Iain Leitch Photography

 For my birthday weekend, I went up to Marten River Provincial Park for the first time. I had a site right on the water, which made it easy to launch my canoe. The first day I paddled up Marian Creek which is where the first three photos are from. The initial idea was to get all the way to Marian Lake but the creek narrowed, got shallow and had to many log jams to make it all the way up.  After the canoe trip I went on a hike in the park on the Transition Trail. This train is rather long at nearly 5km but was full of things to see including a 350 year old White Pine. During the hike I came upon a large flock of mostly warblers which is where photos 4-12 are from.  The final three photos are just ones I took thought the trip. This includes the water access at the campsite which was foggy one morning, a nice photo of the Canadian Shield and a starry night. Common Merganser Caterpillar Bumble Bee Pine Warbler Pine Warbler Lichen Blue Jay Ruby Throated Humming Bird Vireo of s...

 I recently had the chance to go to Algonquin Provincial Park for a day trip during the week. This meant slightly less crowds at the trail heads. I did two different trails, while at the park, Whiskey Rapids and Peck Lake. Each trail is roughly 2.5ish KM in length and moderate difficulty.  The Whiskey Rapids trail, starts off going downhill really fast, then follows the river for a good distance leading to the rapids the trail is named after, before heading back up to the trailhead in a much more reasonable ascent. On this trail I was able to take a photo of the White-throated Sparrow and the first two mushroom photos. The second trail, Peck Lake is a loop trail that goes around Peck Lake which is rather small and more of a good size pond compared to a lake. This trail had a little up and down but was fairly flat overall. The trail has multiple spots that you can use to go right down to the water and have a look around. The remaining photos are all from that trail.   ...

This past weekend I went camping at Silent Lake Provincial Park. It was a good camping trip, but there was a lot of biting bugs out. Even with those, I was still able to get out on a hike, and a paddle in my new to me canoe.  Garter Snake on some rocks by the water. Swamp Laurel, I saw paddling. Birch tree with some intense peeling bark. Threeleaf Goldthread among some moss. Mushroom in a stump of a tree. On the way back from the park I detoured to Morrow Creek again to get an event better waterfall photo.

The first and most likely only camping trip this year was just taken on the July 1st long weekend. It is probably going to be the only trip because we just got a puppy and aren't quite at the stage yet of taking her camping.  In some other news I got a new camera. Henrys was having an trade in event and for once was offering a fair deal. I traded in my Nikon D7200 and got a Sony Alpha a6600 instead. I got a 70-350mm lens and have an 16-50mm lens on order that should hopefully be in mid August. That is currently why all my photos are zoomed in and there is no landscape ones.  Sunset from the beach before the storm. Taken on my Pixel 6 My new camera with zoom lens. Slug basking in sunlight on a rock. Dragon fly resting. Black and White Warbler Red Eyed Vireo  Female American Redstart Ovenbird Mushrooms and Moss. Female Yellow Bellied Sapsucker.  

Recently I went camping a Murphy's Point Provincial Park, which is my favourite park to camp in Ontario. In my opinion is far better than Algonquin and Bon Echo and even Killarney. I saw a bunch of wildlife and even added to my birding life list which now stands at 58 birds.  There was a lot of centipedes at the park. There were also a lot of mushrooms sprouting. Mushrooms growing on a downed log. White Tailed Deer, I saw on a hike. Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker. Song Sparrow. A mushroom city. Not sure what this is. A mushroom in a sea of green.  

The last camping trip of the season before the weather gets to cold and the parks all shut for the year, was to Sharbot Lake Provincial Park. I went there around this time last year and it was very pleasant with this year being the same.  The weather worked out in our favor for once which was nice. We had a nice hike on their discovery trail. The autumn colours were just starting to change, which meant that most of the canopy was still green, however a few bits of yellow and orange were appearing. There was also still a decent amount of fungus growing on the forest floor which made for some great photos.  Silver Maple Marsh dividing the campgrounds. Black Lake Point in Sharbot Lake Stacked Mushrooms Fungus on Moss.