do a quick U-turn to get back to where I had spotted them and it was again a mother and baby. Soon after we stopped, the baby moved into the woods, but I managed to get a photo of the mother. As soon as we stopped, other people saw us and they too stopped. Before we knew it there were half a dozen cars parked up taking photos.

All the moose we saw were very patchy with their fur. They must be in the process of getting rid of their winter coats and replacing them with summer ones. This is something we had to do ourselves as it got really warm. T-shirt weather for the first time this year, yippee!

After spending a few hours at the park, we drove home and saw another groundhog. So the total animal count was 4 moose, 1 deer and 2 groundhogs, not bad at all.

Last night it was announced that Osama Bin Laden had been killed by the US. Not sure how I feel about this as it could have bad repercussions. I doubt his people will let it go without a fight – literally! It is good he is gone, but there are plenty more when he came from.

Also, today is election day, so hopefully everyone who is eligible to vote will. Will we wake up to a majority conservative government tomorrow, or another minority? It does seem that if it is a minority conservative that it will be with the NDP in second place not the expected Liberals. We will have to wait and see.

On Saturday we decided to go for day out to Algonquin Park. We hoped we would be able to see a moose or two but unfortunately we saw pretty much nothing. Oh, we did see a heron – which we can see anytime around where we live, but at least we saw something.

All the lakes were pretty much frozen over still and it was considerably colder “up north” than we had where we live. They still had quite a bit of snow on the ground.

Back home we are still getting the deer wandering through the garden. From past experience this will soon stop as once we get towards the end of April we see them less and less.

Lots of chipmunks about now along with the usual squirrels.

In the evening we didn’t really do too much as the jet lag was catching up with them and they went to bed early.

On Wednesday we went up to Algonquin Park. We had a really good drive up there and stopped off at Tims in Bancroft. This was their first taste of Tims and they really liked the donuts and muffins. We then carried on the journey to the park.

We were lucky with the weather as it was nice and warm but not too hot so walking around was pleasant. One car park we stopped in had lots of black butterflies fluttering around. I managed to get a couple of pictures. They are apparently Mourning Cloak butterflies!

We did the beaver pond trail which goes round two beaver ponds. We saw the dam they had built as well as a couple of lodges where they live.

We then visited the visitors centre and took a look at the photo gallery they had there. There are some stunning photos on display and anyone into nature and photography should definitely visit. We also went round the exhibits they have on show and of course the girls went in the shop.

At the rear of the centre is a viewing platform where you can see across the park and we took some more pics there. When we had visited before they had a feeding station for birds and squirrels etc. This time however the area was a little run down and no food out so no birds or squirrels.

After having a bite to eat at the restaurant we ventured on to one of the many lakes in the park. We spotted some tracks in the sand and when we looked them up they appear to be coyote – unless anyone knows different!

We did a few other trails but failed to see any significant wildlife. The girls wanted to see a moose, but none were playing the game!

At the weekend we took the girls to Toronto where they stayed for two nights. They had a great time and went up the CN Tower, explored the lakefront area and of course shopped. We picked them up on Sunday evening and they were excited but pretty exhausted.

Yesterday we went to Toronto Zoo as this was somewhere they really wanted to go. We drove down together but then split up so they could do their own thing and us oldies were not cramping their style!

We saw some lovely butterflies pictured here.

There were also some amazing animals – here are a few. I will put the rest in my photo album section as soon as I have a few minutes.

This is an acrobatic orangutan baby posing is a slightly undignified way!

A rather stunning tiger

Some lazy river hogs

Just how cool is she?

A grizzly bear who was unfortunately wandering around in circles which is never a good sign in a bear!

And this handsome creature is a Southern hairy-nosed wombat. Now he has a face only a mother could love!

Today we dropped the girls off in Cobourg where they are spending the day on the beach. The weather is going to be great in the mid 20′s so they should get a bit of a tan.

This area has had more recent snowfall than were we live so there was a lot of snow still about. Most of the trails were inaccessible so we didn’t bother with them. We did the drive through the park and stopped off at the visitors centre which has a great balcony at the back with superb views across the park.

From this balcony you can see where the park people feed the birds and we could see Blue Jays, woodpeckers, sparrows, chickadees, nuthatches and red squirrels. These are all birds we get in our garden, but one addition was a grey jay which we do not see.

There are many areas with huge granite blocks of stone (Canadian Shield) from which huge icicles were hanging, looking rather stunning.

