April 26-27, 2019
We wanted to attend the funeral of Vera Ries, a Blythe cousin, in Markdale on Saturday, the 27th. As it was about a 7-hour drive from Ottawa, we drove down on the 26th to a nearby guest house at Eugenia Falls. We decided to avoid the busy highways and take Hwys 41 & 28 through Bancroft and secondary highways thereafter.
At Griffith, we found the Madawaka in full flood. At Norland, on the Gull River, we saw a flock of Ring-necked Ducks.
We had lunch in the van at the Norland Hydro Power Project and then carried on to Orillia where we stopped for ice cream at Craig’s spot at the Kawartha Dairy.
Near Minsing, we spotted a couple of juvenile Trumpeter swans in the soggy fields. And close to Eugenia Falls, we saw 3 Sandhill Cranes.
We arrived in Eugenia Falls about an hour ahead of our stated time for the guest house, so we went directly to the lake to see the dam, outlet and lake itself. There was a pair of Common Mergansers cruising close to shore.
We checked in to the guest house and walked the short way, 4 minutes, down a path to see the falls. Wow! Very impressive. They were “discovered” by a Mr. Brownlee in 1852. The falls and reservoir lake have been used to generate electicity for miles around.
We returned to our van and drove to the causeway on the lake. We spotted a Northern Flicker on a pole, more mergansers and a Common Loon on the lake. There was an Osprey platform with nobody home.
We were too tired to go out for dinner, so had leftovers from home for supper in the kitchen of our guest house. We were the only guests staying there on this Friday night.
We awoke on Saturday to a surprise – snow! We did not even have a brush in the van. Barbara made coffee and heated our breakfast. Then we went back down the trail to see the falls in the snow. Very beautiful.
We checked out of the guest house and made a stop at Hogg’s Falls, on the way to Markdale. It was an impressive sight, but quite small compared to the majestic Eugenia Falls. Barbara spotted a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker.
We were two hours at the funeral home in Markdale, chatting with family, before starting our long drive home.
Between Edgar and Orillia, we saw two more Trumpeter Swan, adults, and one of them with a wing tag, H55, which we reported to Wye Marsh when we got home.
We stopped at the dairy again, and further along, we saw an Osprey on a nest across the road.
At Uphill, we deviated from our previous day’s journey by heading south through the Carden Plain hoping to see some Loggerhead Shrikes or Upland Sandpipers. But it was not to be. Our best sightings were a fleeting glimpse of a pair of Brown Thrashers and a Wild Turkey beside the road.
We continued south to Hwy 7 near Lindsay, then straight home from there via Peterborough, arriving at 8:30 pm.