Tag Archive for Tim Horton

Moose at Algonquin Provincial Park

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On Saturday it was such a lovely day we decided to drive up to Algonquin Park. The weather was beautiful, blue skies, sun shining and pretty warm. We drove leisurely and stopped off at Bancroft for a Tim’s – one of those obligatory stops you have to make! Then carried on to Algonquin. On the way we spotted a groundhog at the side of the road (alive) and a deer just about to cross the road, but fortunately didn’t. At least not in front of us!

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.

Exciting week

Well we have been quite busy this week with the girls visiting. We took them into Belleville just to look around and then we did some shopping at Walmart. They were amazed at the size of the place as we have a superstore here and it is pretty huge. They spent ages looking at the DVD’s and CD’s as they are quite a bit cheaper here than in the UK.

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.