Have you ever seen a pied-billed grebe? Maybe a better question is: Have you ever heard of a pied-billed grebe? These relatively small aquatic birds are common throughout North America, but unless you spend some time around lakes, ponds and wetland marshes you might never see one.
Did you know there are nearly 11,000 species of moths living in the United States? Most people have seen many of the various common moth species living around their house, yard and garden, but there is one species in particular that is pretty unusual. It is the Ailanthus Webworm moth.
Our hostess at Camping Amerique Montreal spoke excellent English, which was good. Our French is abysmal! Moneau patiently showed us on the map how to get to Montreal, a 30-minute drive. She also showed us where to park, explaining that the 25$C we'd spend for parking was the best parking value in the city.
Have you ever seen a bright blue bird? Well, yes, there are blue jays which are mostly blue, and there are eastern bluebirds that are also mostly blue. But we mean a blue bird that is such a bright blue color that it looks almost neon-blue in the sunlight! That bird is the male Indigo Bunting.
Susan asked, "Why are we going to Ottawa?" "It's the country's capital," I said. "There ought to be something worth seeing there." As it turned out, I nailed it. Ottawa boasts several world-class museums (and quite a number of smaller ones!), two of which we got to visit.
One of the most fearless and voracious fish swimming around in the eastern United States today is the Bowfin. Also called dogfish, mudfish, mud pike, swamp trout and grindle, these hungry predators are always on the hunt for something to eat.
The drive through Toronto, well, I've had nicer nightmares. Twelve lanes of traffic, slow-and-stop-and-go, for well more than 50 miles. I'd been prepared for it to be bad, but I reached a breaking point and had to get off the 401, Ontario's main east-west route.
If you spend much time along lakes and waterways during the warm-weather months, you will likely see one of my favorite birds: the belted kingfisher. These birds are slightly larger than a robin, and they are an interesting blue-gray color above with a white belly and a white ring around their neck.
You can hear the falls before you see them. On a quiet morning the roar is audible for blocks. And when you can finally see them, the sight takes your breath away. We're talking Niagara Falls, from the Canadian side.
Brown trout are one of the three main species of trout living in Lake Michigan: including brown trout, lake trout and rainbow trout (steelhead). During the winter and early spring months when the weather is cold, brown trout are one of the easiest of the three species to catch out on the big lake.
