A Day With The Birds

When I was a little girl, one of my favourite things to do was head over to Lynde Shores Conservation Area to feed the chickadees. I’m sure my parents loved it too – for the small cost of a bag of bird seed, they got to keep my sister and I outside – and entertained! – for hours.

Over Christmas break, a friend of mine posted pictures to Facebook of her family feeding birds there, and it got me thinking about some of those childhood memories. I soon forgot about it – until recently!

With the warm spring weather we’ve been having, I was itching to spend some much-needed time outdoors. I had plans to go Kayaking; but they fell through when the water levels didn’t drop enough for us to go out unsupervised as beginners. So when my boyfriend and I were looking for something inexpensive to do outside one sunny spring day, I immediately thought of Lynde Shores. I suggested the idea – and to my surprise, that was one experience he’d missed out on as a kid. That settled it: I grabbed a ziplock bag from my kitchen and we were off to Canadian Tire to buy a bag of bird seed.

Next thing you know, we had a few handfuls of bird seed in my purse and we were parking at the Conservation Area.

The Chickadee Trail (also known as the Birdfeeder Trail) is a short trail close to the parking lot – so if you’re visiting with kids, it’s not a long hike at all.

We spent well over an hour feeding the birds – and it was so much fun! I haven’t been there in quite a few years, so I was delighted to see the birds were still there and you were still able to feed them. Much to my surprise, a few woodpeckers even landed in our hands to snatch up some sunflower seeds – I don’t remember that ever happening when I was younger!

Although we only walked the Chickadee trail while we were there, there are a number of other trails available to hike, and plenty of wildlife to view. The conservation area is next to the Cranberry West Tract, and between the two there are 6 km of trails to walk. The Conservation Area is home to the Lynde Creek Marsh and Cranberry Marsh. There’s a boardwalk that stretches out across the Lynde Creek Marsh – although we didn’t walk it this visit as the sun was beginning to set, we’ll definitely be back another day. I remember I loved walking along the boardwalk as a little girl – there’s all sorts of wildlife to view.

If you have a canoe (or access to one), you can even canoe through the Lynde Creek Marsh between July and September. There’s designated fishing areas in Lynde Creek as well, and a picnic area – so you can easily spend a full day there with family and friends.

I’m already thinking about my next visit – and it’s so close to my house, I might just keep a ziplock bag with some bird seed in my car in case I ever get the urge to visit on my way home.