Lambton County Heritage Forest!

Starting at the Port Franks Community Centre, this 586 acre Oak-Savanna and Carolinian Forest offers 3 trails of varying length and difficulty. Due to the snowy conditions, we opted for the 3.1 km Tulip Trail with the smallest change in elevation.

Snowy Trails - Snowshoes weren't required as long as we stayed on the packed centre of the trail.

The day was quiet but we found evidence of many critters living in the forest. Several Pileated Woodpecker cavities had been freshly drilled in a White Cedar Tree.

A Pileated Woodpecker Cavity, low to the ground, allowed me to look inside and see the hollow chambers where the larva of bark beetles used to live. Beetle larva make a delicious feast for these very large woodpeckers!

Cocoon of a Promethea Moth! The caterpillar of the Promethea Moth uses silk to secure the stem of a leaf to the tree branch, which keeps the deciduous leaf from dropping to the forest floor in the fall. The caterpillar then spins its cocoon inside the curled leaf where it will hang throughout the winter. They are predated by wasps but it is difficult for birds to grab the hanging cocoon. Any attempt to peck at the cocoon will cause it to swing back and forth, making it very difficult to eat.

Large sections of ground were disturbed in many areas by White-tailed Deer digging for food beneath the layers of snow.

Due to the large "plates" of fungus we nicknamed this dying tree the "Pancake Tree"!

We enjoy contributing to Citizen Science through iNaturalist and noticed this "promotional" sign at the end of the trail system.

We drove some back roads on the way home and found a few Snow Buntings. They were feeding on a small pile of spilled grain beside a barn.

A few Horned Larks were collecting grit and possibly food at the road shoulder but when our car drove past, the birds returned to the snow covered fields. On this trip we only found one Snowy Owl in a distant field. It was a full kilometre away so no photos were taken. It was my first view of a Snowy Owl in 2025. They have been few and far between in SW Ontario this year!