Amherst island – December 2018

We had a great day today.  Headed out bright and early for Amherst island.  Well, early for me………….we left our house before 7 a.m.  We were on the ferry and over to the island before 830.  This island is located in Lake Ontario about 10 kms west of Kingston, Ontario.   Cost for us and our truck was $9.  It was supposed to be sunny all day but of course, it wasn’t.  It was about 4 Celsius and a few sunny spells.

We headed to Amherst Island to see the Snowy Owls, which appear to be taking over the island.  They are soon going to have to change the name to Snowy Island !  We saw about  25 Snowy Owls, all in the same couple of fields.  They are doing construction on the island and there is a small fenced in area where the company keeps their supplies and there were 8-9 Snowys just sitting in there.   The rest were spread out, mostly on hydro poles.  Quite amazing…………..

We drove around the island and spotted a Cormorant in the water and I love Cormies.  The photos were meh………I took a couple but the lighting and the distance was not great so they got trashed.

We also saw a Great Blue Heron, which I thought was odd at this time of year.  They usually spend winters from southern Canada and downwards.  I have read that occasionally a Great Blue Heron will survive a winter in the north if he can find open water.  It just seems late in the year for them to be here, although, we have seen the odd one this time of year before.  Sadly no photos of this guy either……..

And of course, the prerequisite Wild Turkeys which I also love, okay I love all wildlife. I did have some photos but I didn’t like how they turned out, again the distance was too great to get a decent shot.

We stopped at one point as there was the cutest herd of sheep.  Yup, love them too.  I just think they are severely underrated as a photo op.  They have the cutest faces.  We went to the fence to take photos and they just came running from all directions to the fence to see us.  So funny.

Some Black and Whites………..

I know, that was a sheepload of sheep photos but really how cute are they?

In between all this driving around, we would head back to the owl area and walk along the roads.  They all seemed to want to sit and stare so even though we waited quite a while, we didn’t get many action shots.   But that’s okay, there is always another day and another opportunity to look forward to.

We both spotted this tree by itself and I like the look of single, or independent, trees.  I played around in Lightroom today with the three photos I took and tried different ideas.  What do you think?

I guess we were there about 4 hours and then had to leave as we had an appointment in Cobourg, Ontario at 5 p.m. and some things to do prior to THAT…………

After our meeting in Cobourg, we headed to Williams Street Brewery.  We have tried their beer in the past but not been to their location; also I don’t really remember their beer.  So today is the day !

Friendly people at Williams Street Brewery.  We shared a taster tray of five.  They had run out of North Shore Ale.  The rest were okay, none really stood out for me.  We did enjoy Willie’s Best Bitter, it was light and crisp.  The IPA, my favourite type of beer, was not very hoppy but still tasted okay.  No porters or stouts for Clint, which are his favourites.  So he was disappointed about that.  I put a link to their website, which says temporarily out of order, but maybe they are fixing it.   But all in all, glad we went and tried.  You never know what they might have..

And then home………………….great day.