I briefly met Pentax Forum's hsteeves at the Opeongo Parking lot for a bit of Gray Jay hunting.

Along the Opeongo Road.


We didn't find Gray Jays but the Chickadees and Blue Jays are alway there.





Over at the Spruce Boardwalk Trail, we bumped into Dan Strickland and a team of students from the University of Guelph, hsteeves is the closest face, Strickland is further away, telling the students about something. He is the man responsible for the extensive Gray Jay project that bands all the birds along the HighWay 60 corridor.





One lone photographer was at the suet feeder taking Jay pictures.


One of the Jays... Strickland said in previous years this Jay had been seen over at Pinetree Lake. And it was with another male. Maybe Gay Jays.

There was a Raven in the parking lot.


On the way home, it was definitely snowing at Brewer Lake.

[LaurenOE]

To me, living on the windy frozen prairie, anything south of the 49th parallel is temperate, but you might find Algonquin or any part of "semi-northern" Ontario (about the same latitude as Portland, Oregon) a bit too chilly. For most people, what you grew up with is what you want to return to. Oddly enough (or because I'm odd), while I grew up in the bush (other than the pieces my Dad had cleared to farm) and feel most at home walking by myself surrounded by trees, I don't think I want to retire to the bush. I know my wife would go out of her mind (well, even further out of her mind).

I grew up in New York.
Hubby came from Florida.
I have to have trees.