Mer Bleue Feed the Birds Hike

Every year that we are in Canada for Christmas, we go on a hike to feed the birds. This has been a tradition since before Boogs was born. Mer Bleue is about a ten minute drive from Grandmaman and Grandpapa's house in Ottawa, Ontario. It was -10 C (13 F) during our hike. That is really cold for a Texas native.

Grandpapa always takes us to our favorite spot for feeding the birds. Grandmaman did not join us on our hike this year. She was worried about the conditions on the trail being too icy. It turns out there was enough fresh snow to make the trail easy to navigate. Boogs really missed Grandmaman on this hike.

My husband and Boogs decided it would be a good idea to walk over the frozen creek on this log. Luckily, the ice was thick enough not to break when they each fell off. While one of them was on the log, the other was at the end bouncing up and down trying to make them fall.

When we made it to our favorite spot, the chickadees did not hesitate to swoop down and grab a few seeds out of our hands. Often, there was more than one bird visiting your hand at once.

Look at that smile on Boogs face. He would stand here for hours if we let him.

It is hard to be still and quiet while you wait for the birds.

 We tried a few different spots near the little bridge on the trail.

It's always fun to see what will happen if you put a few seeds on your head.

This little chickadee posed with me for a selfie.

I took this slow motion video of a chickadee landing on my hand. Boogs watched it later and gave me a sports announcer voice playback of the chickadee's moves. It was hilarious. I can't remember all that he said, but he was adamant that the bird was angry with "the fool who dared to supply inferior seed". This little bird appeared to be giving me dirty looks after he rejected the last two seeds in my hand.

Of course there were squirrels around raiding the bird feeders.

 This little squirrel made a fantastic leap from the tree to the feeder.

Boogs likes to make me nervous. This log had a layer of ice covered by a thin layer of snow. I was down the trail trying to help a fallen cross country skier while Boogs was climbing this. Just before the second picture, he had been walking up the log. I was too slow the get a picture until he was ready to jump down.

Mer Bleue is such a beautiful place to hike in the winter. There are too many mosquitoes to enjoy hiking here in the spring or summer. We came in May a couple of years ago. Each step on the trail sent hundreds of mosquitos flying up from the ground. Winter is much better.

Boogs and Daddy like to wrestle in the snow, chase each other with big sticks, and push each other off of the low walkway bridges.

We always enjoy our family tradition of feeding the birds. Here are a few pictures from previous years. I guess we like to buy red snowsuits for Boogs.

We love going on this hike every year. It is always better with a beautiful layer of snow.

What traditions do you do as a family during the holidays?

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