Two or three times a year I’ll get together with my former co-worker friend Alicia for a local nature hike. When it comes to nature, she is a bit of a walking encyclopedia. Alicia is so knowledgeable. We chose July 31st for a hike and I asked where would she like to go. The answer without hesitation was Tiny Marsh. A mere 20 kilometers from my home, it is located at 500 Tiny Flos Townline, Tiny Ontario.

It wasn’t planned this way, but we also went hiking in Tiny Marsh exactly a year ago, July 31, 2025. Where there is water, there is wildlife. The exciting thing is, you never know what you might see. This year didn’t disappoint. Alicia has a great camera with a zoom lens far more powerful than my binoculars. That’s the nice thing with powerful cameras is you get great photos without disturbing the wildlife. Except for the 1st photo and last infographic photo in this article, all photos are from Alicia, with a mix from both last year’s hike and this year’s hike. I was planning on writing an article on Tiny Marsh after last year’s hike. But it never got finished.

From the book “A Nature Guide to Ontario” Wake, Winifred Cairns 11 August 2014. 1997. University of Toronto Press. 9780802027559. 204–205 (which you can read in its entirety here) on pages 204-205 it describes Tiny Marsh, “Originally a lake rimmed with forests, this wetland is now intensively managed to provide habitat for waterfowl during breeding and migration. The area consists of 600 hectares (1,480 acres) of marsh and 300 hectares (740 acres) of forests and fields“.

The vast forests that at one time surrounded this lake are all long gone, with the surrounding land across the road now tile drained farmland as far as the eye can see. The farmland is always planted in monoculture corn or soybean crops. Once you arrive at the parking lot at Tiny Marsh, you are immediately greeted by birdsong. The lake and land immediately surrounding it survives.

Tiny Marsh is the first provincially owned and managed wetland in the province of Ontario. It is administered by M-T-M Conservation Association. This non-profit conservation group also looks after two other wetland areas, Marl Lake, near Wasaga Beach and Matchedash Bay, north of Coldwater. About 250 different species of birds have been spotted at Tiny Marsh including ospreys, over 10 different types of ducks, and the provincially rare black terns and least bitterns. You never know what you might encounter with each visit to Tiny Marsh.

The website Ontario Nature Trails list nine trails totaling 17 kilometers at Tiny Marsh. As noted on the website, “Dogs must be leashed”. A reminder, this is a wildlife area. The first trail that Alicia and I hit both last year and this year was the 1.3 kilometer Loop Trail, also sometimes known as the Beaverland Trail. The trail is rated “Easy”. Though if you attempt this hike during mosquito season without insect repellent, I would be tempted to change that rating to “Challenging”. I originally applied some Deet-Free Lemon Eucalyptus repellent. But it didn’t work at all against these aggressive Tiny Marsh blood thirsty mosquitoes. So I dug deeper in my pack for the heavy duty repellent.

The Loop Trail includes a dam for water management to provide an optimal stable habitat for different animal species. Past the dam you will soon be walking through tall grass at the edge of a field. Then the trail bends into a forest which leads to a boardwalk over a marshy area. After the boardwalk ends, the loop trail continues to the right. Instead, Alicia and I turned left, which quickly leads to the lookout tower. Being super quiet on the tower, it is amazing all the wildlife that can be spotted.

After the Loop Trail, we went right back to where we started, and then continued on to the Dike Trail. At the beginning of the dike trail is another dam. The dikes were also built for wildlife habitat. They act as a buffer and protection in this open area so plants and wildlife can thrive. Out on the dike the sun can get quite hot on a summer day. Please make sure you have plenty of water and sun protection whether it is sunblock lotion or sun protection through a good hat and protective clothing.

On the dike trail you might encounter amphibians such as frogs or insects such as dragonflies and butterflies. You will also likely spot plenty of waterfowl. A real treat last year was the nesting osprey high above the dike on a special pole and platform. Unfortunately the osprey wasn’t there this year.

After a few hours in nature our hearts are full. Even though we had only covered about 4 to 5 kilometers in a few hours, it had been a wonderful day. Tiny Marsh is not the place to cover as much distance in as little time as possible. You would miss so much. With water levels controlled by dams, dikes, ditches and transfer systems, it may not be the pristine wilderness that there was 250 years. But with management this gem in Tiny Township (where the name Tiny Marsh comes from) helps provide survival for many species of animals in an area experiencing high rates of habitat loss through industrialized agriculture and urban sprawl. Thank you MTM Conservation Association for all the work you do. They are helping vulnerable species much like I’ll plant a pollinator garden to help the threatened Monarch Butterfly and other pollinators. It’s not pristine wilderness. But it works.

Disclaimer: All written content is my own original creative, expressive content with no Artificial Intelligence (AI) assistance. Credits given to the source of any excerpts used in the article. Except for the 1st photo and last infographic, all photos are taken by Alicia Freeborn using her Sony Cyber-Shot dsc-hx300 camera (which came out in 2013). No digital editing with these photographs and definitely nothing AI. Doing what I can in my little corner to not support this technology oligarchy, data centers and environmental destruction.