My Facebook friend, Crystal, says Riverwood is the “best place ever” and I’m inclined to agree – it’s certainly on the “local” shortlist. But it doesn’t divulge its secrets without some work on your part. My daughter and I went to explore one fine day in early June, and I had planned a loop with some options. We never found the turn-back for the loop, and ended up in the “optional” part, under the 403, which I would say was not one of Riverwood’s finest attractions – at first glance, anyway. We didn’t find that much wildlife.
My neighbour, another keen photographer, wanted to go back to try to catch a hummingbird photo, so we embarked on my second trip there, together, in July. I had been studying maps and thought I could find the missing leg of the loop that I could see on the maps (labelled as being part of the Culham Trail). I couldn’t. This time we attempted to access it from the lower parking area, which looked like it could be accessed somewhere under Burnhamthorpe. On three separate attempts, our phone GPS reported we were not going in the right direction, and we finally climbed a bank and found ourselves on the “other” leg of the loop, and decided to abandon the unknown and embrace the familiar. At least I was able to locate the spot where the local birds have trained people like us to feed them. That’s my neighbour’s hand with a woodpecker feeding. We ended up in the gardens and checked out the places where a hummingbird had been reported previously. But of course there was no trace of one that day.
Finally, in August, I came to my senses and took Crystal up on her long-standing offer to give me the guided tour. This time we started in the main parking lot, and within steps of the car, Crystal sighted a hummingbird, which we photographed – finally I had my first hummingbird photo! After a tour of the gardens we went down the path that I had previously gone up at the end of a trek. Then we went down a slope that I later realized was the one my neighbour and I went up, across a concrete bridge that looked rather sketchy and finally along a trail that did not seem navigable, but was, and finally we arrived at a cross trail that I recognized as the one I had travelled twice before. Later, comparing the GPS coordinates on phone pics I had taken along the way, I realized that this was in fact the trail I had been looking for, and in fact I had stood on the concrete block/bridge before and decided the path I had seen could not be a “proper” trail!
So, it definitely pays to get a guided tour from an expert, especially an expert who spotted a hawk off in the distance that I had difficulty seeing even with guidance, and a flash of hummingbird that I hadn’t even given a thought to.
We ended up back in the gardens, and followed someone’s directions (“around the back – just look for all the photographers”) to find a second hummingbird which kept coming back to sample a tempting nectar source. That’s where I took the racoon photos, while waiting for the bird’s return – Mum came out of the woods to scout out a bird feeder, and when it seemed safe enough, allowed junior to come up to join her.
Here are some more photos from those three trips:
