This photo taken back on September 26th in the Palgrave conservation area provides a last glimpse of summer. There is only a small hint of changing colours and it just shows you how quickly it can turn from very green to the colours of fall. This is an HDR photo processed in Photomatix from a single raw file from my camera, click here to see the original photo.

I caught a few close ups of this Garden Snake on my way to Caledon Lake. The official name for them is actually Garter Snake but they also go by a number names, garden snakes, gardner snakes or gardener snakes, or even garder snakes or guarder snakes. I took this photo with my new Olympus E-620 DSLR camera and my 70-300mm zoom lens and was lucky to grab a few pictures with his tongue sticking out.

The common Garter snake is common all across North America from Canada to Central America and they are the single most widely distributed reptile in North America. For more information on Garter Snakes, click here.

Here are couple more pictures of this little guy I manage to get before he slithered back into the marshy water.

The above photo is a panorama picture I made of Caledon Lake which is located just south of Orangeville and west of Highway 10. Caledon Lake is easily the largest lake in all of Caledon which isn’t known for having lakes of any significant size. Given the size of the lake you would thing it would be a little more well known yet it isn’t because Caledon Lake is mostly a private lake with no easy public access to this lake and I am sure those who own cottages along this lake would like to keep it their private secret. Despite it being mostly a private lake it doesn’t appear to be totally private, except for the row of 20-30 cottages the rest of the area appears to be protected land going by the official name of the Caledon Lake Forest Conservation Area.

There is two ways to get to Caledon Lake, you can turn down a private road which leads to those cottages (road isn’t marked at all from the road) or better you can access it from the other side by driving over and up to the end of Mississauga Road. There you will find lands owned by the Peel District School Board which is a camp / nature centre. If you choose the later option simply walk up the driveway, pass the barn and you will find a trail that follows a river to Caledon Lake, make sure you are on the trail which follows the left side of the river. The trail is well maintained and a nice 5-10 minute walk to the lake. When you arrive at the lake you will see the same view as the picture above (click on the photo for a larger image).

Searching on Google I can’t find much else about the lake, only tiny bits of info here and there. It appears to be a good fishing spot, while I was there taking photos two guys arrived on the same path I took and easily started catching good sized fish with in a few minutes. The lake also looks like a great place to swim, the water very warm. Power boats also seem to be allowed on this lake despite it boarding on protected lands. Here are a few more photos of Caledon Lake.

Here is where Caledon Lake is located, click on the image below for a large version on Google Maps.

While looking on Google Maps one day I found an area along the Humber river north of Palgrave, Ontario that appeared to be densely forested and appeared to be untouched. It looked interesting and got my curiosity going so I decided to take small hike for about an hour or two and check it out. Once entering this area it was quite clear that there was no trails, no paths, nothing, the land is completely untouched so you need to make your own trail and find your way through some of the dense bush and trees. I started off following the Humber river but at times was forced to detour into the forest. All of this land I think is owned by someone but is unused and the land definitely borders on other people’s property as I came to the edge of a few people’s properties when I went off course a bit but the bulk of all this land is untouched and peaceful where you’ll never see anybody but animals and birds. Below are some more pictures of the area.

The fallen tree in this last photo I actually climbed accross it to get to the other side of the river, camera gear and all.

With spring just around the corner the ice is starting to melt on many of the ponds in the area, I caught this Canadian Goose walking along the dangerous ice. Although many geese stay year round now those that did leave appear to be returning, I am seeing more and more of them in the Caledon area as the weather gets warmer. Photo was taken along Highway 50 near the Albion Hills Conservation Area. I used my zoom lens(70-300mm) to take the photo and used the HDR software Photomatix to brighten and enhance it, click on the image above for a larger photo.

This small little woodpecker has been in my backyard for quite a while but I haven’t been able to get a good picture of him until now. I am not entirely sure but I think it is either a female Downy Woodpecker or a female Hairy Woodpecker, if you know please let me know. I have seen these little guys all over Caledon and if it wasn’t for the wood pecking you might easily mistake it for chickadee or some other small little bird. Picture was taken with my Olympus 70-300mm zoom lens and was then cleaned up and enhanced with the program Photomatix. Below is a small Animated GIF I made of it pecking at the white birch tree.

I found this little guy a red headed woodpecker inside the Palgrave Conservation area. Unfortunately it had started to snow at the time but I was determined to get a picture of him so once I spotted him I slowly stalked him into the deep woods and with my brand new zoom lens (Olympus 70-300mm) for my SLR I caught these photos of him. Due to the low lighting and snow falling I adjusted the images in Photoshop and Photomatix to bring out the colour some more and smooth it out. Click on the photos to open larger images.