Chappell Marsh

Last year I learned of the existence of the Chappell Marsh Conservation Area. It was a discovery of the "this seems to good to be true" variety - within a 15 minute drive of my house, birds and wildlife galore, hardly any other people around, and right next door to my new favourite U-Pick farm (which feels similarly too good to be true), Rhodes Raspberries and Blackcurrants.

In the age of physical distancing, Chappell Marsh is the perfect alternative to some of the potentially more crowded and well-known Meewasin sites. We went on a Sunday afternoon two weekends ago and were the only people in the area for the full hour we were there! We saw tons of birds, a wide variety of wildflowers being enjoyed by all sorts of bees and butterflies, and even a deer and a coyote. (Full disclosure, the wildlife encounters also included one tick that I found several hours later on my back.)

(My photos are quite bad because I just brought my point-and-shoot camera, but was kicking myself for not bringing my DSLR and telephoto lens because I missed out on some great photo opportunities. Above are the best I could get of an eastern kingbird and our coyote friend who unnervingly watched us for several minutes.)

There are a couple of hours' worth of trails to explore, plus sitting areas and a few little offshoots from the trails that would be great places to set up for the day for extended bird watching or photography. It is more of a wetland/grassland environment rather than deep woods, but there are plenty of trees to shade at least a portion of the trails.

I will be back to Chappell Marsh this summer, and look forward to experiencing fall migration there as well!