On to Montreal

 

Aside from the expensive mishap with the van, the next morning proceeded without incident.  We returned the van to the agency then took a taxi to the airport where we caught the UP Express to Union Station in downtown Toronto.  We got there in plenty of time to catch our Via Rail train to Montreal.

Union Station is beautiful!

We had a relaxing train ride

To Montreal

where we were picked up by our friends Janet and Rod and brought to her condo in Old Montreal.

We had an excellent meal at Restaurant Méchant Boeuf.

Last Day in Ontario

 In the morning we started to walk down the Marsh Trail on the west side of the park but it became clear that we were only going to be seeing and hearing the regulars:  robins, redwinged blackbirds , yellow warblers and yellowthroats. 

Also this house wren

That and we were walking behind a thick screen of vegetation blocking our view of the beach.  

We next tried the Spicebush trail, known for its maidenhair

and oyster ferns.

We headed back  through the woods

 but got caught in a rainstorm so spent the rest of the morning in the van.

In the afternoon we headed back to the dreaded 401, and drove through ever thicker traffic back to Brampton where we would drop off our van in the morning.  Of course we missed our exit again and wound up on the toll road before we found an exit.

We stayed overnight in a Walmart parking lot, but first we went to wash the van and managed to damage the air-conditioner on a too low entrance! 

Aside from that mishap we were very happy with our short experience with #vanlife.  The night at Walmart was uneventful and we were the only people in the lot.

Rondeau Day 2

The next morning we drove down to the southernmost parking lot and hiked the South Point Trail.

We drove by a wild turkey on our way to the trailhead.

The trail went through the woods and then out onto the beach on the south end of the peninsula.  Leo saw a Canada warbler, a lifer for him.

On the beach we saw semipalmated plover, 

Dunlin,

Ruddy turnstones 

and unidentified small sandpipers.

An enjoyable hike but it got a little hot and mosquitoes by the end.  So we stopped by at the park store and had an icecream.

In the afternoon we drove to Erieau, a resort town  located on the end of a peninsula adjacent to Rondeau Park.

There's a long beach here and people were actually swimming.  The lake was a bit scummy here.

We walked down the breakwater 

to the miniature  light house.

Back to Hillman Marsh and on to Rondeau Provincial Park

 

Our last day at Point Pelee, we went back to Hillman Marsh.  The best birding was in the trail to the marsh, wherever got good views of an indigo bunting (above) and a bay-breasted warbler.

Lots of tree swallows.

The Merlin app identified a field sparrow calling.  We got him to respond to a callback, but it never came out in the open.  Too bad. A lifer for both of us and such a dearth of sparrows in the Erie Lake area.

In the afternoon we drove to our last destination, Rondeau Provincial Park.  

Past the avenue of greenhouses again

We set up in our last campsite for the trip.

And walked down to the Black Oak trail.  Here we saw a plethora of house and Carolina wrens.

Checking out the wrens.

We found the beach.  

(There is a lot of beach, it's a peninsula.)

On our way back we spotted a kildeer on the side of the road.

It went into broken wing mode.  I was very excited as I'd never witnessed this before.

Which meant there was a nest nearby.  We looked and looked and couldn't find it.  Then I saw Leo nearly step on what looked like a pile of dried up dog turds.

It was a nest with several baby kildeers.  

Fortunately, disaster was averted and we let the kildeer family be.  Looking back we noticed these 2 traffic cones that were put there to keep us away from the nest!