I was deserted this weekend! I was supposed to get up to the cottage but the rest of my family had made alternate plans and as I can't get the boat in the water alone I decided to just stay home. Everyone has gone off somewhere so it was too quiet and boring! I decided to go hunting yesterday and it turned out to be a good days hunt! I got beaver, turtle, turkey vultures.. Oh, and my hunting is only with a camera! No bloodshed!
I have never been to the Luther Marshes, about an hour and 15 minutes from here. I wanted to go for a walk as well, some where near water as I was missing the cottage andI found this area on line. It is a huge area, 5915 hectares for the Luther Marsh Wildlife Management Area and another 1582-hectare for the Luther reservoir. Today, the Luther Marsh Wildlife Management Area is a core of wetland habitats, including bogs, fens, swamps and marshes, augmented by a patchwork of upland forests, plantations, grasslands, rented farm fields, and recently restored habitats, which together make this the largest "core area" of primarily natural habitat in the watershed.
When I first entered I saw a lake. I didn't expect a 1,400 hectares lake in this area. I thought it was all going to be marshy and boggy. Luther Lake is shallow though and very weedy and full of stumps. It is man made from the headwaters of the Grand River watershed by a damn. Make sure to enlarge these photos for a better look!
There is a nice 6klm walk along the waterfront I followed.
There were many of these. Not sure what they are but think there is a nest in the ground. I f you know what they are, please tell me! Some had way too tiny an opening to be snake or animal. Thinking it is from some kind of insect, possibly wasps.
There were hundreds of Dragon Flies flying all around.
The path veers away from the lake and goes through a forested area. Here there were several wild lilac trees that were attracting butterfies and bees.
I love to see the Bumble Bees at work!
The path through the woods was so beautiful and vivid green, lined with many kinds of wildflowers.
After my walk, I decided to drive around the area. This whole area has many bogs, swamps , marshes and wetlends. I saw this little guy sunning on a log in a pond just off road. Looked like a common box turtle. There was another that jumped into the water as soon as I got out of my car.
As I was driving by this small pond I saw rings in the water. I stopped, expecting I would see fish.
Then I realized I was being watched. There was a baby too but it swam away into the bushes quickly.
The mother stayed for several minutes, intermittently diving and eating. She was not concerned about me in the least. You can plainly see her broad Beaver tail. Should she have been alarmed, she would have slapped it on the water hard as a sign for everyone to run for cover. Finally, she swam off into the bushes to follow her young one.
There were many marshes and little ponds and I saw lots of water fowl. I continued to drive around the wetlands and saw such beautiful farmland, with soil so rich! At one farm I saw an old barn and a couple of large birds sitting on a pile of old wood. Looking more closely I saw they were Turkey Buzzards. I stopped my car and got out quietly hoping for a couple of pics. Surprisingly they didn't fly away.
I started into the field when I realised there wasn't two birds but four!
Then I Saw two more a little ways over on the wood pile. There were 6!
I had continued to walk slowly through the field towards these great birds. When I was about 75 feet away, they took to the skies and soared around my head. I couldn't focus fast enough to get any good shots, but managed a couple.
Just down the road, another shallow little lake.
I spent 7 hours on this trip and took 176 photos. More for another time!
Have a wonderful week!
