In August, Gary and
I went for 2 short camping trips to Ivanhoe Lake Provincial Park. It is situated near Foleyet, around 120 km from South Porcupine. It is such a wonderful park; I'm afraid my words can't do it justice. The long sandy beach, the many trails and the rich variety
of trees makes it a great place to observe birds... and a great place to peacefully
enjoy nature.
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| Ivanhoe Lake Provincial Park beach - August 2014 |
When we first arrived, we
set up our camper (which is just a matter of popping the top up!) and we jumped
on our bicycle to explore every inch of the park. I had
been there when I was a child but it was a long time ago.
I was
very happy to rediscover that awesome sandy back road that goes near Saw Lake
and Boys Lake. The back road in Ivanhoe park has
very little traffic (around 1 vehicle every hour) and the best part is, it's
made of sand which means our bicycles can run smoothly without making noise
that would scare off the birds. So this sandy back road
quickly became my favourite place to look for warblers. We found many warbler
species, especially in the low deciduous bushes along the road between Saw Lake
and Boys Lake.
Sadly, I didn't take a
lot of photos. I find that when it comes
to warblers, you miss so much if you reach for your camera. I prefer my binoculars. I really wish I could share with you the
beautiful Black-throated Blue Warbler I saw... my first sighting in Northern
Ontario. I had only seen them in
southern Ontario before. But... no
photo.
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| Ruffed Grouse Ivanhoe Lake Provincial Park (August 2014) |
We kayaked the shores of Ivanhoe Lake where we saw a rock full of Spotted
Sandpipers, a Bald Eagle, an Osprey and a Merlin. Further on the lake, you can watch
Bonaparte's Gulls and Common Terns.
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| Bald Eagle - Ivanhoe Lake Provincial Park (August 2014) |
We also went kayaking on Saw Lake, which is a smaller lake situated in the
park.
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| Saw Lake in Ivanhoe Lake Provincial Park (August 2014) |
It's a perfect lake for kayaking; motorized-boats
aren't allowed on it. It seems like it's
always calmer than Ivanhoe and it has lots of bays and small islands that makes
it so much fun to explore in a kayak. And the Water Lilies are beautiful!
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| Water Lily on Saw Lake Ivanhoe Lake Provincial Park (August 2014) |
Beautiful pine trees
surrounded our campsite. Every evening, we could sit in our lawn chair and watch a Swainson's Thrush feeding on insects and berries in front of our site. We spent a total of 5
nights in the park in August (divided in 2 stays). We observed a total of 44
species during our time there. I didn't take
as many photos as I would've liked because our time there was limited and my
camera is not working that great.
One evening, we
watched a group of 5 Least Sandpipers feeding on the main beach.
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| Least Sandpiper Ivanhoe Lake Provincial Park (August 2014) |
The next morning, I
went to the beach to see if they were still there. They were gone but a Semipalmated Sandpiper was there alone.
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| Semipalmated Sandpiper Ivanhoe Lake Provincial Park (August 2014) |
I stood absolutely motionless as he walked the beach; they can get pretty close to us when we do this. I was able to take many photos including the one above where we can actually see the webbing between its toes.
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| Sunset on Ivanhoe Lake Ivanhoe Lake Provincial Park (August 2014) |
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