After The Storm

We woke up to the sounds of a huge thunder storm. There was lightning and peals of thunder crashing all around us. The wind was something to be reckoned with.  Our tent was flapping all around and I was sure that it was going to come crashing down on us at any moment. It wasn't even supposed to rain at all, and yet here we were wondering if the tent was going to hold up. 

After about a half an hour, the storm subsided and we could finally hear the waves on the beach again that we weren't able to hear during the storm.  We heard the first cry of a sea gull telling us it was ok to come out.​

We opened the tent door to discover the dining tent had moved in the wind. Half of what had been inside was now outside and was soaked. Penny's hiking boots had been in the dining tent. Now we were literally pouring out the water that had collected inside of them. 

The fire pit was now surrounded by a little lake.  

What was just as surprising as the storm was how quickly it got hot and muggy.  It was only about fifteen minutes later that the sun was out in full force and drying everything up. It was a good thing too because we had to pack up today and go to a different park. 

We started to lay everything out on my car and on Carsten's car to dry.  I kid you not, you could literally see the steam coming off some of the items as they dried, that's how hot it was.  It was amazing how fast everything dried out. 

After the storm, the birds were very happy. Robins were out looking for worms in the drenched  grass. 
A couple of Merganser ducks were swimming contentedly in the lake. 

The rain had also brought about a surprisingly quick bloom of certain fungi and mushroom.  Where there had been none the day before, all of a sudden there was an ink cap mushroom growing by the bathrooms. 

To our delight, we were fortunate enough to see a  Baltimore Oriole.  Its vibrant orange and black colouring made it easy to spot. However, the fact that it wouldn't sit still for more than a few seconds, made it incredibly hard to get a decent photo. 

It continued to dart around back and forth and sing quite loudly. 

It wanted all eyes on him. But not because he was vain. He had a very different reason to want our attention. 

He was trying to divert our attention away from a cute little fledgling that was hiding in the branches of a near by tree.

The fledgling sat still and just waited patiently and quietly. 

Well, mostly patiently and quietly. When its dad came near it would open its mouth in anticipation of food and would make some calls saying "feed me please!"  If it wasn't for that, I might not have even noticed it was there. 

But once I spotted the fledgling I knew that the dad would not go far. So, I was able to just have some patience and sit and wait for the dad to come back whenever he disappeared. 

The downy feathers on its belly looked more like fur than feathers. 

We sat and watched them for a very long time. And they watched us right back. 

Eventually we had to leave them because we had to finish packing up so that we could get to the next park that we were heading to today -  Sandbanks Provincial Park. 

I really didn't want to leave Darlington. But at the same time I was curious to see what Sandbanks would be like. By 2 pm we were packed up and ready to go.  We said goodbye to Darlington and headed out to our next adventure.