Going round the park we decided to exit from the far end and journey home in a different direction, one we hadn’t used before. It took us longer but was worth it as we saw a lot of deer wandering about and we also saw otters. We have never seen otters in the wild before so just seeing them made the whole trip worthwhile.

All in all a great day out.

We decided to go on Monday because according to the Fall Foliage Report the park was at its peak with full colour red and orange foliage.

We had a very uneventful journey there, very little traffic on the roads and great fall scenery. Stopped off in Bancroft for a Timmy’s and paid our $13 for a day pass to the park.

As we entered the park it became apparent that the foliage report was wrong. A lot of the park was still very green with a few clusters of red/orange areas. We were a little disappointed but it is still a beautiful place.

The weather was nice with temps around 25C, but it was cloudy. Did I mention the temps – bearing in mind it was the 1st October?

We did a few of the trails and walked quite a few km’s. The beaver lodges and dams were very evident.

Apart from five squirrels and one chipmunk we didn’t see any wildlife, which was disappointing as last time we were there in April we saw quite a lot including a moose.

When we got home in the evening we spotted a deer in our garden. We had not seen them about since around March when the weather started to improve.

So it turned out we saw turkeys on the way, deer at home but nothing in the park itself – typical.

By the way, here is that tree again.

We got to the park and after paying $8 for a day pass we drove round to one trail, but unfortunately it was closed and the other trail close by led to a canoe-launching place. We hung around and took some pics and then drove back along the track to another area of the park.

This area was where everyone was camping and was busier than the other area, although we still could not believe that on a beautiful weekend day there were only a few people wandering around.

We walked along a few trails and followed the lakeshore. The lake is quite large and is overlooked by high cliffs and is quite pretty. We still thought Algonquin was much better and will go back there soon.

After spending a few hours there we drove back and in the evening sat outside in the lovely evening warmth. I sat talking to some of our squirrels – well it would be rude to ignore them and managed to get a chipmunk to take several peanuts straight out of my fingers. I also had an incredibly tiny and tame chickadee sitting on my hand for ages whist it tucked into the nut feast I held.

The robin chicks are growing and starting to get feather pins through.

They will be a week old on Monday and apparently stay in the nest for a couple of weeks, so they must grow very quickly.

When we were first looking at places to settle in Ontario, Bancroft had been a contender, but for whatever reason we dismissed the area, cannot remember why now!

We took a scenic route to Bancroft and saw many places that looked really nice. The closer to the town we got the hillier the surroundings. When we reached Bancroft we found it to be a really nice place which reminded us of some small American towns we had visited. We were a little peckish when we got there so found a Timmy’s for a coffee and muffin – well you have to, don’t you!

We wandered around Bancroft for a short time then decided, as it was still early to venture further north. Looking at the map we realised that we were reasonably close to Algonquin Provincial Park, so decided to drive there and take the road which runs through the south of the park – Highway 60.

When we got to the East Gate I went into the ranger station to see if we needed to pay or anything. The guy told me that as long as we were only driving along the highway we didn’t need to. We were also ok to stop off and take photos etc. He gave me a info sheet and map and off we went.

The road runs for 54 km and as we travelled along almost immediately noticed several cars parked up for no apparent reason, so we stopped too. It turned out there was a moose at the side of the road. We saw our first ever Canadian moose. It was a female and she was a bit tatty as she was shedding her winter coat, but hey, we saw a moose.

We stopped off at quite a few vantage points to admire the scenery. Some of the lakes are stunning and we took lots of photos. We also managed to see a couple of deer, but as we get them in the garden most nights we were a bit blasé about them.

The guide sheet we were given gave details of the hikes you can go on in the park and also the best time to visit to see wildlife. It seems that the first couple of weeks of May are good, so we plan to return then, better equipped and do some of the hiking trails.

We left the park late afternoon and managed to spot a groundhog grazing at the side of the road on the way home. We stopped off at Timmy’s again for a coffee before travelling the rest of the way home.

We had dinner and settled in for a night of TV. Whilst watching TV we always have one eye on the window to see what is going on in the garden. As usual the raccoons paid a visit and then quite a bit later my hubby spotted something else in the garden. We thought at first it was a raccoon, but it was moving differently, so I got the scope out and could just make out a porcupine in the dark. I took some pics before it wandered off, but because it was dark they are not very good.

So, we managed to see a moose, a groundhog, deer and a porcupine, quite a day!