Hullett Provincial Wildlife Area

Hullett Provincial Wildlife Area is a major wetland habitat approximately 25 kms east of Bayfield.  It consists of 2200 hectares of mixed terrain of which almost 40% is open water, marsh or swamp and provides a habitat for resident and migrant birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians and plants.  Throughout the area are several different walking trails and an extensive dyke system.  

There isn’t any winter maintenance done on the trails and they clearly hadn’t seen much pedestrian traffic recently, so walking wasn’t easy and I didn’t get all that far, but the little bit I did see had me enthralled and I will definitely be going back again!  It was generally cloudy, but occasionally there were bursts of beautiful sunshine, making for a lovely couple of hours.

This tree is definitely a favourite home for many.

On a return visit I definitely have to walk this trail!

Red and grey squirrels eat pine cones and leave characteristic ‘cores’ and piles of stripped scales under conifer trees.

It looked like winter caught many of these young beech trees by surprise with some of their leaves still on the branches.

Pandemic response - Week 49

They started up the fishing boat again today, gently moving it back and forth and breaking up the ice around it.

As soon as there was open water, in came this little bird, and you could almost see how happy it was!

From one day to the next...

Trying something new - playing around with reflections in puddles.

Pandemic life is hard on us all...including snow people!

Ice starting to break up on the river.

Temperatures are just a degree or two above freezing but that, combined with some strong winds, actually exposes the sand again in some sections on the beach.

For a couple of days the temperature has climbed to just above 0 degrees and even with just that little bit of warmth it’s amazing how quickly the snow is melting in some places...and in other places the banks of snow are still just as big as before.

Melting in sections on the pier.

If you look very carefully you can see the end of the north pier again.  All the snow and ice that was piled up on it has, in the past couple of days, melted and fallen off!

Bare patches around the trees at the marina and looking at the river you might be able to see where weak sections are starting to show.

Here ends Week 49 and February...tomorrow is the first day of March 2021.