Along the Waterfront Trail, Whitby

Looking towards Whitby Harbour where the boats are still encased in plastic

Took the pup and one of my daycare girls down to the Waterfront Trail this morning. It was a rather dismal looking morning, but there was no wind and it was quite mild. Soon after we got going it started to rain a bit, but we didn't get too wet as we were well bundled.

Five minutes along and I stopped to deal with the dog or the child (can't remember which) and when I straightened up I noticed we were being followed ...

Not a great photo from my phone, but it was a coyote. He was just standing there watching us and maybe 40 feet away from me. Another man came walking along, and I pointed behind me and said "coyote". He didn't believe me at first, "Are you sure it's a coyote?", but when the coyote turned away and sauntered away from us we could see his nice bushy tail. I was continuing away from the animal, but the man was heading towards it. I suggested he make some noise as he walked along to scare it away and maybe find a good stick. He crawled under a tree and came back with a suitable stout stick and went on banging the stick on the pavement. I put the child into the stroller and kept Cody on his leash and we had no further encounters. It was just a little bit creepy because of the way the coyote was very still and definitely interested in us. I'm going to say he was more interested in the dog than the child.

Below are the photos uncropped

Cody isn't a big dog, so I too found a stout stick ... just in case! Coyotes around here have been known to grab a dog out walking with their owners, so I wasn't really thrilled with the encounter and I kept a wary eye out for him.

Anyway, that was my excitement for the day. I did take some more photos along the trail, but it's not the most interesting of places.  I'm kind of glad I didn't bring the camera because of the rain. We were out for a couple of hours, and it was nice to get home and warm again.

I like taking photos of tree silhouettes while the leaves are still off the branches.

a very dried out Queen Anne's Lace

larch tree / tamarac

There were all kinds of these beautifully made little nests in the red shrubs. I don't know what bird made them, but maybe the sparrows or goldfinches?

Lake Ontario had a nice tint of turquoise today. There were lots of ducks out on the water. I think I saw a lot of buffleheads, but couldn't be sure. I'll have to go down again with the zoom lens and try to get some better photos of the water birds.

A tree recently felled ... shall we count the rings?

Cody doesn't seem to enjoy the wet weather so much as he gets older. He was quiet and walked close to me the entire walk. Good thing he has a nice thick double coat which repels the water fairly well.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Wendy ... and Cody