Field Trip

Although I was a bit worried about the whole Environmental Studies field trip thing  (I have some health concerns that can be a total PITA - including a tendency to faint when I cough and a cold - bad combination!) .... I not only survived it without making a fool of myself... I had a great time.

 We went to Grant's Bush outside of Orillia and in small groups were to find a variety of species of plants, trees and birds - fortunately, we were told ahead of time what we'd be looking for, so we were able to research them. Unfortunately, my camera is rather old and slow - so the pictures are no where near as good as some of you guys would have gotten - I missed the bird shots WAH!!!!!  But some of them aren't so bad.

Assembling in the parking lot. We were supposed to car pool but a lot of us took our own cars...bad environmentalists!

 last minute instructions

Leading the way. This is one of the other groups heading out.

One of the main things we learned - or I did, anyway - was that there are a whole lot of plants out there that I don't know the name of! You would think that in a group of 5 university students - and a field guide! - we could have identified pretty much everything, but no such luck.

We are pretty sure that these were marsh marigolds - which was one of the plants we were supposed to find.

 This was one of my favourite areas - just cool.

The go to guys...while the rest of our group was pretty content to stay on the trails for the most part, Joel and JoAnn got right into things. Here's they're off on a black cherry hunt.

The easiest plant to identify - and find - was the trilliums. Does the fact that we followed the Trillium Trail constitute cheating?  There were hundreds - maybe thousands of them .... mostly white, but we found some pink and purple ones too.

Who knew that trilliums could get so huge! This one was humongus compared to every trillium I have ever seen. The one on the right is normal sized.

  Most of my group.... Joel, Angela, and JoAnn. That's the prof behind the tree.

Angela is an amazing bird spotter! She found an owl way up in a tree - no pictures but it was awesome! Absolutely incredible. We watched it in the tree for a bit and then it took off and flew to another .... gorgeous wing span, and we could even see that it was carrying its dinner. And then it flew back - so we got to see it again.  And as an added bonus, she spotted it just before the prof joined us, and JoAnn had thought to bring binoculars. Bonus marks!!!! We suggested it, anyway :).

 Todd, the missing member ...well, other than me.... but since I had the camera (and I hate all pics of me) you're out of luck on that one.

Still looking for that darn blue cohosh.

Just cuz it was cool ....

 My favourite of the pictures I got.....I just loved the texture of this one. 

 I wish I could have got the owl, and the hummingbird that Angela spotted waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay high up in a tree... it was so tiny, I have no idea how she managed to pick it out.... most of the time it looked like an extension of the branch it was sitting on. But it was definitely a hummingbird. Must have been just for me, I figure :) Seeing as how I wore one of my hummingbird t-shirts today.